EMPD: An Event-based Multimodal Physiological Dataset for Remote Pulse Wave Detection (Part 3 of 9)

Note: Due to file size limits and international network stability, this dataset is divided into 9 independent parts. (Note on filename: The physical archive files are named EPMD_Part_xx, which corresponds to this EMPD dataset). Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) based on traditional frame-based cameras often struggles with motion artifacts and limited temporal resolution. To address these limitations, we introduce EMPD (Event-based Multimodal Physiological Dataset), the first benchmark dataset specifically designed for non-contact physiological sensing via event cameras. The dataset leverages a laser-assisted acquisition system where a high-coherence laser modulates subtle skin vibrations from the radial artery into significant signals detectable by a neuromorphic sensor. The hardware platform integrates a high-resolution event camera to capture micro-motions and intensity transients, an industrial RGB camera to provide traditional rPPG benchmarks, and a clinical-grade pulse oximeter to record ground truth PPG waveforms. EMPD contains 193 valid multimodal recordings (68 seconds each) collected from 83 subjects, covering a wide heart rate range (40–110 BPM) under both resting and post-exercise conditions. By providing precisely synchronized multimodal data with microsecond-level temporal precision, EMPD serves as a crucial resource for developing robust algorithms in the field of neuromorphic physiological monitoring. Detailed Hardware Specifications: Wrist Event Streams: Captured using a high-speed event camera (Prophesee EVK4) focusing on the radial artery region, with a spatial resolution of 1280 × 720 and a timestamp precision of 1 µs. A low-power continuous-wave laser pointer (660 nm) is used as an active illumination source. Facial RGB Videos: Recorded using an industrial-grade RGB camera (FLIR BFS-U3-31S4C-C) at an original resolution of 2048 × 1536 and 30 Hz (downsampled and compressed to 640 × 480). Ground-Truth PPG: High-fidelity contact-based PPG waveforms and heart rate recorded synchronously at 60Hz using a clinically validated finger-clip pulse oximeter (CONTEC CMS50E). Metadata & Labels: The global metadata file is available in Part 1. It includes Label (0: Resting, 1: Post-exercise), Gender (0: Male, 1: Female), and Participant IDs.