Acquisition of Multiple Physiological Parameters

International Journal of E-Health and Medical Communications, 2(4), 37-49, October-December 2011 37
Acquisition of Multiple Physiological Parameters During Physical exercise

Virginie Felizardo, University of Beira Interior, Portugal Pedro Dinis Gaspar, University of Beira Interior, Portugal Nuno M. Garcia, Lusophone University of Humanities and Technologies (ULHT), Portugal Victor Reis, University of Trs-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Portugal
AbStrACt
This paper describes the experimental method focused on the acquisition of various physiological parameters during different effort levels of physical exercise like walking and running at several velocities. The study involved 57 young and adult people, 43 male and 14 female (24,375,96 years), from which 48 were soldiers belonging to the Infantry Regiment n. 13 (RI13) of the Portuguese Army and 9 were teachers or college students of Sport Sciences, physically active but not competitive. The experimental measures provide a set of information that offers insight about the health status and physical performance of the subjects during exercise. This experimental method procedure is suited for the acquisition of physiological parameters with both the wireless physiological data acquisition systems such as the bioPlux and the respiratory analyzer gas systems such as Cosmed K4b2.The data was collected to allow the definition of a model that will be used to estimate the energy expenditure of a subject using a wireless physiological data acquisition system, which is much more comfortable and suitable to monitor physical exercise in everyday use than the standard method that makes use of a respiratory gas analysis system. Keywords: Acquisition System, Experimental Method Procedure, Physical Activity, Physiological Parameters, Sensors
INtroDuCtIoN
The level of daily physical activity has a strong effect on a persons quality of life and health. During the last decades, sedentary and inactive lifestyles have raised serious concerns regarding public health, with diseases such as cardiac
DOI: 10.4018/jehmc.2011100103
illnesses, diabetes, obesity and others receiving a strong concern focus, as it is estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) that obesity alone is responsible for 6% of the health budget of the European nations (WHO, 2006). The industrial development and its employment growth have in general significantly reduced the physical activity of the active population and the technological development has also
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38 International Journal of E-Health and Medical Communications, 2(4), 37-49, October-December 2011
allowed the increased number and increased degree of sedentary life styles (Laggeros & Lagiou, 2007). A significant part of the active population in developed countries lead a life with little or no physical activity and its leisure time is often occupied with sedentary activities like reading, surfing on the Internet, playing computer games, watching television, among others. Currently there are a number of devices who assess the physical activity of an individual, for example the ActiGraph Activity Monitor (ActiGraph, 2010) or the RT3 Accelerometer (Stayhealthy, 2010). The goal of these devices is to monitor whether a person is fulfilling his/ her amount of daily exercise or not, and to raise alarms if the foreseen levels are not met. Taken to a next level, the evaluation of the physical activity level of a person has its roots in the need to determine if his/her physical activity behaviour falls within an interval or profile defined by a health care provider, using appropriate personalized criteria, with the objective of maintain or improve his/her health status. It is well known that physical activity reduces the risk of various diseases and brings several benefits, including improved glucose metabolism, reduced body fat and lower blood pressure (Choi et al., 2005). The goals and expected benefits of physical activity monitoring, underline the importance of the acquisition of physiological parameters during exercise. However, until very recently, it was difficult to get a set of physiological data using several measuring devices that are typically in different locations, some of them causing discomfort to those who use them, many of these having an associated cost of ownership and or operation that are not compatible to the desirable goal of enlarging its use to a broad sector of the population, thus rendering impracticable its use in Assisted Living solutions. There are several methods and techniques to estimate the energy expenditure and the physical activity level of a subject. The techniques of direct calorimetry, indirect calorimetry and doubly-labeled water are considered the
most precise methods for measuring the level of metabolism. Direct calorimetry measures the energy expended by assessing the rate of body heat lost to the environment, through either aerobically or anaerobically forms, and is held in chambers. This method has some disadvantages such as its high cost, the need for a long experimental time and the need for an artificial controlled environment, which is impracticable as part of a daily routine. Doublylabelled water is one of the methods considered as gold standard for determining the energy expenditure (Murphy, 2009). It consists in the ingestion of water labelled with deuterium and oxygen isotopes. The measurement of the concentration of these elements in excreted urine and exhaled air enables the calculation of the energy demand by the organism of that subject. Its high cost (Littlewood et al., 2002) and the need for specialized personnel and equipment, has restricted its use in further studies. This method still has additional disadvantages since it only provides information on the total energy expenditure, and cannot be accurately used to monitor a subject in a small time interval. Moreover, the method gives no information about the type, intensity and duration of physical activity (Yamada et al., 2009). Thus, the de facto gold standard for the assessment of physical activity is the analysis of respiratory gases by indirect calorimetry (Choi et al., 2005). The respiratory gases, in particular, the production of gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), is a good indicator of the amount of metabolic activity going on in the cells, because this gas is a direct result of oxidation processes. Oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide release is measured and the Respiratory Exchange Ratio (RER) is calculated to establish which type of food is being oxidized. It is assumed that each food type releases a given amount of energy for each liter of oxygen consumed, and that the bodys oxygen and carbon dioxide contents remain constant. Total energy expenditure is estimated from the RER and from total oxygen consumption (Littlewood et al., 2002). The Cosmed K4 family of devices performs this analysis. The Cosmed K4 device is able to recollect all the
