Heart rate indication using musical data

Heart rate data reflects various physiological states such as biological workload, stress at work and concentration on tasks, drowsiness and the active state of the autonomic nervous system. This paper proposes a system to indicate heart rate using musical data. Music changes physiological states for the better by relaxing people, or contributing to patient treatment through music therapy. Information in the form of music is advantageous because it does not hinder work as does verbal information and it contains more information than warning noises. We introduce and evaluate a prototype heart rate indication system and describe evaluation results of biofeedback effects on the worker during mental workload. The prototype system sequentially inputs the instantaneous heart rate into the computer, converts the data into a musical instrument digital interface, the digital music format, and outputs it from the sound source. The system uses an ECG which can be measured easily.