Improved heart rate detection for camera-based photoplethysmography by means of Kalman filtering

• Published in: 2015 IEEE 35th International Conference on Electronics and Nanotechnology (ELNANO) pp. 428 - 433
• Main Authors: Andreotti, Fernando, Trumpp, Alexander, Malberg, Hagen, Zaunseder, Sebastian
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-04-2015
• Subjects: Biomedical measurement; camera-based photoplethysgraphy; Cameras; Conferences; Heart rate; heart rate detection; Kalman filter; Kalman filters; signal quality index; Signal to noise ratio
• DOI: 10.1109/ELNANO.2015.7146951

Camera-based photoplethysmography (cbPPG) is a recent development in biomedical engineering, which is primarily used to the contactless assessment of subject's heart rate. cbPPG's easy acquisition scheme comes at cost of an usually low signal-to-noise ratio. Artefacts such as subject's movements and light changes impose severe difficulties and have hindered a wider use of the technique up-to-date. This work aims at providing a more reliable heart rate estimation under real application conditions. For this purpose, a Kalman filter complemented by signal quality indexes is proposed. The method is able to reduce the root mean-squared error of estimated heart rates by approximately 37%, while slightly increasing the detection accuracy.