Measurement of Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability with Wearable Devices: A Systematic Review

Wearables are a ubiquitous trend in both commercial and academic settings as they easily enable tracking and monitoring of physiological parameters such as heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). This paper presents a literature review to survey the existing Neuro-Information-Systems (NeuroIS) literature on HR and HRV with a focus on measurement based on wearable devices. We addressed the following four research questions: Who published HR and HRV research? What kind of HR and HRV research has been published? With which wearable devices was HR and HRV measured? How reliable and valid are HR and HRV measurements based on wearable devices? Our review provides answers to these questions and concludes that further efforts are needed to advance the field from both a theoretical and methodological perspective.