Utilizing wearable sensors to investigate the impact of everyday activities on heart rate

Abstract

Advances in sensor technologies have provided the opportunity to perform continuous and unobtrusive capturing of physiological signals. One particular application that has benefitted from this technology is the remote monitoring and management of cardiovascular conditions. In this paper, details of an investigation considering the impact of everyday activities on heart rate are presented. ECG and accelerometer signals collected from wearable wireless sensors have been utilized to investigate the underlying relationships between physiological and activity-related profile information. The impact of activities on heart rate has been captured through analysis of the patterns of heart rate using the CUSUM algorithm. Subsequently, results have shown that a change in the pattern of heart rate is detected shortly after an activity commences. Further extensions of the research are also proposed, including integration of a range of ECG features and intelligent data analysis techniques, thereby facilitating the future development of context aware health monitoring mechanisms. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.