On enhancing cardiac pulse measurements through thermal imaging

This paper presents methodological advances on pulse measurement through thermal imaging of the face - a modality that recovers thermo-physiological function. Two previous methods that capitalized on heat transfer effects along and across the vessel during pulse propagation have been brought together in a fusion scheme. In addition, the quality of the extracted physiological signals has improved thanks to sophisticated tracking and noise reduction algorithms. Finally, parameter optimization has fine-tuned harmonic analysis of the signals, thus, strengthening the measurement accuracy. Comparative experiments that were conducted on a dataset of 12 subjects highlighted the virtues of the new methodology versus the legacy ones. Specifically, the new method reduced the instantaneous measurement error from 10.5% to 7.8%, while it improved mean accuracy from 88.6% to 95.3%. This advancement brings clinical applications of the technology within sight.