Adapting smartphone-based photoplethysmograpy to suboptimal scenarios
Key: GDG17-1
Author: Augusto Garcia-Agundez, Tim Dutz, Stefan Göbel
Date: January 2017
Kind: @article
Abstract: Photoplethysmography (PPG) is an optical technique used to measure the heart rate (HR) and other cardiovascular variables by analyzing volume changes in the microvascular bed of tissue. At the moment, smartphone users can already measure their HR using PPG applications that use the smartphone's built-in camera. However, available applications are unreliable when artifacts are present, such as those caused by movement, finger pressure, or ambient light changes. This contribution aims to analyze the limitations of a smartphone-based PPG algorithm capable of measuring N–N intervals when such artifacts are present by comparing it to a 2-lead electrocardiography (ECG). By using a Bandpass filter and a zero-crossing detection algorithm on a PPG signal captured at 800  ×  600 pixels and 30 Hz, we have designed an approach capable of assessing N–N intervals when movement artifacts are present. An evaluation performed on n  =  31 users shows our algorithm is capable of measuring N–N intervals with an average relative error of 9.23 ms, when compared to a 2-lead ECG. Our approach proves the reliability of smartphone-based hotoplethysmography to measure N–N intervals, even under the presence of movement artifacts, and opens the door for its future use in remote diagnosis scenarios.
Official URL

The documents distributed by this server have been provided by the contributing authors as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a non-commercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, not withstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.