Innovative Metabolic Rate Sensing Approach for Probing Human Thermal Comfort.

Area of Science:

• Physiology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Human metabolic rate is crucial for thermal comfort but difficult to measure accurately.
• Existing methods for metabolic rate measurement are often bulky, non-portable, and intrusive.
• There is a need for reliable, wearable technology for precise human metabolism assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel wearable sensor model for accurate human metabolic rate identification and prediction.
• To establish a new methodology for real-time, comfortable, and miniaturized metabolic rate monitoring.
• To enable precise indoor thermal comfort evaluation and subsequent energy consumption reduction.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a wearable metabolic rate sensor measuring heart rate, heat loss, and skin resistance.
• Development of a linear metabolic rate model incorporating body muscle rate.
• Experimental validation with eight volunteers across various conditions and activity intensities, comparing results with a Quark CPET instrument.

Main Results:

• A strong linear relationship was found between the proposed model and the Quark CPET instrument (R² ≈ 0.90).
• The model demonstrated high accuracy (≥95%) with low uncertainty (<2%) across different conditions.
• The wearable sensor showed consistent performance (R² ≈ 0.90) for individuals irrespective of experimental temperature variations.

Conclusions:

• The novel wearable metabolic rate sensor provides an accurate, comfortable, and miniaturized solution for real-time human metabolism measurement.
• The developed model offers reliable prediction capabilities, validated across a wide metabolic range and varying temperatures.
• This technology has significant potential for precise indoor thermal comfort assessment, leading to improved energy efficiency.