Influence of torso movements on a multi-sensor garment for respiratory monitoring during walking and running activities

The Importance of Respiratory Rate Monitoring: From Healthcare to Sport and Exercise

“…In fact, the assessment of respiratory waveform signal quality can be applied to signals collected with a variety of respiratory sensors and is particularly useful for signal selection when different sensors are used simultaneously. An example is the evaluation of the quality of signals collected with different strain sensors attached to the chest and abdomen, which is particularly relevant when the respiratory signal is affected by motion artifacts during physical activity [41,42]. A similar approach was used by Siqueira et al [43], who simultaneously recorded the respiratory waveform with multiple tri-axial accelerometers positioned on the chest and the abdomen.…”

“…Suitable body locations may partially change with exercise modality due to sport-specific postures and movements, with clear differences observed when comparing cycling, running, rowing, and swimming. Unfortunately, this problem has been overlooked, and only a few studies have attempted to address this issue so far [42,154]. While the abdominal rib cage appears to be a good body site to locate respiratory strain sensors during both running and cycling [42,154], sensors located on the abdomen showed good performances in cycling [154] but not in running [42].…”

“…Unfortunately, this problem has been overlooked, and only a few studies have attempted to address this issue so far [42,154]. While the abdominal rib cage appears to be a good body site to locate respiratory strain sensors during both running and cycling [42,154], sensors located on the abdomen showed good performances in cycling [154] but not in running [42]. Differently, sensors located in the upper thorax showed lower performances compared to those positioned on the abdominal rib cage both in cycling and running [42,154].…”

“…While the abdominal rib cage appears to be a good body site to locate respiratory strain sensors during both running and cycling [42,154], sensors located on the abdomen showed good performances in cycling [154] but not in running [42]. Differently, sensors located in the upper thorax showed lower performances compared to those positioned on the abdominal rib cage both in cycling and running [42,154]. Besides, the posterior side of the trunk (both at the abdominal rib cage and abdomen levels) appears to be a suitable location that deserves consideration during cycling exercise [154].…”

“…Studies testing the performances of multi-sensor measuring systems are also valuable to shed some light on the influence of the number of sensors on f R accuracy. Indeed, sensor redundancy is advised to improve the robustness of f R measurement, and this is suggested by several studies performed both at rest and during exercise [41,42,154]. Sensor fusion with other sensors (e.g., inertial sensors) may also be beneficial for motion artifact identification and removal [42].…”