A wearable ECG-HR detector and its application to automatic assist-mode selection of an electrically assisted bicycle

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011:2011:6903-6. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6091738.

Abstract

Recently, an electrically assisted bicycle has been widely used in daily life and becomes very popular. The user selects the stepwise assist-mode to determine the assistive torque for pleasurable running. From the viewpoint of improvement of health by exercise, the electrically assisted bicycle can be an exercise machine like a treadmill. The heart rate (HR) is regarded as an indication of exercise load. This paper presents an automatic assist-mode selection system based on the HR of the bicycle user. The HR is obtained from the R-waves measured by the proposed wearable electrocardiograph on the user. The mode-selection system is simply implemented by a personal computer, USB-connected interface, and some electronic switching circuits. The running experiments confirm that the proposed assist-mode selection method has practicability.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Artifacts
  • Bicycling
  • Clothing
  • Computers
  • Electrocardiography / methods*
  • Electrodes
  • Electronics
  • Electrophysiology / methods
  • Equipment Design
  • Exercise
  • Heart Rate*
  • Humans
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory / instrumentation*
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory / methods
  • Physical Fitness
  • Time Factors
  • User-Computer Interface
  • Walking