Heart rate analysis using BCG

Abstract

In this paper we will research the possibility, reliability and accuracy of calculating the heart rate of a patient at rest using Ballistocardiography in clinical settings. The vital signs of the patient will be extracted by using piezoelectric sensor which is embedded in a Bedsense device developed by Momomedical. The device developed by Momomedical is placed under the mattress and has no direct contact with the patient. The piezoelectric sensor generates a signal that can be separated into motion, respiration and ballistocardiogram (BCG) waveforms, from which movement, respiration rate (RR) and heart rate (HR) can be obtained respectively. To improve the accuracy of the measurement several signal processing methods will be applied to reduce noise and outliers or sharpen the waveform before calculating the heart rate using peak detection. The reliability is determined by comparing the percentage difference with a reference heart rate. The accuracy was found to be 55.74% of the time within 5% and 91.8% within 10% when lying on your back. This was found to be 84.43% of the time within 5% when lying on your right side and for the left side this was 80.33% of the time within 5%.