Apparatus for measuring heart rate and method thereof

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a technique for estimating the inter-beat interval (IBI) of a ballistocardiograph (BCG) signal measured using a non-contact sensor, filtering and correcting inaccurate information in the inter-beat interval estimated through clustering, and outputting a heart rate measurement result based on the filtered and corrected inter-beat interval. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, an apparatus for measuring a heart rate may include a signal meter for measuring a ballistocardiograph (BCG) signal from a heart rate measurement target; an inter-beat interval estimator for estimating an inter-beat interval (IBI) by applying a window to the measured BCG signal; a first filter for determining a confidence value for the probability values of the estimated inter-beat interval, filtering the estimated inter-beat interval by comparing the determined confidence value with a first threshold value, and determining a first estimated value; a second filter for determining a repetition degree indicating that identical beat values are successively estimated for the estimated inter-beat interval, filtering the estimated inter-beat interval by comparing the determined repetition degree with a second threshold value, and determining a second estimated value; and a heart rate output device for determining a third estimated value for the estimated inter-beat interval based on the determined first and second estimated values and outputting a heart rate based on the determined third estimated value.