Knitted piezoresistive smart chest band and its application for respiration patterns assessment

Abstract

Recognizing alterations in respiration patterns is an essential early sign not only for disease diagnoses but also for determining psychosomatic condition of the individual. The desire for measuring these parameters outside the hospital setting has led to a great interest in embedding this functionality in everyday wearable materials. This study presents an assessment of respiration patterns using a knitted piezoresistive smart chest band. A total of 20 users—Asians and Africans from 8 countries—were tested 14 times over a 67-day period. Experiments were conducted with users being under several varied test conditions including standing and sitting posture, varying physical activities, and different times in the day. Results show a successful application of the band with result patterns being in congruence with studies conducted using other related respiratory measurement technologies and instruments. Sedentary standing posture presented less signal noise compared to physical activity tests. Individuality and the repeatability of results over time suggest feasibility of the use of breath patterns as a biometric feature. Influences of ethnicity, gender, and body mass index on respiration patterns have also been discussed.