Optimization of portable pulse oximetry through Fourier analysis

Portable pulse oximetry requires new techniques to minimize hardware expense, footprint, and power consumption. To optimize portability, fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis was used as an alternative method to calculate hemoglobin oxygen saturation (SpO2) values. The following variables were used for FFT optimization: (i) total collection period; (ii) number of discrete data points; (iii) data sampling rate; and (iv) resolution in the spectral analysis output. The objective was to discover the minimum sampling rate and minimum number of discrete data points which would maintain SpO2 accuracy. Preliminary results indicate that a 15 Hz data sampling rate over a 4.3 second collection period maintains acceptable SpO2 accuracy via a 64 point FFT computation.