Simple measurement of pulse oximetry using a standard color camera

Abstract

This paper presents a method for contactless pulse oximetry measurement by photoplethysmographic images (PPGI) technique. The Kalman filter is applied to reduce the low frequencies of PPGI signals. The method has characteristics that make it an innovation in the field. The patient does not have any contact with the measurement device, and the developed algorithm has a low computational requirement. In addition, the method has a high tolerance to the artifacts. The approach analyzes plethysmographic signals collected through a standard color camera to estimate pulse oximetry. The averages of each odd and even frames create two signals. Each frame is synchronized to an illumination with a specific wavelength (640 and 950 nm respectively). The present study obtained a good estimate of the pulse oximetry from ten persons. The Bland-Altman analysis shows a strong correlation between a standard system and the PPGI measurement.