breathing gases from the subject, analyse its contents and report this data to a computer. Yet, as a mean to assess everyday-life activity and despite of being portable, the Cosmed K4b2 gas analysis device is not comfortable for the users, limiting the athletic performance and its usage scenarios (for example, it would be impossible to use it in a Judo exercise). Others methods for estimating the energy expenditure of daily activities are based on data collection of heart rate and movement techniques. They are often used due to its ease of data collection and its low cost (Crouter et al., 2005). Monitoring energy expenditure by measuring heart rate is based on the relationship between energy expenditure and heart rate. Although monitors accurately measure heart rate, its accuracy for the measurement of energy expenditure is limited by the relative independence of heart rate change from physical activity. In this method, the energy cost is estimated from the adjustment of individual curves for a variety of activities in laboratory. Among factors that may alter the relation between Oxygen consumption (VO2) response and the amount of exercise are variation in temperature and humidity, fatigue, hydration, and even emotional responses. Another limitation of this method is due to the fact that in sedentary subjects, the measured heart rate in nearly 24 hours does not exceed the limits of the heart rate when the subject is resting, making it difficult to distinguish between light and moderate activities. Despite this limitation, heart rate can provide an indication of the intensity, duration and frequency of activity (Reis et al., 2000). The use of electronic motion sensors is based on the assumption that the movement of body segments reflects the total energy expenditure (Reis et al., 2000). These sensors are placed on the wrist or waist of the subject and measure the energy expenditure by recording the body accelerations over time, allowing calculation of oxygen uptake and energy expenditure from estimation equations. Examples of these instruments are pedometers and accelerometers. A pedometer is a motion sensor that saves uniaxial movements of steps in response to body
acceleration on the vertical axis. The distance of the course taken by the subject can be estimated by calibrating the equipment to its stride magnitude. Despite presenting low cost, it does not measure sedentary activities, isometric exercises and arm movements, underestimating distances at low speeds and overestimating distances in walking and running fast (Reis et al., 2000). The accelerometers are motion sensors, sensitive to variations in body acceleration in one or three axels and therefore able to directly and objectively measure the frequency, intensity and duration of the movements and relate them to the physical activity performed. Some authors have shown that there is an increase of caloric expenditure with physical activity, depending on the activity type (such as walking or running) as well as anthropological characteristics (gender, age, weight and height) (Choi et al., 2005). The energy expenditure estimation measured by accelerometers assumes that a subjects movement generates body acceleration, theoretically proportional to the force exerted by the muscles responsible for this acceleration and therefore proportional to the energy expended. The monitoring of physical activity using accelerometers avoids many of the limitations of other methods, such as limitations on cost, portability and limitations on requiring specific setups and assistance personnel, and can be very useful to obtain objective information to estimate energy expenditure on a daily basis with little intervention (Yamada et al., 2009). Among recent methods that use motion to estimate the energy expenditure, applications for smartphones such as Android, Blackberry, iPhone, and others can be highlighted. These applications map the physical activity of outdoor sports using the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the smartphone. Some examples of these applications are CardioTrainer, Endomondo, SportyPal, MyTracks and RunKeeper. For example, CardioTrainer (WorkSmart Labs, 2011) is a free application for Android smartphones that tracks and records all the physical activity. This application works in conjunction with Google Maps. It takes the route indicated on a map to give information about the distance
travelled in km. It also provides information of average speed, number of calories expended, and travel time. The data is uploaded immediately to the companys servers. Although this type of application has very low accuracy it has wide applicability because there is no need of hardware (besides the smartphone) and it has demonstrated adherence and motivation from some audience. Experimental procedures that are more objective and accurate have been published for the above mentioned methods (Oliveira & Maia, 2001), but these also require sophisticated and expensive equipment in addition to the rather complex processes of data analysis. Due to its complexity, most of these methods cannot be applied to epidemiological studies, but instead serve as a validation criterion for ground methods. The questionnaires of physical activity represent one of the easiest methods, practical and economic to estimate physical activity, especially in epidemiological purposes for large samples (Oliveira & Maia, 2001). Although the questionnaires have advantages of lower cost and wider scope of studies when compared to other methods, their use has some disadvantages in the survey procedure because they not provide energy expenditure estimation as precisely as other methods and are, of course, more prone to subject induced intentional or unintentional error. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in communication protocols, sensing and transmission devices, sensor miniaturization, battery life span, human-machine interfaces and acquisition systems that allow the design of more ergonomical devices and thus its widespread use in everyday life. Although not focusing on respiratory processes, this work focus on the amount of energy spent on and by the subjects movement and it may be used to assess its energy expenditure, in particular when submitted to a given activity protocol. Furthermore, the joint use of simple sensors such as accelerometers and complex gas analysis performed by the Cosmed K4, allows the establishment a comparison of the
