Contractility estimation of cardiac myocyte is important for power evaluation of the cell in heart performance. In this paper, we used digital image correlation (DIC) method to obtain dynamic deformation field of the flexible substrate distributively actuated by single cardiac myocyte, which resulted in the dynamic history of traction forces of the cell during contraction-relaxation cycles. Furthermore, the resultant work and power of the single neonatal cardiac myocyte was evaluated to show the energy characteristics of the cells and the responses to the stiffness variation of the substrate. The method provides a useful tool to study behaviors of the cardiac myocytes interacted with the substrates. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.