The researchers from USTC achieved the contactless ECG monitoring by breaking the boundary between the cardiac mechanical and electrical activities.
Chinese researchers have designed a contactless monitoring method for the electrocardiogram (ECG) which does not require application of an electrode or the removal of clothing, according to a recent article published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.
Current ECG monitoring methods are based on the use of body-attached electrodes, which lead to an uncomfortable user experience. Therefore, the need for contactless ECG monitoring method was identified. Cardiac electrical-mechanical activities couple in a well-coordinated pattern. The researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China achieved the contactless ECG monitoring by breaking the boundary between the cardiac mechanical and electrical activities, according to the research article.
Specifically, they developed a millimeter-wave radar system to contactlessly measure cardiac mechanical activity and reconstruct the ECG. To measure the cardiac mechanical activity comprehensively, the researchers proposed a series of signal processing algorithms to extract 4D cardiac motions from radio frequency (RF) signals.
The experimental results showed that the contactless ECG measurements achieved timing accuracy of cardiac electrical events with a median error below 14 milliseconds, while the accuracy of the morphological median reached 90 percent.
The world has witnessed an increasing number of deaths caused by chronic and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The Electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the most significant biomedical signals, which is utilized to describe the activity of human heart and provides important information for the diagnosis of heart diseases. Experimental evidence has shown that many CVDs could be better diagnosed, controlled and prevented through continuous monitoring and analysis of ECG.
ECG monitoring systems have been developed and plenty of devices are being used in the healthcare sector for the past few decades. Generally, these methods could be categorized into mobile-based, wearable-based, and sensor-based ones. Mobile-based devices for this involve a wide range of devices, including smartphones and pocket ECG monitors.
Originally published at China Daily