Abstract
This paper describes experimental investigations on a new vital bio-measurement method of the pneumatic and/or air mattress type. The method indirectly detects the vital bio-information such as the heart beating, respiration, body movement, coughing and snoring via the change in the pressure of the air in the air mattress on which a human stays and to which his vital movements influence. The blood pressure measurement is a special example of the pneumatic methods. The air mattress method requires nothing to him except that he must be on the air mattress. Thus the method is less restrictive than the blood pressure measurement and any conventional polygraph methods which stick the electrode to human body.
This paper treats practical problems, i.e., reduction of noise, human feeling to the air mattress, application of the method to commercially available air cushions or mattresses.
As the results, this method can be robust to the pressure noises in daily life by properly selecting the cut-off frequency of the filters. Further the method works under a very thin air mattresses such that the human can not notice their existence as well as to the variety of existing air cushions and mattresses. The air mattress method is most stable to measure the vital bio-information with the least restriction.
