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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Heart disease is the leading cause of death not only in Philippines but in the world.

According to the World Health Organization, it killed 7.4 million in 2012 only. People must

be aware of this fact and needs to do something about it. One of the most common ways to

prevent it is by early detection through Pulse Rate (PR) monitoring and analysis. With our

technology today one can easily do that.

Research shows that PR can be evaluated from the PhotoPlethysmogram (PPG) signal.

PPG refers to an optically obtained photoplethysmogram, which is a volumetric measurement

of an organ. In the case of the pulse rate, it is the monitoring of time varying changes in the

intensity of light scattered from the tissue when blood passes through it. Smartphone camera

can be used to get PPG Signal in, using light emitting diode (LED) as light source. One can

position his/her finger on the Smartphone’s camera (Fig.1) and for each obtained frame, the

level of light absorption that passes through pulsating capillary tissue was evaluated. The

volumetric variation of blood changes the light absorption allowing the PPG evaluation.
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Figure 1. Finger Position

There are many commercial applications that evaluate PR nowadays, such as Instant

Heart Rate, Pulse Rate, Runtastics Heart and many more. But all of these applications can only

be used for recreational purposes only or just for reference and cannot be used as a medical

tool because there are many factors that can affect its results that normal people don’t have

enough knowledge about, such as the positioning of the finger, its pressure towards the light

source etc.

This paper aims to create a more effective algorithm using a much more advance

processing technique in PR monitoring using applications using smartphone. By doing so, we

will be able to know whether a person has a high blood or low blood pressure. It will make

blood pressure monitoring convenient for people and prevent complications of blood pressure

problems which may lead to heart diseases through early detection.

This research is made so that it may help people especially the ones who have heart

problems that are under maintenance medicines to monitor their pulse rate or heart rate if they

are experiencing irregularities or in their system. It will benefit health conscious people who
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always want to check how their heart is doing in their everyday engagement in work and other

activities that requires physical strain.

This paper only tackles about the reliability of the evaluation of the PR by Smartphone.

Its validation is performed by comparing the PR obtained by different Smartphone models with

the Ambulatory Blood Pressure monitor (ABP) as reference of the results that we will acquire

in performing tests and experiments with the new algorithm of pulse rate monitoring

application using image processing in a Smartphone. ABP monitor is a validated medical

device used by medical practitioners all around the world for monitoring and a evaluating the

blood pressure of people and even animals. It’s a device that is proven and tested by many

health organizations around the world.

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REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Proper use of the device, system calibration, and PPG detection are parts of the

operation cycle when using a smartphone for PPG evaluation [2].

As the operation cycle begins, threshold values are set GLEDmin, GNOLEDmax, RLEDmin, RNOLEDmin,

Gmax, Bmax, σmax,which defines the conditions where the device is properly used, taking into

account the illumination, camera properties, LED usage and the user’s skin. Improper usage

such as finger displacement, change in force applied by the finger, and difference in the

lighting conditions leads to acquiring false results [2].

Table 1 shows the conditions of the frame in which the device is properly used [2].

LED No LED

mean(G) + σG≥ GLEDmin mean(G) + σG< GNOLEDmax

mean(R) – σR> RLEDmin mean(B) + σB< Bmax

mean(G) + σG< Gmax mean(R) > RNOLEDmin

mean(B) + σB < Bmax σR, σG, σB<σmax

σR, σG, σB<σmin

After verification that the frame complies with the conditions reflecting proper use of

the device, it successively undergoes system calibration by updating threshold values GLEDmin,

GNOLEDmax, RLEDmin, RNOLEDmin, Gmax, Bmax, σmax, based on the chromatic parameters from the taken

frames and establishes the value of threshold Thr to binarize the image.A circular red area

which fits the binarized image is then evaluated in the captured frame for the PPG value
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through its calculated radius since it is the only suitable component for PPG measurement

[2].

The centroid for the shape on binary mask is used to find the circle which is calculated

as:

If evaluation will exceed the boundary of the image from the centroid of the shape, the

exceeded values will not be recorded [2], thus making the average value of radius unaffected

as shown in the figure below:

Figure 2. Value of Radius

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The PR is evaluated according to the block scheme of Fig.3. Each pulse in the PPG

signal is constituted by two physiological peaks (Fig.3): the bigger one due to the heart pulse

and the little one due to the venous pulse [3]. To evaluate the PR only the heart peaks must

be considered [3]. To this aim a proper threshold (Tha) is established. In order to adapt the

threshold to the variation characteristics of the PPG signal, the Tha is established in the

adaptive manner, as:

𝑇𝑇𝑇 = {𝑇(𝑇𝑇𝑇), 𝑇(𝑇𝑇𝑇) > 10 10, 𝑇(𝑇𝑇𝑇) ≤ 10 ,

where 𝑇(PPG) is the standard deviation of the PPG signal.

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General Objective

The main aim of the project is to develop a device to be used for Taking a person's
pulse to direct measure of heart rate. A normal adult resting heart beat is between 60-100
heartbeats per minute. Some experienced athletes may see their resting heartrate fall below 60
beats per minute. Tachycardia refers to the heart beating too fast at rest - over 100 beats per
minute.

Specific Objectives

The project specifically aims to design the following:

 System gives information on real time pulse rate of a person

 LCD to display the status.
 Smartphone that remotely measure the pulse rate

Pulse Rate Monitoring using Smartphone

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Dela Cruz, Joshua

Dimalig, Richnell
Garcia, Kenneth Patrick
Placido, John Mathew
Ramchandani, Prem J
Satur, Dante Jr. P
Ventayen, Gabriel Paolo O.

Technological Institute of the Philippines

Manila

As of
October 19, 2017