In a noninvasive system for measurement of heart rate and other heart-related characteristics a photoplethysmogram (PPG) obtained from a tissue is divided into several feature waveforms, each corresponding to a PPG window of a particular length. Conditioned features, containing frequency components specific to heart-related events, are derived from the features by modulating a carrier kernel with such features. The conditioned features are computationally collided with one or more Zyotons that are co-dependent with the conditioned features. For each conditioned feature, one or more collisions selectively amplify frequency components in features sourced from PPG, and respective energy change values are obtained from such amplified energy portions. The resulting energy change values are analyzed to determine a smallest time-window likely containing heart rate and other heart-related events in the PPG data stream. Over time, the detected events are grouped and analyzed to determine heart rate and other heart-related characteristics.