A wearable heart rate monitoring system based on over-ear headphones

Abstract

The work presents a convenient and practical wearable heart rate monitoring method and a cost-effective implementation of a recording system based on commercial over-ear headphones. The selected headphones can be easily replaced by any other over-ear headphones due to the modular structure of the system and custom 3D printed ear pads. Dry contact conductive textile removes any discomfort and the need for preparation for electrodes or the user's skin. Evaluated 4.4% R–R interval detection error makes the proposed method a perfect candidate for continuous heart rate monitoring for daily use.

Keywords:

• Electrocardiogram
• heart rate
• wearable electronics
• continuous monitoring

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Ph.D. Dmytro Chernetchenko, assistant professor of the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University for his guidelines and for providing a cardiograph used to validate the collected data.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.