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MIT Student Rigs Webcam to Check Pulse Rate

by Caleb Johnson on October 6, 2010 at 09:00 AM

Grad student measures pulse with cheap webcam.
An MIT graduate student has discovered a way to check a person's pulse with a plain-old, low-res webcam. According to MIT, Ming-Zher Poh has used open-source face-tracking software, and measured the variations in brightness resulting from blood vessels pumping blood in the face. Poh's method, which doesn't involve any sensors, produced pulse readings that were within three beats per minute of the readings performed by an FDA-approved pulse-monitoring device. The toughest part, for Poh, was accounting for changes in ambient lighting and the person's movements while the webcam did its job. Poh believes that he can eventually tweak the system to read respiration, blood-oxygen and blood-pressure levels.

If so, Poh could change the lives of folks who must monitor their vital signs every day, since his method is low-cost and easy to use. Using Poh's webcam-monitoring system, doctors could even remotely "visit with" patients who can't make it to the office for check-ups. Alternatively, they could check vitals when attaching other devices may not be ideal -- like while treating a severely burned person or newborn child.

Tags: cameras, health, heart, heartrate, mit, pulse, research, science, top, WebCam

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