data and the creation of a relation between these two measurements. This paper describes the experimental method of a research study named Study of validation and collection of biological signals in young and healthy adults which focused on the acquisition of various physiological parameters during walking and running activities of a group of soldiers belonging to the Infantry Regiment (RI13) of the Portuguese Army. The research tasks described here are part of a wider research described in Felizardos Master of Science dissertation in Electrotechnical Engineering at the University of Beira Interior, Portugal, entitled Validao do acelermetro xyzPlux para estimao do Gasto Energtico com aquisio de diversos parmetros fisiolgicos (in Portuguese), related to the validation of xyzPlux accelerometer to estimate energy expenditure with the acquisition of several physiological parameters. On another perspective, there is a shortage of real biosignals data publicly available for research. This gap is now reduced as the collected data is now published and accessible in the web site belonging to the Assisted Living Computing and Telecommunications Laboratory ALLab, a research laboratory within the Networks Group of the Institute of Telecommunications at the University of Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal. This paper is organised as follows: this paragraph ends the research topic introduction and its purpose is to describe the framework and motivation of the developed work; We describe the relevance of this study, presenting the sensors used, its underlying rationale, and how these measurements contribute to the purpose of the work; we present the data collection methodology, including data variables and collection procedures; finally, section we present our conclusion.
reLevANCe of StuDy
The human body comprehends a great variety of processes, some relatively simple, but others
of great complexity. Thus, the simultaneous acquisition of multiple signals and physiological data during physical effort has great relevance. It can provide a set of information on physical performance during exercise and allows it use for further diagnosis of a particular subjects health status. There is a lack of physiological data available for the research community in general. This experimental component also contributes to reduce this shortage, by making available the collected data for further studies. The data files, conveniently unidentified and dimensionless, are available in a datawiki http:// allab.it.ubi.pt/mediawiki. The format of the data files varies with the bioPlux (.txt format) and Cosmed K4b2 (.xls files) file types. The main objective of this research is to create a method that allows non-invasive measurements with personal or professional purposes designed to cover a wide range of applications such as: weight control, promotion of physical activity, lifestyle assessment, training and research. The data obtained with this experimental work can address topics such as (1) monitoring the health condition during exercise using variables such as Heart Rate, electric potentials generated by the hearts electrical activity through Electro Cardiography (ECG) and others, (2) assessing the physical performance by using variables such as oxygen consumption, energy expenditure, acceleration of movement, bioelectric muscle activity through electromyography (EMG) and (3) still emotional support during exercise using the information inferred by the activity of the sympathetic nervous system by measurement of the electro-dermal activity. The Cosmed K4b2 estimates energy expenditure based on the volume of oxygen consumed. It provides an estimation of metabolic energy expenditure, which is a physiological factor. However, the accelerometer and EMG signals can provide more information about the additional energy expended in physical activity, which is the largest component of variation depending on each individual (associated with biomechanical factors). The relationship between human movement and
its power consumption depends on the subject characteristics, such as origin and insertion of muscle, muscle length and size, bone structure, flexibility, body mass and even personality. Due to individual characteristics, each person has a way to minimize energy expenditure. The relevance of the population type, consisting in healthy and young adults, is related to the study objectives, as the study is designed to assess the energy expenditure during physical exercise (walking and running), and this age group and population profile is among the groups that practice exercise for leisure or professional means. The sample is characterized by a group of military, college students and college teachers of Sport Science bachelor course, resulting in a sample quite homogeneous in the sense that all participants do daily exercise regularly. Considering different daily exercise levels and different types of activity, it is possible to cover other population that shows more leisure activity than regular physical activity.
MethoDoLogy
The experimental research study Validation study and acquisition of biological signals in young and healthy adults consisted of several measurements during physical exercise in the sports physiology laboratory of the Department of Sports Science, Exercise and Health University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal, with controlled both temperature (16 C to 22 C) and relative humidity (50%). This study is transversal, and the data was collected during a fixed time exercise plan.
experimental Sample
The study involved 57 young and adult people, 43 male and 14 female aged between 18 and 44 years, with a mean age of 24,375,96 years. In this population 48 subjects were soldiers belonging to the Infantry Regiment n13 (RI13) and 9 subjects were college teachers or college students of the Sport Sciences BSc course, all of them physically active but not competitive.
Table 1. Anthropometric data of study participants

