Heart Rate Detection from the Supratrochlear Vessels using a Virtual Reality Headset integrated PPG Sensor

Abstract

An increasing amount of virtual reality (VR) research is carried out to support the vast number of applications across mental health, exercise and entertainment fields. Often, this research involves the recording of physiological measures such as heart rate recordings with an electrocardiogram (ECG). One challenge is to enable remote, reliable and unobtrusive VR and heart rate data collection which would allow a wider application of VR research and practice in the field in future. To address the challenge, this work assessed the viability of replacing standard ECG devices with a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that is directly integrated into a VR headset over the branches of the supratrochlear vessels. The objective of this study was to investigate the reliability of the PPG sensor for heart-rate detection. A total of 21 participants were recruited. They were asked to wear an ECG belt as ground truth and a VR headset with the embedded PPG sensor. Signals from both sensors were captured in free standing and sitting positions. Results showed that VR headset with an integrated PPG sensor is a viable alternative to an ECG for heart rate measurements in optimal conditions with limited movement. Future research will extend on this finding by testing it in more interactive VR settings CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; • Hardware → Digital signal processing.

emteqPRO—Fully Integrated Biometric Sensing Array for Non-Invasive Biomedical Research in Virtual Reality

“…Real-time signal quality measures described below can be used to ensure data with low noise to signal ratio is captured. Multiple validation studies (Fatoorechi et al, 2017;Mavridou et al, 2017c;Mavridou et al, 2018a;Mavridou et al, 2019b;Governo et al, 2020;Gnacek et al, 2020;Lou et al, 2020) and white papers (emteqlabs, 2020a, 2020b, 2021) have already been published to showcase emteqPRO's viability and potential use across a wide spectrum of applications.…”

“…Nailfold capillaroscopy of the forehead region has shown similar capillary density to the finger and forearm (Toll, 2020). A density of capillary coverage makes the forehead wellsuited as a placement location (Branson and Mannheimer, 2004) and can be used to detect changes to blood flow (Otsuka et al, 2017) and accurately measure heart rate features such as beats per minute (Gnacek et al, 2020) to reflect changes in arousal. Moreover, a proximity sensor is used to measure the amount of ambient incident light that reaches the sensor.…”

AVDOS-VR: Affective Video Database with Physiological Signals and Continuous Ratings Collected Remotely in VR

“…1). Previous studies robustly validated emteqPRO sensors for heart rate detection 23 , facial expressions 24 , breathing rate estimation 25 , valence and arousal 26,27 , and even pain perception 28 , enabling us to use this device to generate a novel, comprehensive database.…”