Does remote photoplethysmogram measurement using a digital camera accurately detect systolic and diastolic peaks compared to a contact fingertip sensor?
Remote photoplethysmography using a digital camera can accurately measure interbeat intervals and systolic-diastolic peak-to-peak times compared to contact sensors.
We present a new method for measuring photoplethysmogram signals remotely using ambient light and a digital camera that allows for accurate recovery of the waveform morphology (from a distance of 3 m). In particular, we show that the peak-to-peak time between the systolic peak and diastolic peak/inflection can be automatically recovered using the second-order derivative of the remotely measured waveform. We compare measurements from the face with those captured using a contact fingertip sensor and show high agreement in peak and interval timings. Furthermore, we show that results can be significantly improved using orange, green, and cyan color channels compared to the tradition red, green, and blue channel combination. The absolute error in interbeat intervals was 26 ms and the absolute error in mean systolic-diastolic peak-to-peak times was 12 ms. The mean systolic-diastolic peak-to-peak times measured using the contact sensor and the camera were highly correlated, ρ = 0.94 (p 0.001). The results were obtained with a camera frame-rate of only 30 Hz. This technology has significant potential for advancing healthcare.
McDuff et al. (2014) studied this question.