Contact-Free Heart Rate Measurement Using a Camera

In this paper, a contact-free heart rate measurement method using an ambient light camera is proposed. The color features of skin-like pixels are used for time domain frequency analysis, in which a skin color classifier is applied. A novel data adjustment scheme is further integrated to automatically expand sampling time length and increase measurement precision. Five people of different age, six cameras of different type, and four different body parts have been tested in this paper. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method comparing with a pulse oximeter device. The advantages of the proposed method include: 1) it uses a low-cost ambient light camera, 2) it eases the discomfort of people based on contact-free methodology, 3) it measures multiple persons´ heart rates fully automatic, and 4) it can be applied in multiple parts of a human body such as head and neck, arm, and palm regions.