Accuracy of heart rate, pulse oxygen saturation, and blood pressure using a non-contact photoplethysmography-based mobile application: A potential tool for wellness monitoring

Background: Photoplethysmography (PPG) is an effective non-contact technique for measuring vital signs. This report aims to evaluate whether a non-contact PPG-based mobile application supports an appropriate level of accuracy in monitoring SpO2, HR, and BP, compared against clinically approved medical devices. Methods: Adult volunteers (≥18 years, both male and female) were consecutively enrolled from September to November 2024. Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) for data collection involves recording subjects’ faces using the front camera of mobile devices for ∼1.5 minutes. Simultaneously, vital signs will be continuously collected for about 1.5 minutes using the reference devices alongside data collected via the comestai application. Results: A total of 562 participants (279 F/283 M) were enrolled. The app demonstrated excellent accuracy for HR (MAE 2.96, MAPE 4.14, and accuracy 99.1%) and SpO2 (MAE 2.10, MAPE 2.12, and accuracy 93.4%; no participants with SpO2 < 95% were not present). Results for systolic blood pressure (SBP) (MAE 14.24, MAPE 11.33, and accuracy 61.3%) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (MAE 9.83, MAPE 11.66, and accuracy 56.0%) were more moderate. The ROC curve analysis confirmed the app’s robust detection capabilities for HR (AUC 0.976) and SpO2 (AUC 0.947), while showing fair performance for SBP (AUC 0.668) and weaker results for DBP (AUC 0.578). Bland-Altman plots revealed mean differences of −0.83 for HR, 1.84 for SpO2, −4.49 for SBP, and 2.54 for DBP compared to conventional methods. Conclusions: The non-contact PPG-based mobile app holds promise as an accessible, user-friendly tool for wellness monitoring. Solutions like comestai.app present both new opportunities and challenges in the wellness sector, emphasizing the need for continued research in this field.