An improved method of measuring heart rate using a webcam

Measuring heart rate traditionally requires special equipment and physical contact with the subject. Reliable non-contact and low-cost measurements are highly desirable for convenient and comfortable physiological self-assessment. Previous work has shown that consumer-grade cameras can provide useful signals for remote heart rate measurements. In this paper a simple and robust method of measuring the heart rate using low-cost webcam is proposed. Blood volume pulse is extracted by proper Region of Interest (ROI) and color channel selection from image sequences of human faces without complex computation. Heart rate is subsequently quantified by spectrum analysis. The method is successfully applied under natural lighting conditions. Results of experiments show that it takes less time, is much simpler, and has similar accuracy to the previously published and widely used method of Independent Component Analysis (ICA). Benefitting from non-contact, convenience, and low-costs, it provides great promise for popularization of home healthcare and can further be applied to biomedical research.