Subject General Male Female Age (years) 24,375,96 24,216,24 24,865,19 Height (cm) 171,269,38 174,737,73 160,604,87 Weight (kg) 69,8812,10 73,2211,08 59,629,18 % fat 16,214,59 14,223,41 22,334,91
Anthropometric data relating to age, height, weight and fat percentage of participants in the study of both sexes was collected and are detailed in Table 1.
Study variables
The study consisted on the data collection of control, independent and dependent variables. All variables of the study are shown in Table 2.
Instrumentation
The experimental installation consists of a wireless physiological data acquisition system bioPlux (Plux, 2008), which is connected to a triaxial accelerometer, xyzPlux (measuring range 3g); an ECG sensor (ECG triodes), ecgPlux (Gain: 1000, band-pass: 0.05 Hz - 30 Hz; common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR): 110 dB); two sensors of electro-dermal activity, edaPlux (low-pass: 3 Hz); a peripheral temperature sensor, tempPlux (0 C - 100 C 1.5%); and an electromyography sensor, emgPlux (Gain: 1000, band-pass: 25 Hz - 500 Hz, CMRR: 110 dB).
The bioPlux is the device that collects and digitizes the signals from the sensors, transmitting them via Bluetooth (Connectivity - 10m range, with standard adapter; >100m with high range adapter) to a computer, where they are viewed in real time. The channels of the bioPlux have 12 bits, and its sampling frequency is 1 kHz. The bioPlux also has a digital port, a terminal for connecting the AC adapter and charge the internal battery (allows a lifespan of approximately 12 hours), and a channel to connect the reference electrode, which is essential for the proper monitoring of electromyography signal. The respiratory analyzer gas, Cosmed K4b2 system (Cosmed Corporation, 1998) was used to validate the experimental results and to obtain additional variables. The equipment chosen for the practical exercise was the treadmill. The choice of the equipment is very dependent on the study type and goals. In this study, the experimental protocol is focused on physical exercise. Thus, the choice of the exercise equipment and of the acquisition equipment has a great importance for dependent variables. During the experimental protocol each subject performed an exercise series of walk-
Table 2. Control, Independent and dependent variables of study

