Unobtrusive approaches to monitoring vital signs at home

Monitoring of vital signs such as those by electrocardiogram (ECG) or respiratory activities everyday is significant even for healthy people since it would help locate acute or undetermined disorders before they become fatal. Monitoring of vital signs is done with sensors installed in household furniture or appliances, which come into direct contact with the body unobtrusively in everyday life. The data acquired with this modality are sometimes contaminated by various artifacts. Statistical procedures, however, extract meaningful outcome as the amount of data generated is enormous. A long-term monitoring on the stress ECG with this modality for 2 years was investigated. The result revealed a biological cycle wherein the recovery speed from the stress slowed down. It suggests that the unobtrusive monitoring produces a long-term health data that enable predicting of possible disorders in the near future.