Patent ID: 8542877

Claim:
Method of processing images of at least one living being including: obtaining a sequence ( 19 ) of digital images taken at consecutive points in time; automatically selecting at least one measurement zone ( 26 ) comprising a plurality of image points, wherein the step ( 25 ) of selecting at least one measurement zone ( 26 ) includes analyzing information based on pixel data of a plurality of image parts in at least one of the images ( 19 ), each image part including at least one image point, and selecting each measurement zone ( 26 ) from contiguous image parts determined to have similar characteristics; and for each measurement zone ( 26 ), obtaining a signal ( 28 , 30 ) representative of at least variations in a time-varying average value of a combination of pixel values at at least a number of the image points for use in determining at least one of a presence and a frequency value of at least one peak in a spectrum of the signal ( 28 , 30 ) corresponding to a frequency of a periodic physiological phenomenon.