EXPLORING THE EFFICACY OF PIEZOELECTRICBASED SENSORY SYSTEMS FOR HEART RATE MONITORING IN DIFFERENTIATING STRESS VS RELAX CONDITIONS

• Published in: IIUM ENGINEERING JOURNAL
• Main Authors: Zulkifli, Muhammad Hafiz Zulhilmi; Jasni, Farahiyah; Ghazali, Aimi Shazwani; Nordin, Nor Hidayati Diyana; Sidek, Shahrul Naim; Shaharum, Syamimi Mardiah; Zaman, Fadhlan Hafizhelmi Kamaru
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KULLIYYAH ENGINEERING 2024
• Subjects: Engineering
• Online Access: https://www-webofscience-com.uitm.idm.oclc.org/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:001275324200022

Stress has diverse effects on human physiological reactions, and one such effect is on heart rate (HR). The established methods to acquire HR is by electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG). ECG electrodes need to be placed on the chest, which can cause inconvenience and is not practical in daily life, while PPG signals are known to contain more noise than ECG. Thus, this work aims to investigate the efficacy of a piezoelectric-based sensory system in measuring HR and using the signal to differentiate stressed and relaxed conditions by means of statistical analysis. Two activities were conducted to achieve the goal. The first experiment involved collecting and analysing piezoelectric signals to measure the pulse rate (bpm) and compare this with the HR from PPG. For the second experiment, the piezoelectric-based HR was calculated from 20 subjects (male and female, age ranging between 20 and 25) in relaxed and stressed conditions. The stress condition was triggered using two stressors: the Stroop Colour Word Test and the Digit Span Test. Statistical analyses reveal a strong positive correlation between piezoelectric-based heart rate (HR) and oximeter readings (r(12) = 0.993, p < 0.001), despite the fact that the values are not precisely identical. In addition, the findings also indicate that there are significant effects by the mental states (stressed and relaxed) on the piezoelectric-based HR effective means of categorizing stress and relaxation based on heart rate signals.