Ming-Zher Poh, N.C. Swenson, Rosalind W. Picard

Abstract

This paper addresses the design considerations and critical evaluation of a novel embodiment for wearable photoplethysmography (PPG) comprising a magnetic earring sensor and wireless earpiece. The miniaturized sensor can be worn comfortably on the earlobe and contains an embedded accelerometer to provide motion reference for adaptive noise cancellation. The compact wireless earpiece provides analog signal conditioning and acts as a data-forwarding device via a radio frequency transceiver. Using Bland-Altman and correlation analysis, we evaluated the performance of the proposed system against an FDA-approved electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement device during daily activities. The mean ± SD of the differences between heart rate measurements from the proposed device and ECG (expressed as percentage of the average between the two techniques) along with the 95% limits of agreement (LOA = ± 1.96 SD) was 0.62 ± 4.51% (LOA = -8.23 and 9.46%), - 0.49 ± 8.65% (-17.39 and 16.42%) and -0.32 ± 10.63% (-21.15 and 20.52%) during standing, walking and running respectively. Linear regression indicated a high correlation between the two measurements across the three evaluated conditions (r = 0.97, 0.82 and 0.76 respectively with p < 0.001). The new earring PPG system provides a platform for comfortable, robust, unobtrusive and discreet monitoring of cardiovascular function. Index Terms— photoplethysmography (PPG), heart rate, motion noise removal, wearable biosensors, ambulatory monitoring, pervasive health