Movement artefact removal from NIRS signal using multi-channel IMU data

BACKGROUND: The non-invasive nature of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) makes it a widely accepted method for blood oxygenation measurement in various parts of the human body. One of the main challenges in this method lies in the successful removal of movement artefacts in the detected signal. In this respect, multi-channel inertia measurement unit (IMU) containing accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer can be used for better modelling of movement artefact than using accelerometer only, which as a result, movement artefact can be more accurately removed. METHODS: A wearable two-channel continuous wave NIRS system, incorporating an IMU sensor which contain accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer in it, was developed to record NIRS signal along with the simultaneous recording of movement artefacts related signal using the IMU. Four healthy subjects volunteered in the recording of the NIRS signals. During the recording from the first two subject, movement artefacts were simulated in one of the NIRS channels by tapping the photodiode sensor nearby. The corresponding IMU data for the simulated movement artefacts were used to estimate the artefacts in the corrupted signal by autoregressive with exogenous input method and subtracted from the corrupted signal to remove the artefacts in the NIRS signal. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement was used to evaluate the performance of the movement artefacts removal process. The performance of the movement artefacts estimation and removal were compared using accelerometer only, accelerometer and gyroscope, and accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer data from IMU sensor to estimate the artefact in NIRS reading. For the remaining two subjects the NIRS signal was recorded by natural movement artefacts impact and the results of artefacts removal was compared using accelerometer only, accelerometer and gyroscope, and accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer data from IMU sensor to estimate the artefact in NIRS reading. RESULTS: The quantitative and qualitative results revealed that the SNR improvement increases with the number of IMU channels used in the artefacts estimation, and there were approximately 5–11 dB increase in SNR when nine channel IMU data were used rather than using only three channel accelerometer data only. The artefact removal from natural movements also demonstrated that the combination of gyroscope and magnetometer sensors with accelerometer provided better estimation and removal of the movement artefacts, which was revealed by the minimal change of the HbO(2) and Hb level before, during and after movement artefacts occurred in the NIRS signal. CONCLUSION: The movement artefacts in NIRS can be more accurately estimated and removed by using accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetograph signals from an integrated IMU sensor than using accelerometer signal only.