Interacting with human physiology

We propose a novel system that incorporates physiological monitoring as part of the human-computer interface. The sensing element is a thermal camera that is employed as a computer peripheral. Through bioheat modeling of facial imagery almost the full range of vital signs can be extracted, including localize blood flow, cardiac pulse, and breath rate. This physiological information can then be used to draw inferences about a variety of health symptoms and psychological states. Our research aims to realize the notion of desktop health monitoring and create truly collaborative interactions in which humans and machines are both observing and responding. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.