Estimation of Heart Rate during Exercise from a Photoplethysmographic Signal Considering Exercise Intensity

Heart rate estimation during exercise with photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensors is a difficult problem because motion artifacts (MAs) contaminate PPG signals. In this paper, we propose a method of accurately estimating heart rate during exercise from a PPG signal by considering exercise intensity. The exercise intensity is estimated from acceleration signals simultaneously recorded with the PPG signal. The proposed method dynamically limits the estimation range of heart rate depending on the exercise intensity, resulting in an accurate heart rate estimation during exercise. From the experimental results, we have confiimed that the proposed method can estimate heart rate more accurately than conventional methods.