Study of Artifact-Resistive Technology Based on a Novel Dual Photoplethysmography Method for Wearable Pulse Rate Monitors.

Pulse rate is one of the major physiological parameters for monitoring of cardiovascular conditions or excise states during daily life. However it is difficult to precisely measure the exact pulse rates as photoplethysmography (PPG) is easy to be affected by motion artifacts. Instead of using accelerometers followed by algorithms such as least mean square (LMS), recursive least square (RLS) and independent component analysis (ICA) or other equipment such as complex laser systems to measure displacement directly, a novel motion artifact estimation method which had lower computational complexity and higher signal dynamic range was studied and implemented, where a differential channel following green and red light PPG channels was applied to reduce the motion artifact caused by displacement of light emitting diode (LED), photo diode (PD) and tissue deformation before the analog signal was converted to digital form. A miniaturized, battery powered wrist worn artifact-resistive pulse rates monitoring system (PRMS) was presented to verify the proposed method. Four kinds of motions were performed and the results showed that the differential channel improved the morphology of the PPG signal and appeared to be artifact resistive during motions through light intensity control and high gain-phase consistency circuit design here.