Smartphone Camera as a Diagnostic tool for Detection of Pulse Rate and Blood Oxygen Concentration

In this paper, we present our recent work on the implementation of three different signal-processing methods for the calculation of heartbeat rate and key parameters used for the estimation of oxygen saturation in blood. These three methods are applied on the recorded video color components (i.e., Red, Green and Blue) obtained from the built-in camera of an Android or iOS smartphone while the flashlight remains turned-on during the entire recording period. The smartphone camera records the index finger of a person which is firmly attached to the lens of the camera. For comparison, a medically approved oximeter is used in order to obtain a measurement reading for the heartbeat rate and oxygen saturation level in blood. This reading is used as a benchmark value to provide a comparative study. Testing of our research approach was performed on adult volunteers by taking video recordings of different lengths (e.g., 15 s, 30 s, and 45 s). The experiments produced results that are accurate and reliable even for short duration of video recordings.