RRDetection: Respiration Rate Estimation Using Earbuds During Physical Activities

Respiratory rate is a fundamental vital sign that is sensitive to different pathological conditions (e.g., adverse cardiac events, pneumonia, and clinical deterioration) and stressors, including emotional stress, cognitive load, heat, cod, physical effort, and exercise-induced fatigue. Traditionally, the capnograph device was recognized as the gold standard to monitor the respiratory measurement, however it is expensive and inconvenient to be used at home. There are recent development on monitoring breathing rate passively using earbuds. However, those are limited to resting condition. In this paper, we develop novel algorithm based on earbud motion sensor data that can estimate breathing rate while the user is walking or doing physical exercises such as step test.