Comparison of HRV spectral analysis methods for unconstrainedly measured ECG

For ubiquitous healthcare, interests for unconstrained method for ECG measurement have increased in the biomedical engineering field. Recently, capacitive-coupled method was introduced as the unconstrained method. However, the ECGs obtained from this method have many motion artefact noises, so heart rate data becomes intermittent finally. In this paper, spectral analysis methods of heart rate variability (HRV) for intermittent heart rate (HR) data are compared through simulation of artificial and real intermittent HR data. As the index of comparison, LF/HF ratio is used, which is a parameter reflecting the sympatho-vagal balance. In conclusion, the Burg's algorithm of parametric method has the lowest error, and the Lomb-Scargle (LS) periodogram of uneven method has the worst result. But, in low intermittent number, LS periodogram is the best.