APPARATUS FOR NON-TOUCH ESTIMATION OF VITAL SIGNS FROM IMAGES AND DETECTION OF BODY CORE TEMPERATURE FROM A DIGITAL INFRARED SENSOR AND BASED ON CUBIC RELATIONSHIP FACTORS

• US 20160073901A1
• Filed: 09/15/2014
• Published: 03/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ARC Devices, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: ARC Devices, Ltd.
• Inventors: Khachaturian, Mark, Smith, Michael G.
• Application Number:
  US14/485,796
• Publication Number:
  US 20160073901A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0223 of calibration, e.g. protocols for calibrating sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0252 using ambient temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2576/00 Medical imaging apparatus involving image processing or analysis A61B1/00009, A61B6/52 and A61B8/52 take precedence; image processing per se G06T; details of algorithms for analysing medical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0008 Temperature signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0013 Medical image data A61B1/00011, A61B6/56, A61B8/56 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0075 by spectroscopy, i.e. measuring spectra, e.g. Raman spectroscopy, infrared absorption spectroscopy A61B5/0071 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0082 adapted for particular medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/015 By temperature mapping of body part
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0261 using optical means, e.g. infrared light
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/486 Bio-feedback A61B5/375 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7225 Details of analog processing, e.g. isolation amplifier, gain or sensitivity adjustment, filtering, baseline or drift compensation A61B5/30, A61B5/316 take precedence; transformers for specific applications H01F38/00; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/725 using specific filters therefor, e.g. Kalman or adaptive filters A61B5/316 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7257 using Fourier transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 : Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7278 : Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesising signals from measured signals A61B5/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 : Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 : using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 : Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7445 : Display arrangements, e.g. multiple display units
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/025 : Interfacing a pyrometer to an external device or network; User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 7/42 : Circuits effecting compensation of thermal inertia; Circuits for predicting the stationary value of a temperature

Abstract

In one implementation, an apparatus estimates body core temperature from an infrared measurement of an external source point using a cubic relationship between the body core temperature and the measurement of an external source point is described. In another implementation, a non-touch biologic detector estimates temperature from a digital infrared sensor and determines vital signs from a solid-state image transducer. In another implementation, a non-touch biologic detector determines vital signs from a solid-state image transducer and estimates body core temperature from an infrared measurement of an external source point using a cubic relationship between the body core temperature and the measurement of an external source point.

Claims

1. An apparatus to estimate a body core temperature from an external source point, the apparatus comprising:

a housing;

a digital infrared sensor operably mounted to the housing, the digital infrared sensor being operable to receive electromagnetic energy from the external source point of a subject and operable to generate a numerical representation of the electromagnetic energy of the external source point;

a solid-state image transducer operably mounted to the housing and operable to generate at least two images;

an ambient air temperature sensor operably mounted to the housing and operable to generate a representation of an ambient air temperature reading;

a microprocessor mounted in the housing, electrically coupled to digital infrared sensor and the solid-state image transducer and including a temporal-variation-amplifier of at least two images that is operable to generate a temporal variation from the at least two images, a vital-sign generator that is operably coupled to the temporal-variation-amplifier that is operable to generate at least one vital sign from the temporal variation and the microprocessor being operable to estimate the body core temperature of the subject from the numerical representation of the electromagnetic energy of the external source point, wherein estimating the body core temperature of the subject further comprises;

calculating the body core temperature from the numerical representation of the electromagnetic energy of the external source point of the subject, a representation of the ambient air temperature reading, a representation of a calibration difference, and a representation of a bias in consideration of the temperature sensing mode,

wherein calculating the body core temperature is based on a cubic relationship representing three thermal ranges between the numerical representation of the electromagnetic energy of the external source point and the body core temperature, wherein the cubic relationship includes a coefficient representative of different relationships between the external source point and the body core temperature in the three thermal ranges;

a button operably coupled to the microprocessor; and

a display device operably coupled to the microprocessor that is operable to display the body core temperature and the at least one vital sign.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the external source point further comprises:

