Influence of polarization filtration on the information readout from pulsating blood vessels

Imaging photoplethysmography (IPPG) is a recently developed technique for noncontact assessment of cardiovascular function. However, its wide use is limited by low signal-to-noise ratio due to motion artifacts. The aim of this work is to estimate the polarization-filtration impact on discriminating artifacts in IPPG measurements. Experiments were carried out in-vivo by almost simultaneous illumination of subject's palm with polarized and non-polarized light during video recording of 41 subjects. It was found that the light-polarization filtration efficiently reduces motion artifacts compared to the non-polarized illumination while the pulsation amplitude measured at the heartbeat frequency remains unaffected. The polarization filtration improves reliability of IPPG system in non-contact monitoring of subject's heart rate and its variability.