Design and evaluation of Ear-ECG system

Electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the most widely used physiological signal for clinical diagnosis. It has found itself integrated in the space of wearables with capabilities to detect cardiac abnormalities. An emerging field of wearables is the concept of earables, which has gained significant traction in recent years as the ear proves capable of capturing diverse physiological signals. In this study, we design a system and validate the capture of ECG from the ear at various locations using different configurations. We further assess its usefulness in analyzing heart rate variability (HRV). We compared the ECG captured from the ear with simultaneously captured standard limb leads. Results show that ECG captured using the ears and the left hand is very similar to ECG captured using the Lead V2. HRV parameters in the spectral and non-linear domain show no significant differences between the Ear and Lead V2.