Sensing Systems for Respiration Monitoring: A Technical Systematic Review

Abstract

Respiratory monitoring is essential in sleep studies, sport training, patient monitoring, or health at work, among other applications. This paper presents a comprehensive systematic review of respiration sensing systems. After several systematic searches in scientific repositories, the 198 most relevant papers in this field were analyzed in detail. Different items were examined: sensing technique and sensor, respiration parameter, sensor location and size, general system setup, communication protocol, processing station, energy autonomy and power consumption, sensor validation, processing algorithm, performance evaluation, and analysis software. As a result, several trends and the remaining research challenges of respiration sensors were identified. Long-term evaluations and usability tests should be performed. Researchers designed custom experiments to validate the sensing systems, making it difficult to compare results. Therefore, another challenge is to have a common validation framework to fairly compare sensor performance. The implementation of energy-saving strategies, the incorporation of energy harvesting techniques, the calculation of volume parameters of breathing, or the effective integration of respiration sensors into clothing are other remaining research efforts. Addressing these and other challenges outlined in the paper is a required step to obtain a feasible, robust, affordable, and unobtrusive respiration sensing system.

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

“…Recent advances in the understanding of the control of ventilation corroborate the importance of monitoring f R and explain why f R but not tidal volume (V T ) (the other component of minute ventilation) responds to a variety of non-metabolic stressors [7,11,12,17,[19][20][21][22]. Likewise, technological development in the field of sensors and techniques for measuring f R is growing exponentially, and a series of measurement solutions are currently available [23][24][25][26]. The ever-increasing interest in technological solutions for respiratory monitoring is manifested by the number of recent reviews published on this topic [23][24][25][26][27][28].…”

“…Likewise, technological development in the field of sensors and techniques for measuring f R is growing exponentially, and a series of measurement solutions are currently available [23][24][25][26]. The ever-increasing interest in technological solutions for respiratory monitoring is manifested by the number of recent reviews published on this topic [23][24][25][26][27][28]. These reviews describe the advanced state of the art of the development 2 of 46 of measurement systems for monitoring f R and other ventilatory variables [23][24][25][26][27][28].…”

“…The ever-increasing interest in technological solutions for respiratory monitoring is manifested by the number of recent reviews published on this topic [23][24][25][26][27][28]. These reviews describe the advanced state of the art of the development 2 of 46 of measurement systems for monitoring f R and other ventilatory variables [23][24][25][26][27][28]. Nevertheless, one of the main challenges commonly highlighted is the limited use of respiratory systems in everyday-life monitoring.…”

“…Nevertheless, one of the main challenges commonly highlighted is the limited use of respiratory systems in everyday-life monitoring. This issue is especially evident from the findings of a recent systematic review by Vanegas et al [26]. Indeed, advances in respiratory physiology, applied sciences, and technology are not yet accompanied by a large diffusion of effective respiratory monitoring services in different fields.…”

“…Indeed, advances in respiratory physiology, applied sciences, and technology are not yet accompanied by a large diffusion of effective respiratory monitoring services in different fields. For instance, f R monitoring is not performed routinely in healthcare or in the field of sport and exercise [14,24,26]. A major factor determining this limitation is the inadequate establishment of synergies between the different disciplines related to respiratory monitoring.…”