A Wearable capacitive heart-rate monitor for controlling electrically assisted bicycle

An approach is proposed for detecting heart rate for controlling electrically assisted bicycle. This method is based on capacitive coupling involving the electrode, the cloth and the skin. A proposed system was fabricated to explore the feasibility of the approach and evolution experiments were conducted for 4 men. Validation of the system revealed the following: (1) ECG signal was successfully obtained even when the subject was pedaling on the slope. Moreover Mean detection rate of R-wave in each condition exceeded 96% and all detection rates exceeded 94%. Comparison between HRs calculated from ECG signals obtained with the commercial device and with the developed device. Correlation coefficient between them indicated 1.00 and the slope of the regression line was also 1.00. These results demonstrate enough capability of the developed HR monitor in practical use during pedaling a bicycle. (2) Assistive torque voltage was generated from the developed system corresponding to the HR of the subject. Also, stepwise change in rotation speed of the bicycle wheel was visually observed by the experimenters in accordance with the change in HR of the subjects. Rotation of the re is still room for improvement in terms of its practical use, the proposed approach appears promising for application to detection heart rate for controlling electrically assisted bicycle.