Control variables Independent variables Temperature (16C to 22C) and relative humidity (50%) Ration Experimental Protocol (Exercise Plan) Oxygen Consumption (VO2) Dependent variables Electric potentials generated by hearts electrical activity through ECG Bioelectric muscle activity through electromyography (EMG) Heart Rate Skin temperature Energy Expenditure Electro-Dermal Activity (EDA)
Oscillations of the movement (acceleration amplitude) through Accelerometer
ing and running. The equipment chosen for the exercise practice is the treadmill. Using this equipment to support the physical activity and using accelerometers to measure data from the generated motion, good correlations for energy expenditure related with physical exercise have been obtained (Jacobi et al., 2007). For the measurement of physiological data during the exercise protocol, it was chosen the bioPlux acquisition system because it allows eight acquisition channels, suited for the acquisition of multiple physiological and environmental parameters. Other main features of this device are also relevant for this experiment: this device weights 80 g and includes a Bluetooth communication interface thus allowing a great comfort and independence of movements during the exercise. The Cosmed K4b2 was chosen because it is a gold standard in the estimation of energy expenditure and despite the discomfort of who uses it, this equipment is portable.
Data Collection Procedure

Data were collected during 14 days from the May the 3rd to the 24th (2010) in the laboratory of Physiology, Department of Sports Science, Exercise and Health, at the Trs-os-Montes and Alto-Douro University, in Vila Real, Portugal. In each collection day, the subjects were informed about the objectives, the test procedure for the study and the low risk associated with stress test, being the incidence of problems in the order of 0.01% of tests. After this clarification, the participants signed a consent and willingness form to participate in the study. The subjects completed an International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ, 2002) of the previous 7 days. In order to characterize the sample, the height [cm] and body mass [kg] were measured in standing position during a deep breath through a stadiometer attached to an electronic scale Seca 220 (Seca, 2006). Three skinfolds were also measured to estimate the fat percentage. This procedure was done with skinfold calipers for male subjects at the chest, abdomen and
thigh, while for female subjects at the triceps, supra-iliac and thigh. The acquisition system, bioPlux (Figure 1), was secured to the left side of the users waist. The sensors connected to it were arranged, that is, according to the ECG lead placement protocol, the three ECG leads were placed in the horizontal plane precordial position (V3, V4, V5); peripheral body temperature was measured by placing the temperature sensor in the axillary region on the left side; triaxial accelerometry was collected by placing the accelerometer sensor in the supra-inguinal region on the right side; the two electro dermal activity (EDA) sensors were placed on the abdomen and on the left hand (index and middle fingers); and the electro myography (EMG) sensor in the right rectus femoral (anterior thigh muscle). The choice for sensors placement is related to the type of the study and to the aimed results. For whole-body movements, the accelerometer must be placed near the centre of mass to estimate energy expenditure (Godfrey et al., 2008). The waist and hip are the most used locations for placing the accelerometer (Murphy, 2009). Rahnama et al. (2006) found a progressive increase in EMG amplitude value for muscles in the rectum femoral, biceps femoral, tibialis anterior and lateral gastrocnemius associated with the increased speed of locomotion on the treadmill from 6 to 21 km/h. In this particular experiment, the rectum femoral was chosen since it has the function of hip flexion and leg extension. For the location of EDA sensors, one was placed in the index and middle fingers of left hand, since the signal of EDA in this area is strong, yet characterized by emotional states. Therefore, the second EDA sensor was located in the abdomen to compare the type of response and because it causes less discomfort in this location. The temperature sensor was placed in the auxiliary region because it is one of the areas that where exchange takes place during exercise.
Figure 1. Wireless physiological data acquisition system bioPlux and sensors (image courtesy of http://www.plux.info/, not shown in scale)
