FPGA-based remote pulse rate detection using photoplethysmographic imaging

This paper presents first several steps towards an FPGA-based electronic system for remote pulse rate (PR) measurement. The system uses a low-cost digital camera as an image sensor, which operates at up to 30 frames per second (fps) in WXGA (1200×800 pixels) resolution. A novel algorithm for PR measurement was implemented using an FPGA development board. A commercially-available photoplethysmography module (TP-TSD200A from BIOPAC) was used as a golden standard to verify the performance of the suggested system. Ten male subjects were simultaneously examined using both the suggested system and the golden standard, and the results were compared. The proposed system leads to a potential means for providing mobile healthcare using smart phones and other mobile consumer products.