Noncontact measurement of emotional and physiological changes in heart rate from a webcam

Madan, Christopher R.; Harrison, Tyler; Mathewson, Kyle E.

Abstract

© 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research Heart rate, measured in beats per minute, 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—that is, viewing arousing images and sitting versus 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, and blood pulse oximetry, and heart rate estimates obtained from the webcam. We thus suggest webcams can be used as a noninvasive and readily available method for measuring psychophysiological changes, easily integrated into existing stimulus presentation software and hardware setups.

Citation

Madan, C. R., Harrison, T., & Mathewson, K. E. (2018). Noncontact measurement of emotional and physiological changes in heart rate from a webcam. Psychophysiology, 55(4), e13005. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 8, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Sep 21, 2017
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 13, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 22, 2018
• Journal: Psychophysiology
• Print ISSN: 0048-5772
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-8986
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 4
• Pages: e13005
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13005
• Keywords: heart rate; webcam; autonomic activity; emotion; arousal
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/920000
• Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psyp.13005/full
• Additional Information: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Madan CR, Harrison T, Mathewson KE. Noncontact measurement of emotional and physiological changes in heart rate from a webcam. Psychophysiology. 2017;00:1–12, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13005. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
• Contract Date: Sep 13, 2017