Heart Rate Estimation using Mobile Seismocardiogram (m-SCG)

Heart Rate is a vital parameter in assessing the general health of a person in particular the health of the heart. Heart rate can be obtained by acquiring and processing signals such as electrocardiogram, phonocardiogram, etc. Another alternative and more economical solution is to use seismocardiogram (SCG). SCG can be easily acquired using a tri-axial accelerometer. In the current study, SCG signal is captured using mobile phones and using MATLAB for mobile. The mobile is strategically placed on the body to capture vibrations generated by cardiac activities, enabling the extraction of SCG signals. The Z-axis signal is found to have the required information. Heart rate is computed from the SCG and compared against the threshold for normal. The heart rate (HR) computed from the signal is compared against reading from the smartwatch. The heart rate estimated from SCG is within the tolerance limits obtained from the Bland- Altman plot.