Affiliations: [a] Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan | [b] MINATO MEDICAL SCIENCE CO.LTD, Chuoku, Kobe, Japan
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Akihito Seki, Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodaimachi Nadaku, 657-8501, Kobe, Japan. E-mail:shirui@cs11.cs.kobe-u.ac.jp
Abstract: In recent years, water massage bed for full body massage
has been used in physiotherapy effectively. Compared with other
physiotherapy equipment, water massage bed is particularly useful since it
can directly massage the destined area on the subject, which leads to
improvement in relieving muscle strain and provides a psychological
relaxation. In this study, we use a heart rate sensor as well as an
accelerometer and a laser range finder to measure and evaluate changes of
relaxation in the human body before and during the massage. As a result, the
water massage bed vibrations observed concentrated at 4Hz or less. We
observed that subjective evaluation is strongly correlated to the heart rate
based relaxation analysis and subjects' weight. In addition, the result of
the subjective evaluation is influenced by the changes in autonomic nerve
activity in the first 30 seconds of the massage.
Keywords: Water massage bed, physiotherapy, relaxation, heart rate
