Japanese vendor has announced a technology that it says measures a person’s pulse in real time using the built-in camera or webcam in a smartphone, tablet or PC.

The technology does not require any additional hardware and claims to measure an individual’s pulse rate by pointing a camera at them for a minimum of five seconds.

Among the potential applications are health monitoring, said the vendor, which wants to put the technology to practical use in fiscal 2013 by building it into devices

The technology measures variations in the brightness of a person’s face caused by the flow of blood. It is based on the fact that haemoglobin in blood absorbs green light.

Initially, video of the subject is shot and then average values for the colour components (red/green/blue) in a certain area of the face for each frame is calculated.

Then the technology removes any irrelevant signal data present in all three colour components and extracts the brightness waveform from the green component. The pulse rate is then calculated using the peaks in the brightness waveform.

Fujitsu says movements of the face or body, which could adversely affect the acquired pulse rate, are removed. This makes it possible to continually monitor an individual’s pulse throughout a day while minimising any impact from confusing data.