Piotr Augustyniak

AGH University of Science and Technology

About Presenter
Piotr Augustyniak, DSc graduated in 1989 from the Electrical Engineering Department AGH-University of Krakow, and since 2016 wotks there as a full professor. He also worked at Aspel company a leading manufacturer of ECG interpretive recorders in years 1998-2008. Since 2018 he is the head of Department of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering. In years 2018-2024 he was Chair of Biomedical Engineering Discipline Board at AGH UoK and Since 2020 he is member of the Polish Council for Scientific Excellence, currently Chair of the working group in field of Technical and Engineering Sciences. His scientific interests include hardware and software problems of biosignal processing, currently he is working on perceptual model of electrocardiogram and data-dependent signal representation. He prototyped four acquisition and analysis systems for electrocardiography, electrooculography and electroencephalography.
Title of presentation
Heart Rate Monitoring in Free Runners from a Flying Drone
Focus Areas

Future of Prevention: Living Longer, Living Better

Objective: Discover how prevention is reshaping global health and everyday well-being.

Introduction: the Problem

The advancement of preventive medicine and, subsequently, telemedicine drives the need for noninvasive and remote measurements in patients’ natural environments. Heart rate (HR) measurements are particularly promising and extensively researched due to their quick assessment and comprehensive representation of patients’ conditions. However, in scenarios such as endurance training or emergencies, where HR measurement was not anticipated and direct access to victims is limited, no method enables obtaining HR results that are suitable even for triage.

Collaboration Offer
We demonstrate the possibility of remotely measuring of human HR from a series of in-flight videos using videoplethysmography (VPG) along with skin detection, human pose estimation and image stabilization methods. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a camera captured ten segments of video footage featuring volunteers engaged in free walking and running activities in natural sunlight. Various methods were used to detect, track and stabilize the humen image in motion. The results were found acceptable for touchless human pulse measurement with the accompanying UAV-mounted camera. The method bridges the gap between HR-transmitting wearables and emergency HR recorders, and it has the potential to be advantageous in training or rescue scenarios in mountain, water, disaster, or battlefield settings.