The present invention relates to a device and a method for extracting information from detected characteristic signals. A data stream (26； 124a, 124b, 124c) derivable from electromagnetic radiation (14) emitted or reflected by an object (12) is received. The data stream (26) comprises a continuous or discrete characteristic signal (76； 32a, 132b, 132c) including physiological information (100) and a disturbing signal portion 5 (94). The physiological information (100) is representative of at least one at least partially periodic vital signal (20； 156). The disturbing signal portion (94) is representative of at least one of an object motion portion and/or a non-indicative reflection portion. The characteristic signal (76； 132a, 132b, 132c) is transferred by converting at least three absolute components (92a, 92b, 92c) of the characteristic signal (76； 132a, 132b, 132c) related to respective 10 additive channels (74a, 74b, 74c) to at least two difference components (102； 142a, 142b) of the characteristic signal (76； 132a, 132b, 132c), wherein each of the at least two difference components (102； 142a, 142b) can be derived through a respective arithmetic transformation considering at least two of the at least three absolute components (92a, 92b, 92c), wherein the arithmetic transformation comprises additive and subtractive coefficients. Consequently, the 1 disturbing signal portion (94) can beat least partially suppressed in the transferred signal (32； 50).
