4 ms·

I like how this kind of turns the "main idea" of computer vision on its head. Namely, instead of trying to emulate and catch up to human abilities, it augments

by fferen 14y ago

I like how this kind of turns the "main idea" of computer vision on its head. Namely, instead of trying to emulate and catch up to human abilities, it augments them the way only a computer can; it plays to computers' strengths instead of their weaknesses. Also, who would have thought you can determine someone's pulse just by looking at the color change of the face due to blood rushing in and out? If asked beforehand, I wouldn't have even said it was theoretically (physically) possible.

wxs 14y ago
I also found it very surprising that cameras could pick these things up, there's actually an iPhone app from Philips that claims to be able to be able to read heart-rate, I assumed it was snake-oil at first : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vital-signs-camera-philips/id474433446?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vital-signs-camera-philips/id...
- gmurphy 14y ago
  I was skeptical too, but when I tried this app a few months ago, I compared it to my Garmin heart rate monitor at rest and after exercise - they were usually within 1bpm of each other. I was very impressed.
jasonwatkinspdx 14y ago
There is so much faint and indirect information in the world it's dumbfounding. We're crossing a threshold where computation can make this visible. It's really exciting.
zher 14y ago
Yes, it's hard to believe, but it's really possible to sense the small color changes due to blood flow in the face using cameras. My earlier work described how you just need a simple webcam :)(http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/pulse-camera-1004.html http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/pulse-camera-1004.html). As a result, I'm working on Cardiio (http://cardiio.com http://cardiio.com) to bring this technology to both the web and mobile very soon. If you're interested in computer vision based biosensing, please sign up!
- Sidnicious 14y ago
  That’s awesome! Hmm, when I tried to sign up I got a message that I was already on the waiting list. EDIT: It looks like the page is making a request to cardiio.com, specifically, and if you’re at www.cardiio.com (the one you linked to) the response gets blocked by Same Origin Policy, and the page treats it the same as a you’re-already-on-the-list response. You might want to avoid hardcoding the hostname in the JS, and/or force everyone over to the www or non-www domain.
  - zher 14y ago
    thanks for catching that!
- taliesinb 14y ago
  That sounds awesome. But from a scientific point of view, you don't really need spatial resolution for the heartbeat example, though, do you? If you just spent the same amount of money on getting high temporal and spectral resolution, surely one could do very cool things with 'just one pixel', so to speak. Especially if you had say 16 different wavelengths, instead of just 3.
  - carlob 14y ago
    For increased temporal resolution you can just the rolling shutter with off-the-shelf hardware I guess.
  - kolinko 14y ago
    If the face of a "patient" was tied to his bed, and light wasn't changing, and there was no movement around (i.e. in ideal conditions), then yeah. But in the real world scenarios you want to take a look at more than one pixel, and use the rest of the picture for noise reduction & calibration. That is for heartbeat. But yes, with better spectral resolution you might get some other cool data.
- FrojoS 14y ago
  Congratulations for, what seems to me, opening up the door [1] to a new world of CV applications! And of course for having the courage to commercialize it while your academic career is taking off. [1] famous illustration from the enlightenment: http://www.lehrer.uni-karlsruhe.de/~za874/homepage/aufklaerung1.jpg http://www.lehrer.uni-karlsruhe.de/~za874/homepage/aufklaeru...
thisrod 14y ago
Pulse oximeters work by looking at the fingernails, and they're the usual way to measure a pulse. There's a lot of blood flow in the face - try bumping into something sharp - so this isn't too surprising.
- pygy_ 14y ago
  A Pulse oximeter doesn't measure the spontaneous signal. There's a red/infrared led on one side of the finger, a detector on the other side, and it measures the amount of light absorbed by the blood.

by fferen 14y ago

wxs 14y ago

I also found it very surprising that cameras could pick these things up, there's actually an iPhone app from Philips that claims to be able to be able to read heart-rate, I assumed it was snake-oil at first : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vital-signs-camera-philips/id474433446?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vital-signs-camera-philips/id...

gmurphy 14y ago
I was skeptical too, but when I tried this app a few months ago, I compared it to my Garmin heart rate monitor at rest and after exercise - they were usually within 1bpm of each other. I was very impressed.

jasonwatkinspdx 14y ago

There is so much faint and indirect information in the world it's dumbfounding. We're crossing a threshold where computation can make this visible. It's really exciting.

zher 14y ago

Yes, it's hard to believe, but it's really possible to sense the small color changes due to blood flow in the face using cameras. My earlier work described how you just need a simple webcam :)(http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/pulse-camera-1004.html http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/pulse-camera-1004.html). As a result, I'm working on Cardiio (http://cardiio.com http://cardiio.com) to bring this technology to both the web and mobile very soon. If you're interested in computer vision based biosensing, please sign up!

Sidnicious 14y ago
That’s awesome! Hmm, when I tried to sign up I got a message that I was already on the waiting list. EDIT: It looks like the page is making a request to cardiio.com, specifically, and if you’re at www.cardiio.com (the one you linked to) the response gets blocked by Same Origin Policy, and the page treats it the same as a you’re-already-on-the-list response. You might want to avoid hardcoding the hostname in the JS, and/or force everyone over to the www or non-www domain.
- zher 14y ago
  thanks for catching that!
taliesinb 14y ago
That sounds awesome. But from a scientific point of view, you don't really need spatial resolution for the heartbeat example, though, do you? If you just spent the same amount of money on getting high temporal and spectral resolution, surely one could do very cool things with 'just one pixel', so to speak. Especially if you had say 16 different wavelengths, instead of just 3.
- carlob 14y ago
  For increased temporal resolution you can just the rolling shutter with off-the-shelf hardware I guess.
- kolinko 14y ago
  If the face of a "patient" was tied to his bed, and light wasn't changing, and there was no movement around (i.e. in ideal conditions), then yeah. But in the real world scenarios you want to take a look at more than one pixel, and use the rest of the picture for noise reduction & calibration. That is for heartbeat. But yes, with better spectral resolution you might get some other cool data.
FrojoS 14y ago
Congratulations for, what seems to me, opening up the door [1] to a new world of CV applications! And of course for having the courage to commercialize it while your academic career is taking off. [1] famous illustration from the enlightenment: http://www.lehrer.uni-karlsruhe.de/~za874/homepage/aufklaerung1.jpg http://www.lehrer.uni-karlsruhe.de/~za874/homepage/aufklaeru...

thisrod 14y ago

Pulse oximeters work by looking at the fingernails, and they're the usual way to measure a pulse. There's a lot of blood flow in the face - try bumping into something sharp - so this isn't too surprising.

pygy_ 14y ago
A Pulse oximeter doesn't measure the spontaneous signal. There's a red/infrared led on one side of the finger, a detector on the other side, and it measures the amount of light absorbed by the blood.