Heart rate measurement and estimation of psychosomatic state during highway driving

Abstract

In this study, we measured the heart rate and evaluated the mental and physical condition at the time of expressway driving. We proposed a heartbeat measurement system using a condenser microphone to measure heartbeat. A heartbeat of the person driving a car at a freeway was measured using proposed measurement system. In the experiments, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used to evaluate driver’s fatigue, drowsiness, and tension in order to grasp the state of the subject. To take the miss value, signal smoothing was applied to the measured heart beat waveform. Using the result of the signal processing, the evaluation index for evaluating the mental and physical condition, the average value of RRI, HF, LF / HF was obtained. Based on the obtained parameters and the results of VAS, the mental and physical condition of the subjects on the outbound route was evaluated. As a result, it was suggested that drowsiness could be estimated by HF at the time of highway driving, because it was most correlated with drowsiness and HF. There was no consistent correlation with fatigue and tension.