HRVCam: A software for real-time feedback of heart rate and HRV

The heart rate (HR) and its variability, known as Heart Rate Variability (HRV), are indispensable measurements for cardiorespiratory monitoring, recognition and quantification of emotions, detection of abnormalities, and heart disease control. In general, the acquisition systems for HR and HRV require a contact area for sensor's installation and positioning, creating restrictions and/or obstructions on user's movements. This paper proposes a noninvasive and noncontact technique for HR and HRV acquisition using a camera. The purposed technique consists in the automatic detection of the user's face and utilization of an Independent Component Analysis (ICA) algorithm to separate the necessary signals to determine the HR and HRV. The experiments have shown more than 95% of similarity between the results of the proposed software (HRVCam) in comparison to the results of the photoplethysmography sensor (PPG).