A breath monitoring approach based on electrical impedance measurements

An approach for monitoring the respiratory rate based on impedance measurements is presented in this paper. In order to possibly obtain a minimally-invasive wearable device, the electrodes are located on the head, near mastoid bones, and measure the variations induced in the electrical impedance by the physiological changes in the pharynx produced by respiration. The feasibility of the adopted configuration has been assessed by means of electromagnetic simulations involving a simplified model. Moreover, an ad-hoc data processing algorithm has been developed for extracting the breath rate from the measured signals. Preliminary experimental results are provided for investigating the capabilities of the developed setup.