Remote Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability Detection and Monitoring from Face Video with Minimum Resources

This paper describes a cloud-based heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) monitor, which can monitor an individual's heart rate and heart rate variability using minimal resources at the user's end. This HR and HRV monitor does not involve any contact sensors or costly medical equipment, and it does not require a high-definition camera to video record the user's face. This HR and HRV monitoring system simply requires the webcam of a personal computer or the camera of a mobile device such as a cell phone or tablet in order to video record the face of the user. The system utilizes the resources of the user's device while recording and encoding the video segments before transferring them to a server. All the processes to calculate the HR and HRV occur at the server.