Robust heart rate estimation during physical exercise using photoplethysmographic signals

A method for estimating heart rate (HR) from photoplethysmographic (PPG) signal, during physical exercise, is presented in this paper. Accurate and reliable estimation of HR from PPG during intensive physical activity is challenging because intense motion artifacts can easily mask the true HR. If PPG signal is contaminated by intense motion artifacts, the highest peak of PPG spectrum is shifted from true HR due to motion artifacts. The proposed method employs a simple technique using spectral estimation and median filtering for HR estimation from intensely motion artifacts corrupted PPG signal. Experimental result for a database of 12 subjects recorded during fast running showed that the average absolute estimation error was 1.31 beats/minute.