not more than one external source point.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display device further comprises:

a liquid-crystal display device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display device further comprises:

an LED color display device.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the LED color display device further comprises:

a green traffic light operable to indicate that the body core temperature is good;

an amber traffic light operable to indicate that the body core temperature is low; and

a red traffic light operable to indicate that the body core temperature is high.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a battery that is fixedly attached to the housing.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein an exterior portion of the housing further comprises:

a magnet.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the temporal-variation-amplifier further comprises:

a skin-pixel-identifier that identifies pixel values that are representative of the skin in the at least two images;

a first frequency filter that is operably coupled to the skin-pixel-identifier and that is applied to output of the skin-pixel-identifier;

a regional facial clusterial module that is operably coupled to the first frequency filter and that applies spatial clustering to the output of the first frequency filter; and

a second frequency filter that is operably regional facial clusterial module and that is applied to output of the regional facial clusterial module, generating the temporal variation.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the skin-pixel-identifier further comprises:

an automatic seed point based clustering apparatus.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:

a storage device that is operably coupled to the vital-sign generator and that is operable to store the at least one vital sign in a volatile memory.

11. An apparatus to estimate a body core temperature from an external source point, the apparatus comprising:

a housing;

a digital infrared sensor operably mounted to the housing, the digital infrared sensor being operable to receive electromagnetic energy from the external source point of a subject and operable to generate a numerical representation of the electromagnetic energy of the external source point;

a solid-state image transducer operably mounted to the housing and operable to generate at least two images;

an ambient air temperature sensor operably mounted to the housing and operable to generate a representation of an ambient air temperature reading;

a microprocessor mounted in the housing, electrically coupled to digital infrared sensor and the solid-state image transducer and including a temporal-variation-amplifier of at least two images that is operable to generate a temporal variation from the at least two images, a vital-sign generator that is operably coupled to the temporal-variation-amplifier that is operable to generate at least one vital sign from the temporal variation and the microprocessor being operable to estimate the body core temperature of the subject from the numerical representation of the electromagnetic energy of the external source point, wherein estimating the body core temperature of the subject further comprises;

calculating the body core temperature from the numerical representation of the electromagnetic energy of the external source point of the subject, a representation of the ambient air temperature reading, a representation of a calibration difference, and a representation of a bias in consideration of the temperature sensing mode,

wherein calculating the body core temperature is based on a cubic relationship representing three thermal ranges between the numerical representation of the electromagnetic energy of the external source point and the body core temperature, wherein the cubic relationship includes a coefficient representative of different relationships between the external source point and the body core temperature in the three thermal ranges;

a button operably coupled to the microprocessor; and

a display device operably coupled to the microprocessor that is operable to display the body core temperature and the at least one vital sign.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the external source point further comprises:

not more than one external source point.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the display device further comprises:

a liquid-crystal display device.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the display device further comprises:

an LED color display device.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the LED color display device further comprises:

a green traffic light operable to indicate that the body core temperature is good;

an amber traffic light operable to indicate that the body core temperature is low; and

a red traffic light operable to indicate that the body core temperature is high.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising:

a battery that is fixedly attached to the housing.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein an exterior portion of the housing further comprises:

a magnet.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the temporal-variation-amplifier further comprises:

a skin-pixel-identifier that identifies pixel values that are representative of the skin in the at least two images;

a first frequency filter that is operably coupled to the skin-pixel-identifier and that is applied to output of the skin-pixel-identifier;

a regional facial clusterial module that is operably coupled to the first frequency filter and that applies spatial clustering to the output of the first frequency filter; and

a second frequency filter that is operably regional facial clusterial module and that is applied to output of the regional facial clusterial module, generating the temporal variation.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the skin-pixel-identifier further comprises:

an automatic seed point based clustering apparatus.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising:

a storage device that is operably coupled to the vital-sign generator and that is operable to store the at least one vital sign in a volatile memory.