Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate Measurement Using Body-Sound

Daily stress management is essential for preventing mental illness. We have therefore been developing physiological signal sensors for measurement of multiple stress markers. The present study focused on “body-sound,” i.e., sound generated inside the human body, which included high amounts of information on physical condition. The prototype body-sound sensor we developed consisted of stethoscopes, amplifier microphones, an A/D converter and a PC. We measured body-sound in the neck and trunk. Then, we selected heart rate and respiratory rate as common stress markers. By comparing body-sound at different measurement positions, we developed new sensing system simultaneously measuring heart and respiratory rate with a body-sound sensor at the neck. Finally, we evaluated proposal performance by comparing body-sound and the electrocardiogram and respiratory waveform, confirming that our proposal could measure both heart and respiratory rate.