Comparative study and analysis of pulse rate measurement by vowel speech and EVM

Abstract

The paper presents two noncontact pulse rate measurement techniques from vowel speech signals and Eulerian Video Magnification. The proposed methods use signals those are neither audible nor visible to naked eyes. The signals are recorded and their characteristic plots and spectrum analysis by Short-Time Fourier Transform reveal some peaks from which pulse rate can be calculated. The methods are then compared with the conventional methods where the accuracy differs by only 3.9% for vowel speech and by 0.4% for Eulerian Video Magnification. The Bland–Altman plot for the techniques shows that both are acceptable as they lie between ±1.96 Standard Deviation. The data collected from the methods are processed in MATLAB and also implemented on FPGA using serial communication by RS232.