Accuracy of the Instantaneous Breathing and Heart Rates Estimated by Smartphone Inertial Units

Seismocardiography (SCG) and Gyrocardiography (GCG) use lightweight, miniaturized accelerometers and gyroscopes to record, respectively, cardiac-induced linear accelerations and angular velocities of the chest wall. These inertial sensors are also sensitive to thoracic movements with respiration, which cause baseline wanderings in SCG and GCG signals. Nowadays, accelerometers and gyroscopes are widely integrated into smartphones, thus increasing the potential of SCG and GCG as cardiorespiratory monitoring tools. This study investigates the accuracy of smartphone inertial sensors in simultaneously measuring instantaneous heart rates and breathing rates. Smartphone-derived SCG and GCG signals were acquired from 10 healthy subjects at rest. The performances of heartbeats and respiratory acts detection, as well as of inter-beat intervals (IBIs) and inter-breath intervals (IBrIs) estimation, were evaluated for both SCG and GCG via the comparison with simultaneous electrocardiography and respiration belt signals. Heartbeats were detected with a sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of 89.3% and 93.3% in SCG signals and of 97.3% and 97.9% in GCG signals. Moreover, IBIs measurements reported strong linear relationships (R² > 0.999), non-significant biases, and Bland-Altman limits of agreement (LoA) of ±7.33 ms for SCG and ±5.22 ms for GCG. On the other hand, respiratory acts detection scored a sensitivity and PPV of 95.6% and 94.7% for SCG and of 95.7% and 92.0% for GCG. Furthermore, high R² values (0.976 and 0.968, respectively), non-significant biases, and an LoA of ±0.558 s for SCG and ±0.749 s for GCG were achieved for IBrIs estimates. The results of this study confirm that smartphone inertial sensors can provide accurate measurements of both instantaneous heart rate and breathing rate without the need for additional devices.