Measuring Heart Rate with Mobile Devices for Personal Health Monitoring

摘要

The growing availability of mobile devices, such as smartphones, fitness trackers, and smart watches, induce an increased interest in personal health monitoring. These devices are equipped with the necessary sensor hardware, such as accelerometer and heart rate sensor, for measuring physical activities and heartbeat. However, the accuracy of these measurements is still unclear. In this paper, we evaluate heart rate monitoring with four different device types: a specialized device with a chest strap, a fitness tracker, a smart watch, and a smartphone using plethysmography. The results show similar measurements for the four devices in a state of rest. In contrast, during physical activities the fitness tracker, smart watch, and smartphone may register sudden variations in heart rate with a delay, due to physical movements of the wrist or hand. The specialized device with chest strap shows the most accurate heart rate, highly correlated with measurements obtained with a blood pressure monitor that is approved for medical purposes. These results are important for developers who use data of heart rate for mobile applications and services.