Assessment of heart rate variability from speech analysis

Abstract

In this paper, various methods of heart beat variability assessment from speech analysis have been presented. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a physiological phenomenon where the time interval between heart beats varies. It is measured by the variation in the beat-to-beat interval. The present work deals with the HRV detection from speech parameters. RR-cycle detects one heart beat. Continuous monitoring of electrocardiograph for a span of time can provide HRV. More than 250 samples of normal informants as well as heart patients with enlarged heart have been collected during the four years of research work. The regular ECG and speech samples of the patient have been collected and analyzed. Further they had compared with the parameters of a normal healthy informant. Speech samples were collected through a microphone and subjected to be digitized. The required speech segmental have been extracted and analyzed through a DSP tool, PRAAT. ECG sample has been recorded through an ECG machine. A technique of HRV detection from speech analysis has been presented in this paper. The HRV detection from speech can be a very helpful tool in monitoring the functioning of human heart.