Respiratory Rate Monitoring via a Fibre Bragg Grating-Embedded Respirator Mask with a Wearable Miniature Interrogator

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Optical Sensing
• Respiratory Monitoring

Background:

• Respiration rate (RR) is a vital physiological parameter.
• Existing RR monitoring methods can be cumbersome or invasive.
• There is a need for portable and accurate RR monitoring solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel, mask-integrated Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) optical fibre sensor system for respiration rate monitoring.
• To create a portable, wireless interrogator for the FBG sensor.
• To assess the system's accuracy against a reference spirometer in healthy volunteers.

Main Methods:

• Integrated an FBG optical fibre sensor into a respirator mask.
• Developed a portable, battery-powered, wireless miniature interrogator.
• Measured airflow temperature variations near the nostrils and mouth to infer RR.
• Collected data from 10 healthy volunteers performing normal breathing for 120 seconds.
• Utilized a peak detection algorithm to identify individual breaths.
• Compared system's RR measurements with a reference spirometer.

Main Results:

• The developed FBG-based system successfully monitored respiration rate.
• A portable, wireless interrogator was effectively implemented.
• The system demonstrated 100% agreement in breath detection with the reference spirometer across all volunteer trials.
• Individual breaths were accurately identified using the peak detection algorithm.

Conclusions:

• The mask-integrated FBG sensor system offers a promising, accurate, and portable solution for respiration rate monitoring.
• The developed wireless interrogator enhances the system's practicality for clinical and research use.
• This technology has the potential to improve non-invasive respiratory monitoring capabilities.