Modified Camera Setups for Day-and-Night Pulse-rate Monitoring

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2021 Nov:2021:1744-1748. doi: 10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9630497.

Abstract

Camera systems have been studied as a means for ubiquitous remote photoplethysmography. It was first considered for daytime applications using ambient light. However, main applications for continuous monitoring are in dark or low-light conditions (e.g. sleep monitoring) and, more recently, suitable light sources and simple camera adaptations have been considered for infrared-based solutions. This paper explores suitable camera configurations for pulse-rate monitoring during both day and night (24/7). Various configurations differing in the recorded spectral range are defined, i.e. straight-forward adaptations of a standard RGB camera by choosing proper optical filters. These systems have been studied in a benchmark involving day and night monitoring with various degrees of motion disturbances. The results indicate that, for the 24/7 monitoring, it is best to deploy the full spectral band of an RGB camera, and this can be done without compromising the monitoring performance at night.

MeSH terms

  • Heart Rate
  • Humans
  • Monitoring, Physiologic / instrumentation*
  • Photoplethysmography*
  • Pulse*
  • Sleep