Eyewear-Based ECG Recording: A Novel Head-Electrode Approach for Reliable Cardiac Signal Acquisition
Recent advances in wearable technology have enabled the recording of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from unconventional body locations, including the head. Particularly on this last location, ECG recording is challenging due to the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), making fundamental the selection o...
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2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10908604/ |
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| author | Andrea Costanzo Palmisciano Matteo Rossi Andrea Farabbi Niccolo Antonello Diana Trojaniello Tommaso Ongarello Pietro Cerveri Luca Mainardi |
| author_facet | Andrea Costanzo Palmisciano Matteo Rossi Andrea Farabbi Niccolo Antonello Diana Trojaniello Tommaso Ongarello Pietro Cerveri Luca Mainardi |
| author_sort | Andrea Costanzo Palmisciano |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent advances in wearable technology have enabled the recording of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from unconventional body locations, including the head. Particularly on this last location, ECG recording is challenging due to the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), making fundamental the selection of relevant positions on the head to gather high-quality signals. In addition, traditional wet electrodes are unsuitable, necessitating the use of dry electrodes. In this work, we investigated the feasibility of recording the ECG using a novel eyewear-based setup, enabling a single-lead high-quality ECG acquisition. The prototype featured three dry electrodes, strategically placed on an eyewear prototype, one in the nose pad (reference electrode), the second electrode (-) in contact with the ear pad skin and the third electrode (+) exposed on the external surface of the frame to be touched by the fingertip. Among various materials, we identified conductive elastomers featuring the most favorable impedance characteristics through measurements performed on gelatin compounds and human skin. The prototype was systematically tested against standard chest ECG in 25 participants to verify the quality of the ECG signal and the derived heart-rate variability (HRV) indexes. The recorded ECG signals were classified as Excellent, Barely Acceptable, and Unacceptable in 72, 28 and 0% of the overall cases. HRV indices obtained from both the prototype and standard ECG showcased a strong correlation (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R\gt 0.9$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). This study highlighted the feasibility of high-quality ECG recording based on eyewear setups. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-644a84ece45e474e887f4fe53332cbaf |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj-art-644a84ece45e474e887f4fe53332cbaf2025-08-20T03:02:55ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113454884549910.1109/ACCESS.2025.354723010908604Eyewear-Based ECG Recording: A Novel Head-Electrode Approach for Reliable Cardiac Signal AcquisitionAndrea Costanzo Palmisciano0https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2379-1465Matteo Rossi1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2519-0720Andrea Farabbi2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5582-4654Niccolo Antonello3Diana Trojaniello4Tommaso Ongarello5Pietro Cerveri6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3995-8673Luca Mainardi7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6276-6314Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, ItalyDepartment of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, ItalyDepartment of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, ItalyEssilorLuxottica Smart Eyewear Lab, EssilorLuxottica, Milan, ItalyEssilorLuxottica Smart Eyewear Lab, EssilorLuxottica, Milan, ItalyEssilorLuxottica Smart Eyewear Lab, EssilorLuxottica, Milan, ItalyDepartment of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, ItalyDepartment of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, ItalyRecent advances in wearable technology have enabled the recording of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from unconventional body locations, including the head. Particularly on this last location, ECG recording is challenging due to the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), making fundamental the selection of relevant positions on the head to gather high-quality signals. In addition, traditional wet electrodes are unsuitable, necessitating the use of dry electrodes. In this work, we investigated the feasibility of recording the ECG using a novel eyewear-based setup, enabling a single-lead high-quality ECG acquisition. The prototype featured three dry electrodes, strategically placed on an eyewear prototype, one in the nose pad (reference electrode), the second electrode (-) in contact with the ear pad skin and the third electrode (+) exposed on the external surface of the frame to be touched by the fingertip. Among various materials, we identified conductive elastomers featuring the most favorable impedance characteristics through measurements performed on gelatin compounds and human skin. The prototype was systematically tested against standard chest ECG in 25 participants to verify the quality of the ECG signal and the derived heart-rate variability (HRV) indexes. The recorded ECG signals were classified as Excellent, Barely Acceptable, and Unacceptable in 72, 28 and 0% of the overall cases. HRV indices obtained from both the prototype and standard ECG showcased a strong correlation (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R\gt 0.9$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). This study highlighted the feasibility of high-quality ECG recording based on eyewear setups.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10908604/Eyewear-ECGcardiac monitoringRR seriesHRVdry electrodes |
| spellingShingle | Andrea Costanzo Palmisciano Matteo Rossi Andrea Farabbi Niccolo Antonello Diana Trojaniello Tommaso Ongarello Pietro Cerveri Luca Mainardi Eyewear-Based ECG Recording: A Novel Head-Electrode Approach for Reliable Cardiac Signal Acquisition IEEE Access Eyewear-ECG cardiac monitoring RR series HRV dry electrodes |
| title | Eyewear-Based ECG Recording: A Novel Head-Electrode Approach for Reliable Cardiac Signal Acquisition |
| title_full | Eyewear-Based ECG Recording: A Novel Head-Electrode Approach for Reliable Cardiac Signal Acquisition |
| title_fullStr | Eyewear-Based ECG Recording: A Novel Head-Electrode Approach for Reliable Cardiac Signal Acquisition |
| title_full_unstemmed | Eyewear-Based ECG Recording: A Novel Head-Electrode Approach for Reliable Cardiac Signal Acquisition |
| title_short | Eyewear-Based ECG Recording: A Novel Head-Electrode Approach for Reliable Cardiac Signal Acquisition |
| title_sort | eyewear based ecg recording a novel head electrode approach for reliable cardiac signal acquisition |
| topic | Eyewear-ECG cardiac monitoring RR series HRV dry electrodes |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10908604/ |
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