A calibration method for smartphone camera photophlethysmography

Abstract

Smartphone camera photoplethysmography (cPPG) enables non-invasive pulse oximetry and hemoglobin concentration measurements. However, the aesthetic-driven non-linearity in default image capture and preprocessing pipelines poses challenges for consistency and transferability of cPPG across devices. This work identifies two key parameters—tone mapping and sensor threshold—that significantly impact cPPG measurements. We propose a novel calibration method to linearize camera measurements, thus enhancing consistency and transferability of cPPG across devices. A benchtop calibration system is also presented, leveraging a microcontroller and LED setup to characterize these parameters for each phone model. Our validation studies demonstrate that, with appropriate calibration and camera settings, cPPG applications can achieve 74% higher accuracy than with default settings. Moreover, our calibration method proves effective across different smartphone models (N=4), and calibrations performed on one phone can be applied to other smartphones of the same model (N=6), enhancing consistency and scalability of cPPG applications.