Improving pulse oximetry accuracy by removing motion artifacts from photoplethysmograms using relative sensor motion: a preliminary study.

To expand applicability of pulse oximetry in low-acuity ambulatory settings, the impact of motion on extracted parameters as saturation (SpO2) and pulse rate (PR) needs to be reduced. We hypothesized that sensor motion relative to the skin can be used as an artifact reference in a correlation canceller to reduce motion artifacts in photoplethysmograms (PPGs), in order to improve SpO2 and PR measurements. This has been proven true in in vivo measurements, where forehead PPGs have been obtained while subjects are walking on a treadmill and relative sensor motion has been measured via self-mixing interferometry. By using relative motion in a normalized least mean square algorithm, the standard deviation of SpO2 and PR errors is on average reduced by 31 % and 13 %, respectively.