The Evaluation of Non-contact Electrodes Applied for Bathing Electrocardiogram Measurement

Bathing is a daily routine for Japanese, however, there is an increased risk of death for seniors during bathing. Electrocardiogram (ECG) collection and analysis during bathing may be an effective measure for health monitoring. But the quality of ECG should be guaranteed when collecting. In this work, we aim to evaluate the applicability of 4 different sizes of non-contact electrodes (electrodes 1-4) for bathing ECG measurement. The study is conducted with 7 male participants, each with 15-min bathing, and the signals are collected with limbs leads I, II, II. Several signal quality indices (SQIs): kSQI (kurtosis), pSQI (the relative power in the QRS complex), pcaSQI (principal component analysis), and rSQI (undetected error of R peaks) are calculated based on the bathing ECG. The results obtained indicate that the electrode 3 is more suitable than others for bathing ECG collection.