A Webcam Pulse Detector Shows the Signs of Your Life With Your PC’s Camera
Windows / OS X: Your computer’s webcam can be useful for more than just taking quick photos and video calls. Webcam Pulse Detector is a fun open source application originally developed by NASA to use a connected camera to measure your heart rate. Now you can try it at home.
The utility is easy to use. Just grab the executable and run it. It is a stand-alone Python application, so it doesn’t need any dependencies or other files to work. Once you open it, you will see your camera and it will ask you to direct your face into the field of view to correct your face and forehead. When it’s in the correct position, press S to lock your face and watch the app take a reading. You even get a small graph (if you press D) that shows your heart rate over the time you opened the app.
It’s not ideal at all, to be honest. My readings tended to be particularly low (possibly harder with darker skinned people), but for others it worked pretty well. The webcam pulse detector is available for OS X and Windows as precompiled binaries, and a Linux version is coming soon. You can check the project home page (and download it to try it yourself) below.
Webcam Pulse Detector | Github
Thanks to Michael Hand for the feedback!