Breathing rate estimation during sleep using audio signal analysis

E. Dafna, T. Rosenwein, A. Tarasiuk, Y. Zigel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sleep is associated with important changes in respiratory rate and ventilation. Currently, breathing rate (BR) is measured during sleep using an array of contact and wearable sensors, including airflow sensors and respiratory belts; there is need for a simplified and more comfortable approach to monitor respiration. Here, we present a new method for BR evaluation during sleep using a non-contact microphone. The basic idea behind this approach is that during sleep the upper airway becomes narrower due to muscle relaxation, which leads to louder breathing sounds that can be captured via ambient microphone. In this study we developed a signal processing algorithm that emphasizes breathing sounds, extracts breathing-related features, and estimates BR during sleep. A comparison between audio-based BR estimation and BR calculated using the traditional (gold-standard) respiratory belts during in-laboratory polysomnography (PSG) study was performed on 204 subjects. Pearson's correlation between subjects' averaged BR of the two approaches was R=0.97. Epoch-by-epoch (30 s) BR comparison revealed a mean relative error of 2.44% and Pearson's correlation of 0.68. This study shows reliable and promising results for non-contact BR estimation.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2015
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages5981-5984
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781424492718
DOIs
StatePublished - 4 Nov 2015
Event37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2015 - Milan, Italy
Duration: 25 Aug 201529 Aug 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
Volume2015-November
ISSN (Print)1557-170X

Conference

Conference37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2015
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityMilan
Period25/08/1529/08/15

Keywords

  • Breathing sounds
  • audio signal processing
  • breathing rate estimation
  • respiratory analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

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