Instructions-to-use.txt

Webcam Pulse Detector:

How to start:
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Just run the unzipped application directly.

Instructions:
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- When run, a window will open showing a stream from your computer's webcam. To switch to another connected camera, press “C”.

- When a forehead location has been correctly detected and isolated, the user should press "S" on their
keyboard to lock this location, and remain as still as possible (the camera
stream window must have focus for the click to register). This freezes the acquisition location in place. This lock can
be released by pressing "S" again.

- To view a stream of the measured data as it is gathered, press "D". To hide this display, press "D" again.

- The data display shows three data traces, from top to bottom:
   1. (top) raw optical intensity
   2. (bottom) Power spectral density, with local maxima indicating the heartrate (in beats per minute).

- With consistent lighting and minimal head motion, a stable heartbeat should be
isolated in about 15 seconds. A count-down is shown in the image frame.

Setting up serial port or UDP data output:
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The bundled application can be run with command line arguments for specifying
a serial port or UDP server to output the estimated heart rate, in real time.

For serial port output, the port and baud rate are set separately.

For UDP, the ip and port are set together, but delimited by a ":".

Example usage (serial port, Windows):
      get_pulse.exe --serial COM5 --baud 9600

Example usage (serial port, Mac OSX):
      open -n ./get_pulse.app --args -serial /dev/tty.usbmodemfa131

Example usage (UDP, Windows):
      get_pulse.exe --udp 192.168.1.100:5050

Example usage (UDP, Mac OSX):
      open -n ./get_pulse.app --args --udp 192.168.1.100:5050