Method of analyzing, displaying, organizing and responding to vital signals

• US 20160210747A1
• Filed: 12/09/2015
• Published: 07/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RDI Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: RDI Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Hay, Jeffrey R., Johns, Jenna L.
• Granted Patent: US 10,108,325 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• 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 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0816 Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/165 Evaluating the state of mind, e.g. depression, anxiety
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7435 Displaying user selection data, e.g. icons in a graphical user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/028 Material parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/44 Processing the detected response signal , e.g. electronic circuits specially adapted therefor digital signal processing per se G06F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7335 Graphical querying, e.g. query-by-region, query-by-sketch, query-by-trajectory, GUIs for designating a person/face/object as a query predicate end-user interface involving hot spots associated with the video H04N21/4725; end-user interface for selecting a Region of Interest H04N21/4728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20056 Discrete and fast Fourier transform, [DFT, FFT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20216 Image averaging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30164 Workpiece; Machine component
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0016 involving temporal comparison
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/248 involving reference images or patches
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/262 : using transform domain methods, e.g. Fourier domain methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 : Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 : Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 : Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A system for monitoring vital signs includes: an imaging device for acquiring video image files of a living individual; a data analysis system including a processor and memory; a computer program running in the data analysis system to automatically analyze the video images, autonomously identify an area in the images where periodic movements associated with a selected vital sign may be detected and quantified; and, an interface that outputs an electrical signal corresponding to the waveform of the selected vital sign. The system may include a Graphical User Interface, which may display a visual graph of the waveform and a single video frame or a video stream of the individual.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring vital signs comprising:

an imaging device for acquiring video image files of a living individual;

a data analysis system including a processor and memory;

a computer program running in said data analysis system to automatically analyze said video images, autonomously identify an area in the images where periodic movements associated with a selected vital sign may be detected and quantified; and

,

an interface that outputs an electrical signal corresponding to the waveform of said selected vital sign.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said imaging device is selected from the group consisting of:

video cameras, optical sensors, IR sensors, smart phones, webcams, and digital microscopes.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said computer program detects said periodic movements by an adaptive array comparison procedure in which:

starting with a first frame [F₀], the intensity at each respective pixel in the frame is subtracted from its intensity in frame [F_0+x], where x is an integer, the intensities in frame [F_0+x] are subtracted from those in frame [F_0+2x], . . . until reaching a selected end point at frame [F_0+nx] where n is an integer and the product nx is less than the total number of frames in said video file;

the resulting frame differences are summed for each pixel;

the process is repeated for at least two unique values of x, so that an optimal frame spacing x yielding the greatest difference may be found; and

,

a selected number of pixels having the greatest frame-to-frame intensity difference are monitored to determine the rate of said periodic movements.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said program repeats the adaptive array comparison procedure with other selected starting frames, to determine the phase of said periodic movement.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said interface outputs an analog voltage corresponding to said waveform.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said interface includes an A/D convertor to output a digital signal corresponding to said waveform.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said interface comprises a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said GUI displays data corresponding to said vital sign.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said GUI further displays an image from said video file.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said GUI allows a user to select a particular point in time and said GUI displays the value of said vital sign and the video frame corresponding to said selected time

11. The system of claim 9 wherein said GUI allows a user to replay data starting at a selected time so that said user may simultaneously view the video stream and the corresponding vital sign simultaneously.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein said GUI allows a user to define a perimeter within the video frame and said data analysis system monitors movements within said user-defined perimeter.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein said GUI allows a user to define a plurality of discrete areas within the video frame, each with a separate perimeter, and said data analysis system monitors movements within each respective perimeter independently.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein said vital sign is selected from the group consisting of:

respiration rate;

respiration effort;

respiration waveform;

pulse rate;

pulse waveform;

pulse transit time;

temperature;

sleep quality index; and

state of stress.

15. A system for monitoring vital signs comprising:

an imaging device for acquiring video image files of a living individual;

a data analysis system including a processor and memory;

a computer program running in said data analysis system to automatically analyze said video images, autonomously identify an area in the images where periodic movements associated with a selected vital sign may be detected and quantified, wherein said computer program detects said periodic movements by an adaptive array comparison procedure in which;

starting with a first frame [F₀], the intensity at each respective pixel in the frame is subtracted from its intensity in frame [F_0+x], where x is an integer, the intensities in frame [F_0+x] are subtracted from those in frame [F_0+2x], . . . until reaching a selected end point at frame [F_0+nx] where n is an integer and the product nx is less than the total number of frames in said video file;

the resulting frame differences are summed for each pixel;

the process is repeated for at least two unique values of x, so that an optimal frame spacing x yielding the greatest difference may be found; and

,

a selected number of pixels having the greatest frame-to-frame intensity difference are monitored to determine the rate of said periodic movements; and

,

an interface that outputs an electrical signal corresponding to the waveform of said selected vital sign.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said program repeats the frame differencing procedure with other selected starting frames, to determine the phase of said periodic movement.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein said interface produces an output type selected from the group consisting of:

an analog voltage corresponding to said waveform;

an analog current corresponding to said waveform;

a digital signal corresponding to said waveform; and

a visual display of said waveform on a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

18. The system of claim 17 wherein said GUI further displays an image from said video file.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein said GUI allows a user to select a particular time interval and said GUI displays the value of said vital sign and the video image(s) corresponding to said selected time interval.

20. A method for automatically detecting periodic movements in a video by an adaptive array comparison procedure in which:

starting with a first frame [F₀], the intensity at each respective pixel in the frame is subtracted from its intensity in frame [F_0+x], where x is an integer, the intensities in frame [F_0+x] are subtracted from those in frame [F_0+2x], . . . until reaching a selected end point at frame [F_0+nx] where n is an integer and the product nx is less than the total number of frames in said video file;

summing the resulting frame differences for each pixel;

repeating the process for at least two unique values of x, so that an optimal frame spacing x yielding the greatest difference may be found; and

,

monitoring a selected number of pixels having the greatest frame-to-frame intensity difference to determine the rate of said periodic movements.