Figure 2 shows a subject in the walking phase of the protocol. The bioPlux device can be seen in left side of the subjects waist; also visible is the breathing mask for the respiratory gas analysis machine.
Exercise Plan
The exercise plan consists in incremental velocities as proposed by Bouten et al. (1994), Choi et al. (2005), and Kim et al. (2009). For men,
Figure 2. Implementation of the exercise protocol on the treadmill
walking velocity was defined as 5.8 km/h and for women it was set to 5.1 km/h. The three running velocities levels for men were 8.4 km/h, 10.3 km/h, 11.6 km/h and for women were 7.7 km/h, 9 km/h, 10.3 km/h. The duration of each exercise step was five minutes, interspersed with a period of 1 to 3 minutes for recovery. The five minutes exercise duration was defined because the minimum time limit that an exercise must be performed to reach a steady metabolic state is between two to three minutes, depending on the fitness of the individual (Chatagnon & Busso, 2006). This exercise plan includes four different marching / running velocities to allow
the collection of data from physical exercise activities with different intensities. Table 3 shows the velocities of the exercise plan and the correspondent metabolic equivalent (MET) for the classification of activity intensity. Light physical activities vary between 1,5 and 2,99 MET, moderate activities between 3 and 5,99 MET, vigorous activities between 6 and 8,99 MET and very vigorous activities higher than 9 MET (Reis et al., 2000). Differentiated running speeds for different genders were planned as seen before, to allow for different gender metabolic and physical performance.
Table 3. Velocities of plan exercise and the correspondent metabolic equivalent (MET)
Gender Male Velocity 5,8 km/h 8,4 km/h 10,3 km/h 11,6 km/h Female 5,1 km/h 7,7 km/h 9 km/h 10,3 km/h MET 5,30,9 8,71,6 10,11,8 11,11,9 4,11,0 7,31,7 8,41,8 9,72,0 Activity classification Moderate Vigorous Very vigorous Very vigorous Moderate Vigorous Vigorous Very vigorous
Data
The data obtained from the bioPlux is recorded on open ASCII format (.txt) and from the Cosmed K4b2 data is recorded in datasheet files (.xls). In this experimental work were obtained 57 files containing data on each velocity level and the respective pauses. Each file from bioPlux consists in 10 columns. Table 4 shows the description of each column of data. The data is available from the datawiki from the Assisted Living Computing and Telecommunications Laboratory website available at the http://allab.it.ubi.pt/mediawiki/ address.
CoNCLuSIoN
The ultimate goal of this research was the use of easily collected physiological data to assess the energy expenditure of a healthy subject. The validation of the estimated model was achieved by comparison with the considered gold standard of respiration gases analysis. Yet, the tasks that were involved in the obtention of the data are per se worthy of description and may serve as guidelines to future research in this area. To the authors best knowledge this was the first time that such a collection of physiological
parameters has been recorded, allowing comparison with gold standard data, and further allowing research by selection of different aspects of the same exercise protocol. This research showed that the used methodology is adequate for the collection and recording of the number and variety of physiological parameters. The fact that this methodology has tapped the potential of bioPlux for the acquisition of multiple physiological parameters and the collaboration of the military subjects contributed to add value to the recorded data, thus enabling and valuing the availability of data for those who want to further research on it. Also, the large number of variables obtained during exercise allows carrying out work in areas such as monitoring the health condition, athletic performance, and energy expenditure analysis across gender, among other studies. However, the methodology has limitations related to the experimental sample and exercise plan. The experimental sample can limit the study scope because it is composed by youth and adults with habits of daily physical activity, which is not representative of the general population. Nevertheless, considering an active and homogeneous sample has relevance in this type of study. Furthermore, the plan does not include exercise at slow speeds and levels of sedentary activity as the physical activity performed was classified as moderate, vigorous
Table 4. Contents of bioPlux files

