Innovative non-contact r-r intervals estimation using viterbi algorithm with Squared Branch Metric (VSBM)

Win Thu Zar; Hla Myo Tun; Lei Lei Yin Win; Zaw Min Naing

doi:10.24036/jptk.v7i1.35623

Authors

Win Thu Zar Department of Electronic Engineering, Yangon Technological University, Yangon, Myanmar
Hla Myo Tun Department of Electronic Engineering, Yangon Technological University, Yangon, Myanmar
Lei Lei Yin Win Department of Electronic Engineering, Yangon Technological University, Yangon, Myanmar
Zaw Min Naing Department of Research and Innovation, Yangon, Myanmar

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24036/jptk.v7i1.35623

Keywords:

Heartbeat detection, VSBM, RRI, Variability, Remote health

Abstract

Non-contact heartbeat detection with Doppler sensor is a critical component of remote health monitoring systems, enabling continuous and unobtrusive monitoring of an individual’s cardiovascular health. This paper reported an innovative approach for non-contact heartbeat detection using the Viterbi algorithm, leveraging the distribution of the difference of two adjacent R-R Intervals (RRIs). RRIs represented the time between successive peaks in the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal and are fundamental in analyzing heart rate variability, mental stress conditions and heart diseases. Numerous non-contact Doppler sensor-based methods have been proposed for heartbeat detection, leveraging the evaluation of RRIs without physical device attachment. However, challenges arise from unwanted peaks caused by respiration and slight body movements, even when the subject remains motionless with normal breathing. This study presented an innovative approach for selecting heartbeat peaks utilizing the Viterbi algorithm with the squared difference of two adjacent RRIs as the Branch Metric (BM). The preliminary experiments revealed that the difference between two adjacent RRIs closely follows a Gaussian distribution. Building upon this observation, this paper considered the Viterbi algorithm with Squared Branch Metric (VSBM) to estimate the heartbeat accurately. To assess the accuracy of peak selection method, an experiment was conducted by comparing it with two existing peak detection methods: (i) Doppler output after Low-Pass Filter (LPF)-based method and (ii) Spectrogram-based method. Results demonstrate that the proposed VSBM method is effective to detect the heartbeat accurately for each peak detection method. Furthermore, a comparison of the performance of “Spectrogram + VSBM” outperforms the “Doppler output after LPF + VSBM” method by the Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE) of RRIs.

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