CAMERA FOR GENERATING A BIOMETRICAL SIGNAL OF A LIVING BEING

• US 20140192177A1
• Filed: 08/27/2012
• Published: 07/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Bartula, Marek Janusz, Verkruijsse, Willem
• Granted Patent: US 10,521,900 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/77
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02427 Details of sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30076 Plethysmography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0016 involving temporal comparison

Abstract

The present invention relates to a camera (1, 1′) for generating a biometrical signal of a living being comprising: a filter (11) for blocking incident visible light in a wavelength range up to at least 550 nm, a color sensor (12, 12′) for receiving said filtered incident light and generating at least two different color signals (5, 6, 9), a combination unit (15) for generating at least one combined color signal (7a, 7b) by combining said at least two color signals, and a processing unit (16) for processing said at least one combined color signal and extracting at least one biometrical signal (8) of said living being (3).

Claims

1. A camera for generating a biometrical signal of a living being comprising:

a filter for blocking incident visible light in a wavelength range up to at least 550 nm,

a color sensor for receiving said filtered incident light and generating at least two different color signals,

a combination unit for generating at least one combined color signal by combining said at least two color signals, and

a processing unit for processing said at least one combined color signal and extracting at least one biometrical signal of said living being.

2. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein said color sensor is adapted for generating at least three color signals.

3. The camera as claimed in claim 2, wherein said color sensor is adapted for generating a red color signal, a green color signal and a blue color signal.

4. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein said combination unit is adapted for combining said at least two color signals by a linear combination.

5. The camera as claimed in claim 2, wherein said combination unit is adapted for generating two combined color signals by making two different combinations, in particular linear combinations, of at least two of said three color signals.

6. The camera as claimed in claim 3, wherein said combination unit is adapted for generating a first combined color signal by adding the red color signal and the green color signal and subtracting two times the blue color signal from said sum and for generating a second combined color signal by subtracting the green color signal from two times the blue color signal.

7. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein said filter is adapted for blocking incident visible light in a wavelength range up to at least 650 nm.

8. The camera as claimed in claim 1, further comprising another filter for blocking incident light in a wavelength range above at least 1100 nm, in particular above at least 1000 nm, before reaching said color sensor.

9. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processing unit is adapted for extracting a heartbeat, cardiac cycle, respiratory rate, SpO2, depth of anesthesia or hypo- and hypervolemia of the living being from said at least one combined color signal.

10. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processing unit is adapted for extracting a SpO2 signal from said at least one combined color signal by extracting at least two PPG signals at different wavelengths and determining a SpO2 signal from said at least two PPG signals.

11. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processing unit is adapted for extracting a heartbeat signal from said at least one combined color signal by PPG extraction

12. A method for generating a biometrical signal of a living being comprising the steps of:

blocking incident visible light in a wavelength range tip to at least 550 nm,

receiving said filtered incident light by a color sensor,

generating at least three different color signals,

generating at least one combined color signal by combining said at least two color signals, and

processing said at least one combined color signal and extracting at least one biometrical signal of said living being.

13-15. -15. (canceled)