Measuring Pulse Rate with a Webcam

In this paper a simple method of measuring the pulse rate is presented. Elaborated algorithm allows for efficient pulse rate registration directly from face images captured from a webcam. The desired signal is obtained by proper channel selection and principal component analysis. To determine the accuracy of the method an ECG signal is collected together with a video recordings. The effectiveness of the algorithm is considered for different regions of interest, several combinations of color channels and different lightening conditions. The time of principal components computation is compared with that obtained for independent component analysis. The performed analysis shows that the accuracy of the method is dependent on the face illumination but when considering home health care monitoring the proposed technique may be very useful due to its simplicity.