The present invention relates to a device and a method for extracting information from remotely detected characteristic signals. A data stream (24) derivable from electromagnetic radiation (14) emitted or reflected by an object (12) is received. The data stream (24) comprises a sequence of frames (66, 70, 92, 94; 108, 110, 112, 122, 124; 164, 66, 168), at least some of the frames comprise a frame section (68, 72; 174, 180, 186) 5 representative of a region of interest (56) attributable to the object (12). The region of interest (56) exhibits a continuous or discrete characteristic signal (136; 192) including physiological information (200) indicative of at least one at least partially periodic vital signal (20; 208). The sequence of frames (66, 70, 92, 94; 108, 110, 112, 122, 124; 164, 166, 168) further comprises a disturbing signal portion at least partially indicative of undesired object motion. 10 The characteristic signal (136; 192) can be stabilized by deriving a derivative signal form (78, 88, 98, 100, 102; 172, 176) from at least some frames of said sequence of frames (66, 70, 92, 94; 108, 110, 112, 122, 124; 164, 166, 168) through a dimensional reduction. A positional shift (74, 178) of a present derivative signal form (88, 98, 100, 102; 176) relative to a previous derivative signal form (78, 172) can be estimated. A present frame section (72; 180, 186) can be determined under consideration of the estimated positional shift (74, 178). Hence, the region of interest (56) can be tracked for at least partially compensating undesired object motion. Consequently, the disturbing signal portion can be at least partially compensated. The characteristic signal (136; 192) can be extracted from the sequence of frames (66, 70, 92, 94; 108, 110, 112, 122, 124; 164, 166, 168) under consideration of a sequence of determined frame sections (68, 72; 174, 180, 186).