Heart Rate Extraction in a Headphone Using Infrared Thermometry

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Physiological Monitoring
• Non-invasive Sensing Technologies

Background:

• Continuous heart rate monitoring is crucial for cardiovascular health assessment and early detection of health issues.
• Current heart rate measurement methods like electrocardiography and photoplethysmography present limitations such as user discomfort, low power efficiency, and susceptibility to motion artifacts.
• Infrared thermography offers a non-contact, comfortable, and low-power alternative for physiological monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel system for detecting heart rate using infrared differential thermometry in the auricle.
• To explore the feasibility of integrating this heart rate sensing technology into wearable devices like Bluetooth headsets.
• To establish a new method for non-invasive heart rate signal detection in the ear.

Main Methods:

• Designed and constructed a novel sensor system utilizing infrared differential thermometry.
• Integrated the sensor system into a commercial headphone prototype for initial testing.
• Collected bioheat transfer signal data from test subjects at rest.
• Analyzed the frequency features of the extracted bioheat transfer signals to detect heart rate.

Main Results:

• The developed infrared thermometry system successfully detected heart rate signals from the auricle in test subjects.
• Frequency feature extraction from the bioheat transfer signal proved effective for heart rate identification.
• Positive preliminary results indicate the potential of this non-contact method for heart rate monitoring.

Conclusions:

• Infrared differential thermometry is a viable non-contact technique for detecting heart rate in the auricle.
• The study demonstrates the first known application of infrared thermometry for ear-based heart rate detection.
• This research lays the groundwork for future integration of advanced, comfortable, and low-power heart rate monitoring into wearable technology.