Column 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (not used) x axes of accelerometer (vertical axes) y axes of accelerometer (medial-lateral axes) z axes of accelerometer (anterior-posterior axes) EMG ECG EDA (hand) EDA (abdomen) Skin temperature Data Sequential number (repeating from 0 to 127)
and very vigorous. So the further research is needed to collect and record data for light and sedentary activities. As two acquisition devices were used, being one of them a gold standard for the estimation of energy expenditure, the Cosmed K4b2, it was possible to validate the xyzPlux accelerometer for the energy expenditure estimation. Moreover, the acquisition system bioPlux is shown to be applicable for a wide number of scenarios, in particular in studies involving physical activity or free living, due to its portability, lightweight and wireless communication capabilities.
Choi, J. H., Lee, J., Hwang, H. T., Kim, J. P., Park, J. C., & Shin, K. (2005). Estimation of activity energy expenditure: Accelerometer approach. In Proceedings of the IEEE 27th Annual Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology (Vol. 4, pp. 3830-3833). Crouter, S. E., Clowers, K. G., & Bassett, D. R. (2005). A novel method for using accelerometer data to predict energy expenditure. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 100, 13241331. doi:10.1152/ japplphysiol.00818.2005 Felizardo, V. (2010). Validao do acelermetro xyzPlux para estimao do Gasto Energtico com aquisio de diversos parmetros fisiolgicos. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Beira Interior, Covilha, Portugal. Godfrey, A., Conway, R., & Meagher, D., & Laighin, G. (2008). Direct measurement of human movement by accelerometry. Medical Engineering & Physics, 30, 13641386. doi:10.1016/j.medengphy.2008.09.005 Guedes, D. P., Lopes, C. C., & Guedes, J. E. R. P. (2005). Reprodutibilidade e validade do questionrio internacional de atividade fsica em adolescentes. Revista Brasileira de Medicina do Esporte, 2(11), 151158. International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). (2002). Downloads. Retrieved from http:// www.ipaq.ki.se/downloads.htm Jacobi, D., Perrin, A., Grosman, N., Dore, M., Norman, S., Oppert, J., & Simon, C. (2007). Physical activity-related energy expenditure with the RT3 and TriTrac accelerometers in overweight adults. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 15, 950956. doi:10.1038/ oby.2007.605 Kim, D. H., Cho, J. S., Oh, H. S., Chee, Y. J., & Kim, I. Y. (2009). The estimation method of physical activity energy expenditure considering heart rate variability. Computers in Cardiology, 36, 413416. Lagerros, Y. T., & Lagiou, P. (2007). Assessment of physical activity and energy expenditure in epidemiological research of chronic diseases. European Journal of Epidemiology, 22, 353362. doi:10.1007/ s10654-007-9154-x Littlewood, R. A., White, M. S., Bell, K. L., Davies, P. S. W., Cleghorn, G. J., & Grote, R. (2002). Comparison of the Cosmed K4b2 and the Deltatrac IITM metabolic cart in measuring resting energy expenditure in adults. Clinical Nutrition (Edinburgh, Lothian), 2(16), 491497. doi:10.1054/clnu.2002.0580
ACkNowLeDgMeNtS
The authors thank our colleagues in the Department of Sports Science, Exercise and Health University of Trs-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal, Romeu Mendes and Fernando Policarpo for their support, availability, technical support and materials provided during the collecting data. The authors wish to acknowledged the collaboration provided by the constituents of the sample, members of the Infantry Regiment n13 (RI13). Finally the authors thank Plux Lda. for making available the equipment bioPlux used in this research.
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Stayhealthy. (2010). RT3 tri-axial research activity monitor. Retrieved from http://www.stayhealthy. com/ WHO. (2006, November 15-17). Diet and physical activity for health. Paper presented at the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity, Istanbul, Turkey. WorkSmart Labs. (2011). CardioTrainer. Retrieved from http://www.worksmartlabs.com/ Yamada, Y., Yokoyama, K., Noriyasu, R., Osaki, T., Adachi, T., & Itoi, A. (2009). Light-intensity activities are important for estimating physical activity energy expenditure using uniaxial and triaxial accelerometers. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 105, 141152. doi:10.1007/s00421-008-0883-7
