Chiara Romano
TUTORIAL
Wearable sensors for cardiorespiratory monitoring: from technologies to signal processing algorithms and open challenges
Chiara Romano
MEASUREMENTS AND BIOMEDICAL INSTRUMENTATION UNIT, DEPT. OF ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITÀ CAMPUS BIO-MEDICO DI ROMA, ROME, ITALY
ABSTRACT
The growing demand for continuous health monitoring in clinical, occupational, and sports settings is driving the development of wearable systems capable of reliably estimating cardiorespiratory parameters outside traditional laboratory environments. However, translating raw sensor data into accurate heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) estimates requires careful algorithm design, robust signal processing, and rigorous metrological validation, particularly in the presence of motion artifacts and signal quality degradation.
This tutorial presents a comprehensive framework for the design and validation of wearable systems for cardiorespiratory monitoring systems. Starting from sensor selection and characterization, it covers the full signal processing pipeline, HR and RR extraction via both time-domain peak detection and frequency-domain windowed analysis, and motion artifact mitigation through multi-sensor fusion and signal quality index evaluation. Practical examples drawn from real acquisition campaigns across different activity levels are also discussed.
The tutorial aims to provide attendees with actionable guidelines for developing and benchmarking wearable cardiorespiratory systems, addressing the trade-offs between algorithm complexity, temporal resolution, and robustness to real-world disturbances.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Chiara Romano received the Ph.D. degree in 2024 from the Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma (UCBM), Italy. She was then a visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, working on wearable sensors for exosuits. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation Unit, Dept. of Engineering, UCBM. Her research focuses on the design, development, and validation of wearable systems and algorithms for monitoring physiological parameters in clinical, occupational, and sports settings. She is active in editorial activities as Guest Editor for biomedical engineering journals and serves as reviewer for international peer-reviewed journals. She is an IEEE Graduate Student Member, a member of the IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Society, and served as Secretary of the IEEE Student Branch at UCBM.
