Note: Human heartbeat measurement on the basis of current generated by electrostatic induction.

In this study, we developed an effective nonattached, noncontact technique for measurement of the human heartbeat. This method detects the human heartbeat by measuring the current generated by variations in the capacitance between a given electrode and the human body. An electrode is placed a few centimeters from the subject's chest, and the electrostatic induction current (on the order of picoamperes) flowing through the electrode is then detected. We propose an occurrence model for the electrostatic induction current generated by variations in the electrostatic capacitance generated because of the human heartbeat, with respect to a given measurement electrode. Furthermore, we compared waveforms of the human heartbeat simultaneously obtained by using conventional electrocardiography (ECG) and our proposed electrostatic induction method. The waveform obtained using the proposed method had the same cycle as that obtained using conventional ECG. This confirms that we can detect the human heartbeat under nonattached, noncontact conditions.