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Non-contact measurement of emotional and physiological changes in heart rate from a webcam

View ORCID ProfileChristopher R. Madan, Tyler Harrison, View ORCID ProfileKyle E. Mathewson
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/179812
Christopher R. Madan
1Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
3Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
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  • For correspondence: madanc@bc.edu
Tyler Harrison
1Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
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Kyle E. Mathewson
1Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
2Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
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Abstract

Heart rate, measured in beats per minute (BPM), can be used as an index of an individual’s physiological state. Each time the heart beats, blood is expelled and travels through the body. This blood flow can be detected in the face using a standard webcam that is able to pick up subtle changes in color that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Due to the light absorption spectrum of blood, we are able to detect differences in the amount of light absorbed by the blood traveling just below the skin (i.e., photoplethysmography). By modulating emotional and physiological stress—i.e., viewing arousing images and sitting vs. standing, respectively—to elicit changes in heart rate, we explored the feasibility of using a webcam as a psychophysiological measurement of autonomic activity. We found a high level of agreement between established physiological measures, electrocardiogram (ECG), and blood pulse oximetry, and heart rate estimates obtained from the webcam. We thus suggest webcams can be used as a non-invasive and readily available method for measuring psychophysiological changes, easily integrated into existing stimulus presentation software and hardware setups.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted August 23, 2017.
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Non-contact measurement of emotional and physiological changes in heart rate from a webcam
Christopher R. Madan, Tyler Harrison, Kyle E. Mathewson
bioRxiv 179812; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/179812
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Non-contact measurement of emotional and physiological changes in heart rate from a webcam
Christopher R. Madan, Tyler Harrison, Kyle E. Mathewson
bioRxiv 179812; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/179812

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