Method for evaluation of photoplethysmography signal pulses

A method of evaluating a detected pulse in a Photoplethysmography, PPG, signal in a PPG signal measurement, comprising the steps of

• (a) receiving the PPG signal comprising a plurality of pulses;
• (b) extracting pulses from the received PPG signal;
• (c) providing a plurality of predetermined pulse templates comprising at least two predetermined pulse templates defining different pulse shapes of PPG pulses;
• (d) selecting one or more pulse templates out of the provided predetermined pulse templates;
• (e) adapting the selected one or more pulse templates to the shape of a first pulse out of the identified pulses in the PPG signal;
• (f) performing a morphological comparison between the first pulse and the adapted one or more pulse templates to provide a quantification of the difference between the first pulse and each of the adapted one or more pulse templates;
• and
• (g) evaluating the detected pulse based on the quantification of the difference between the first pulse and each of the adapted one or more pulse templates;
• wherein the step of (f) performing a morphological comparison comprises the steps of
• (f1) performing a Dynamic Time Warping, DTW, stretch of the first pulse,
• (f2) determining a difference in area (AD) under the curve of the DTW stretched first pulse and the curve of each of the adapted one or more pulse templates, and
• (f3) comparing the difference in area (AD) with a predetermined threshold.