Non-contact heart rate estimation from a video sequence

Heart rate (HR) is a biomedical parameter, which contains information about the autonomic nervous system activity, and thus, it can predict health related events. Non — contact acquisition of the HR can be of interest not only for clinical practice situations but also for more commercial oriented usage. In this paper, the estimation of HR from a video sequence acquired with a smartphone camera (non — contact recording method) is evaluated. The validation is realized using the HR estimated from an ECG signal via contact electrodes. A reliable HR is obtained from the video sequence, making the method suitable for applications like low cost driver fatigue detection systems.