Pulse controlled driver safety awareness system: A pilot study

Heart rate monitoring using wrist-type photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals during driving is of vital importance, since a sudden infarct or an asynchronous heart rhythm might cause life threaten consequences. In this work, design and validation of an in-house developed wrist-type photoplethysmographic heart rate ambulatory monitoring device is proposed. Signal decomposition and spectral peak extraction as a feature of abnormal heart rhythm is implemented with the proposed wrist-type device with verification. Estimation accuracy is examined. To reach increased heart rate for tracking spectral peaks, subjects are asked to run at a peak speed of 12 km/hour. Thereafter monitoring is done and results from 5 subjects is recorded. The recorded data by designed wrist-type monitor and routine (classical) monitoring showed that the average absolute error of heart rate estimation was 2.5%. Future work of this pilot study will focus in implementation of the monitoring device with a smart notification system i.e. to nearest hospital. This framework is of great values to wearable devices where the design is not limited to drivers' safety, also to ambulatory monitoring of elderly people.