Title:  Continuous Cardiorespiratory Monitoring Using Ballistocardiography From a Hospital Bed Embedded Load Cell

Committee: 

Dr. Inan, Advisor 

Dr. Y. Zhang, Chair

Dr. Yeo

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to explore signal processing techniques to allow continuous monitoring of cardiorespiratory parameters using the ballistocardiography (BCG) signals recorded with sensors embedded in a hospital bed. First, an array processing technique to optimize the fusion of information from multiple channels was presented and demonstrated the improved heart rate (HR) estimation. In addition to the postural error analysis for HR estimation, postural effects on bed-based BCG morphology were investigated for accurate physiological interpretation of the BCG obtained in a variety of postures from a subject in a bed. Second, respiratory rate (RR) and respiratory volume (RV) from the spirometer — a gold standard tool for the pulmonary function testing — were estimated from the BCG and low-frequency features of load-cell signals recorded with a hospital bed. As part of the proposed work, blood pressure estimation will be done using the pulse transit time (PTT) measured with multi-channel BCG signals and/or wearable devices. These technologies would enable non-invasive and continuous monitoring of standard vital signs in many settings using the sensors already embedded in commonly-deployed commercially available hospital beds without the requirement for auxiliary sensing hardware.