Recently, we wrote about an Android app which used a cellphone camera to measure heart rate. While that app required skin contact with the camera lens, a graduate student at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology has demonstrated a system which can record heart rate from a distance, using nothing more than a simple webcam. The student hopes to add the ability to monitor respiration, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels to the system, along with internet connectivity for uploading data to EMR systems.
The system produced pulse rates that agreed to within about three beats per minute with the rates obtained from the [FDA] approved monitoring device, and was able to obtain valid results even when the subject was moving a bit in front of the camera. In addition, the system was able to get accurate pulse signals from three people in the camera’s view at the same time.
Full story: Your vital signs, on camera…
Full text of the student’s research at Optics Express: Non-contact, automated cardiac pulse measurements using video imaging and blind source separation (.pdf)
(hat tip: SlashGear)