A Method for Measuring Respiratory Rate During Driving Using a Wearable Accelerometer

Abstract

Traffic accidents caused by driver’s health problems tend to increase. To reduce these accidents, it is essential to daily monitor the driver’s vital signs, such as respiratory and heart rate, to detect sudden changes in the driver’s physical condition, such as seizures at an early stage. This study measures respiratory motion using a wearable accelerometer and proposes a method to extract respiratory rate with high accuracy from the acquired acceleration waveform. We also compare the obtained respiratory rate results with a conventional sensor and discuss the validity of the proposed method.