Camera-based Cardiovascular Screening based on Heart Rate and Its Variability In Pre- and Post-Exercise Conditions

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Physiology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Assessing cardiovascular health through heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) is crucial.
• Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) offers contactless vital sign monitoring, ideal for fitness applications.
• Benchmarking rPPG against established methods like ECG and PPG is necessary for validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To benchmark the accuracy of HR and HRV measurements using ECG, PPG, and rPPG.
• To investigate differences in HR and HRV between individuals with and without exercise habits.
• To evaluate rPPG as a potential tool for monitoring cardiac training effectiveness.

Main Methods:

• A fitness benchmark study was conducted with 14 healthy subjects performing treadmill running.
• Simultaneous recording of video (for rPPG) and reference data (ECG, PPG) during exercise.
• Analysis of HR and HRV parameters in pre- and post-exercise phases.

Main Results:

• rPPG demonstrated comparable accuracy to PPG for both HR and HRV estimation.
• HRV parameters (Mean IBI, SDNN, LF, VLF, SD2) from rPPG/PPG showed good agreement with ECG.
• Subjects with regular exercise habits exhibited lower resting HR, smaller HRV values, less HR/HRV change during exercise, and faster recovery compared to sedentary individuals.

Conclusions:

• rPPG is a promising, non-contact alternative to PPG for measuring HR and HRV.
• rPPG can effectively differentiate cardiovascular responses based on exercise habits.
• rPPG shows potential for screening and indicating cardiac training performance.