PCA-driven Detection and Enhancement of Microchanges in Video Data Associated with Heart Rate

The heart rate is a fundamental measure which can be used to monitor an individual's level of health or fitness, as well as a range of medical conditions. Conventional heart rate devices used in hospitals require continuous contact with specific points on the patient's body, depending on the device being used. Such continuous contact could prove to be a risk for skin irritation or infections and may also be of inconvenience to the patients, potentially restricting movement. A contactless approach for measuring heart rate could thus prove significant benefits over conventional, contact-based devices. This paper presents a method for the contactless extraction of heart rate measurements from a video footage using principal component analysis, with no pre-defined region of interest being required. Three different ways of presenting the outcome from principal component analysis are presented and the results obtained are discussed.