Why the study?
Does a webcam-based algorithm accurately measure pulse rate compared to ECG?
Does a webcam-based algorithm accurately measure pulse rate compared to ECG?
A simple webcam-based algorithm using principal component analysis can measure pulse rate from face images, offering a potential tool for home health monitoring despite sensitivity to illumination.
Webcam pulse detection needs stable lighting before any clinical consideration; leaves open feasibility for remote home monitoring pending validation.
In this paper a simple method of measuring the pulse rate is presented. Elaborated algorithm allows for efficient pulse rate registration directly from face images captured from a webcam. The desired signal is obtained by proper channel selection and principal component analysis. To determine the accuracy of the method an ECG signal is collected together with a video recordings. The effectiveness of the algorithm is considered for different regions of interest, several combinations of color channels and different lightening conditions. The time of principal components computation is compared with that obtained for independent component analysis. The performed analysis shows that the accuracy of the method is dependent on the face illumination but when considering home health care monitoring the proposed technique may be very useful due to its simplicity.
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Lewandowska et al. (2012) studied this question.