Virginie dos Santos Felizardo is currently a M.Sc. Researcher at the Department of Electromechanical Engineering at University of Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal. She graduated in Biomedical Sciences (University of Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal) and, in 2010, received M.Sc. in Electrotechnical Engineering Bionic Systems (University of Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal). She is involved in researcher activities in Assisted Living Computing and Telecommunications Laboratory ALLab, a research laboratory within the Networks Group of the Institute of Telecommunications at the University of Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal. Her research interests include sensors for biomedical applications, biomedical instrumentation, Health monitoring, Medical signal acquisition, analysis, and processing. Pedro Dinis Gaspar is an assistant professor at the Department of Electromechanical Engineering at University of Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal. He graduated in Electromechanical Engineering and received a MSc degree in Engineering of Energy Production and Conservation Systems. In 2008 he received his PhD. He has been involved in teaching activities of subjects like Control (Discrete and Digital) Systems; Instrumentation and Measurements; Data Acquisition; Industrial Informatics; Assisted Therapeutics and Monitoring; Robotics; Energy and Sustainability and Renewable Energies in undergraduate and graduate courses. His research in a variety of technology areas (including energy harvesting systems, energy estimation, assisted therapeutics and monitoring portable devices, low power embedded systems and refrigeration) was published in a number of journals, conference publications, and books. He has participated in several National and European research projects. His research interests include Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, Energetic Systems (renewable, production, rationalization and sustainability), Automation, Robotics, Embedded Systems and Control.
Nuno M. Garcia is a Professor at the School of Communication, Arts and Information Technologies of the Lusophone University of Humanities and Technologies in Lisbon, Portugal, and Invited Professor at the University of Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal. He holds a PhD degree from the University of Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal. He is currently coordinator of the Assisted Living Computing and Telecommunications Laboratory, a research group within the Institute of Telecommunications pole at the University of Beira Interior. He is also a researcher in Criavision Lda. His main interests include Next-Generation Networks, advanced algorithms for bio-signal processing, distributed and cooperative protocols. He is main author of several international and european patents. He is an ISOC member and a IEEE Member. Victor Machado Reis lectures Exercise Physiology at the Sport Sciences, Exercise & Health Department of the University of Trs-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal and performs research in the Research Center for Sports, Health & Human Development (CIDESD). He holds a PhD degree on Exercise Physiology and his major interests of research are the physiological and biomechanical indicators of energy cost during physical activities. Victor Reis lectures Exercise Physiology at the Sport Sciences, Exercise & Health Department of the University of Trs-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal and performs research in the Research Center for Sports, Health & Human Development (CIDESD). He holds a PhD degree on Exercise Physiology and his major interests of research are the physiological and biomechanical indicators of energy cost during physical activities.

Acquisition of Multiple Physiological Parameters

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Acquisition of Multiple Physiological Parameters

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International Journal of E-Health and Medical Communications, 2(4), 37-49, October-December 2011 37

Acquisition of Multiple Physiological Parameters During Physical exercise

Table 1. Anthropometric data of study participants

Table 2. Control, Independent and dependent variables of study

Oscillations of the movement (acceleration amplitude) through Accelerometer

Data Collection Procedure

Figure 2. Implementation of the exercise protocol on the treadmill

Table 4. Contents of bioPlux files

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