Abstract:
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Ballistocardiography is a non-invasive technique
that yields information about the cardiovascular system that is
not available in other external signals such as the
electrocardiogram (ECG). In the last years, several research
groups have obtained the ballistocardiogram (BCG) by using
instrumentation methods simpler than those available in the
1950s and that did not progress because of their complexity as
compared to ultrasound and other noninvasive techniques that
are in common use nowadays. We describe a novel method for
real-time robust heart- (HR) and respiratory- (RR) rate
detection from a subject that stands on a common electronic
bathroom scale. BCG signals from the scale are wirelessly sent
to a PC where algorithms based on the continuous wavelet
transform (CWT) extract the HR and the RR. HR results are
compared to those obtained from the ECG. To better assess the
RR results, subjects have been asked to synchronize their
breathing rate to an on-screen bar-graph set at a constant rate
of breaths per minute. This method to obtain the heart and
respiratory rates is simple, compact, non-invasive and passive,
and can be applied to any person able to stand on an electronic
weighing scale, even if wearing shoes. |