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A Review of Commercial and Medical-Grade Physiological Monitoring Devices for Biofeedback-Assisted Quality of Life Improvement Studies

  • Mobile & Wireless Health
  • Published:
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Abstract

With the rise in wearable technology and “health culture”, we are seeing an increasing interest and affordances in studying how to not only prolong life expectancy but also in how to improve individuals’ quality of life. On the one hand, this attempts to give meaning to the increasing life expectancy, as living above a certain threshold of pain and lack of autonomy or mobility is both degrading and unfair. On the other hand, it lowers the cost of continuous care, as individuals with high quality of life indexes tend to have lower hospital readmissions or secondary complications, not to mention higher physical and mental health. In this paper, we evaluate the current state of the art in physiological therapy (biofeedback) along with the existing medical grade and consumer grade hardware for physiological research. We provide a quick primer on the most commonly monitored physiologic metrics, as well as a brief discussion on the current state of the art in biofeedback-assisted medical applications. We then go on to present a comparative analysis between medical and consumer grade biofeedback devices and discuss the hardware specifications and potential practical applications of each consumer grade device in terms of functionality and adaptability for controlled (laboratory) and uncontrolled (field) studies. We end this article with some empirical observations based on our study so that readers might use take them into consideration when arranging a laboratory or real-world experience, thus avoiding costly time delays and material expenditures.

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Notes

  1. https://www.emotiv.com/epoc/

  2. http://neurosky.com/

  3. https://www.ocz.com/us/

  4. http://bitalino.com/en/

  5. https://www.mindmedia.com/products/nexus-10-mkii/

  6. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zenta-stress-emotion-management-on-your-wrist

  7. https://www.myfeel.co/

  8. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/band

  9. https://sleeptrackers.io/basis-peak/

  10. https://jawbone.com/fitness-tracker/up3

  11. https://www.apple.com/lae/watch/

  12. https://www.android.com/wear/

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Acknowledgements

This article is a result of the project QVida+: Estimação Contínua de Qualidade de Vida para Auxílio Eficaz à Decisão Clínica, NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-003446, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The authors also acknowledge to the strategic project LIACC (PEst-UID/CEC/00027/2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory (LIACC), Porto, Portugal

    Pedro Nogueira, Joana Urbano, Luís Paulo Reis, Henrique Lopes Cardoso, Daniel Castro Silva, Ana Paula Rocha & Brígida Mónica Faria

  2. Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), Porto, Portugal

    Pedro Nogueira, Joana Urbano, Henrique Lopes Cardoso, Daniel Castro Silva & Ana Paula Rocha

  3. School of Engineering of the University of Minho (EEUM), Braga, Portugal

    Luís Paulo Reis

  4. EST/IPCA – Technology School/Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Barcelos, Portugal

    Joaquim Gonçalves

  5. ESS/P.Porto – Higher School of Health/Porto Polytechnic, Porto, Portugal

    Brígida Mónica Faria

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  1. Pedro Nogueira
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  2. Joana Urbano
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  4. Henrique Lopes Cardoso
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  8. Brígida Mónica Faria
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Correspondence to Pedro Nogueira.

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Nogueira, P., Urbano, J., Reis, L.P. et al. A Review of Commercial and Medical-Grade Physiological Monitoring Devices for Biofeedback-Assisted Quality of Life Improvement Studies. J Med Syst 42, 101 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-018-0946-1

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