A novel non-contact heart rate measurement method based on EEMD combined with FastICA

Abstract

Objective. The imaging photoplethysmography (IPPG), which is applied to heart rate measurement, is susceptible to interference caused by illumination variations during photography. To improve the accuracy, robustness, and real-time performance of IPPG, a new method combined with modified ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and fast independent component analysis (FastICA) was proposed. Approach. On the modified EEMD, to reduce the error caused by the residual white noise of the algorithm, it was characterized by recurrently updating zero-mean white noise for ensemble averaging based on the standard deviation of the input signal. On the modified FastICA, its constructed nonlinear function was superseded by Huber’s approximation function to improve the robustness and running speed. Main results. Comparison experiments were conducted between the MAHNOB-HCI database and own collected data. In the hybrid natural light and computer screen light scenario, the mean absolute error (MAE) of heart rate amounted to 0.93 beats per minute and the correlation coefficient reached 0.85. In the experiments of MAHNOB-HCI database, the MAE amounted to 6.03 beats per minute and the correlation coefficient reached 0.75. Furthermore, the modified method decreased the running time by approximately ten times compared to the original algorithms. Significance. Various experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method significantly improves the accuracy, timeliness, and interference resistance.