SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING THREE DIMENSIONAL INFRARED IMAGING TO PROVIDE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES OF INDIVIDUALS

• US 20100191124A1
• Filed: 04/15/2008
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Francine J. Prokoski
• Original Assignee: Francine J. Prokoski
• Inventors: Prokoski, Francine J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,918,162 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/473
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0064 Body surface scanning
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0086 using infrared radiation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/015 By temperature mapping of body part
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1077 Measuring of profiles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/411 Detecting or monitoring allergy or intolerance reactions to an allergenic agent or substance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/415 the glands, e.g. tonsils, adenoids or thymus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/418 lymph vessels, ducts or nodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4519 Muscles A61B5/389, A61B5/224 take precedence
• 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: G01K 13/20 Clinical contact thermometers for use with humans or animals
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

Calibrated infrared and range imaging sensors are used to produce a true-metric three-dimensional (3D) surface model of any body region within the fields of view of both sensors. Curvilinear surface features in both modalities are caused by internal and external anatomical elements. They are extracted to form 3D Feature Maps that are projected onto the skin surface. Skeletonized Feature Maps define subpixel intersections that serve as anatomical landmarks to aggregate multiple images for models of larger regions of the body, and to transform images into precise standard poses. Features are classified by origin, location, and characteristics to produce annotations that are recorded with the images and feature maps in reference image libraries. The system provides an enabling technology for searchable medical image libraries.

Claims

1. A method for assessing a psychological state of a person, comprising:

generating a sequence of body maps of the person over an interval of time;

processing the sequence to detect localized changes in temperature; and

correlating detected localized changes with one or more events during the time interval.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the sequence of body maps is a sequence of FaceMaps and, for each localized change in temperature above a threshold level, there being measurements of the precise location, duration and extent of the localized change, where the localized change is correlated in time with speech or a facial expression of the person, a determination as to causal connection is made by comparing the measurements to reference measurements.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein the reference measurements include measurements of the extent of thermal change in the area identified by the localized change from normal respiration and cardiac cycles of the person.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein a first event is a stimulus introduced during the time interval.

5. A method as in claim 4, wherein the stimulus is subliminal.

6. A method as in claim 4, wherein a second event is speech or a facial expression of the person.

7. A method as in claim 1, wherein a first event is a microexpression of short duration.

8. A method as in claim 5, wherein a second event is change in blink rate detected by thermal changes in the region of the eyes.

9. A method as in claim 5, wherein a second event is a sudomotor response detected through use of a high magnification IR lens.

10. A method for assessing interpersonal interactions, comprising:

generating a body map sequence for two or more persons over an interval of time;

introducing a stimulus event during the time interval; and

detecting localized changes in temperature correlated to the stimulus in the body map sequence for each of the two or more persons.

11. A method as in claim 10, wherein the body map sequences are used to compute a degree of synchronization in respiration, gaze angle, head movements frequency and extent, blink rate, change in body posture between pair of said two or more persons, and wherein the degree of synchronization is related to a harmony level, and changes in the degree of synchronization are correlated with the stimulus event.

12. A method as in claim 10, wherein the stimulus is selected to differently affect the two or more persons, and the localized changes indicate a degree of synchronization in respiration among a subset of the two or more persons.