Abstract: The present invention relates to a device, system and method for determining a vital sign of a person. To improve accuracy and reliability of vital sign determination, the device comprises an input unit (20) for obtaining a vital sign related signal of at least a body part of the person, from which a vital sign can be derived, a body part position determining unit (21) for determining if said body part of the person is in contact with a support or not and generating a contact signal indicating if said body part is in contact with the support or not, a quality metric setting unit (22) for setting, based on said contact signal, a quality metric for use in the determination of a vital sign of the person, and a vital sign deriving unit (23) for deriving a vital sign from the obtained vital sign related signal, wherein the set quality metric is used in the derivation of the vital sign and/or in a judgment of the reliability of a derived vital.

Abstract: A cough detection system and method uses a first database of physiological information relating to a user for whom cough detection is to be implemented and relating to other people likely to be in the vicinity of the user. A second database (used in real time or as a part of a system calibration) has cough data associated with the physiological information. There is a set of cough detection algorithms, each one tailored to a particular set of physiological characteristics. A cough detection algorithm is selected or constructed which is suitable for identifying coughs of the user while ignoring coughs of the other people. This selected algorithm is applied to sound collected to identify coughs of the user.

Abstract: In order to help reduce the effects of motion sickness, there is provided a method for reducing motion sickness in a subject which comprises acquiring a sequence of video images, extracting measurements of a heart-rate of the subject over a first period of time from the sequence of video images using photoplethysmography (PPG), calculating at least one trend in the measurements, determining a presence of motion sickness when the at least one trend is positive over a first time window, the first time window being included in the first period of time, and generating an event arranged to generate a corrective action. It is often possible to detect the onset of motion sickness before the subject actually feels the symptoms. Indeed, by the time the symptoms appear, corrective action is much less effective. Therefore, by detecting the onset early and alerting the subject so that they can react, it is possible to avoid the attack of motion sickness or, at least, reduce significantly its effects.

Abstract: A method of characterizing a patient's disordered breathing during a sleeping period includes performing a first partial characterization of a time axis of an audio signal in order to learn the most prominent and highly relevant events. Only at a later stage, i.e., after sufficient observation of the highly relevant events, is a full segmentation of the entire time axis actually carried out. Linear prediction is used to create an excitation signal that is employed to provide better segmentation than would be possible using the original audio signal alone. Warped linear prediction or Laguerre linear prediction is employed to create an accurate spectral representation with flexibility in the details provided in different frequency ranges. A resonance probability function is generated to further characterize the signals in order to identify disordered breathing. An output includes a characterization in any of a variety of forms of identified disordered breathing.

Abstract: An apparatus, comprising a processor and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: receive ventilator data obtained from continual mechanical ventilatory support of a patient over a period of time, analyze the ventilator data to identify a plurality of breathing cycles, classify the plurality of breathing cycles into normal breathing cycles and abnormal breathing cycles, using a machine learning algorithm, detect a change in the normal breathing cycles, compared to normal breathing cycles identified by the apparatus based on ventilator data obtained from continual mechanical ventilatory support of the patient over a previous period of time, and generate output indicative of the change in the normal breathing cycles.

Abstract: Various improvements are provided to breathing training, monitoring and/or assistance devices. A portable device is provided which optionally includes a gas canister, a feedback system for implementing pressure control, and a visual output for indicating adherence to a breathing exercise to the user. The pressure control may provide regulation of different pressures for inhalation and exhalation.

Abstract: A breathing training, monitoring and/or assistance device is provided for home use. The device is for providing support and guidance during the training of breathing exercises. The device takes account of external data which relates to one or more of: the environmental conditions in which the device is being used; activity information in respect of the user; physiological sensor data about the user which is not related to breathing characteristics.

Abstract: According to an aspect, there is provided a wearable device, the wearable device comprising: an inflatable body configured to be mounted to a torso of a user; a first sensing device, wherein the first sensing device comprises a first sensor and a first actuator coupling the first sensor to the inflatable body; and a memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, cause the wearable device to: inflate the inflatable body from a first state of the inflatable body to a second state of the inflatable body; actuate the first actuator from a first state of the first actuator to a second state of the first actuator, wherein actuating the first actuator from the first state of the first actuator to the second state of the first actuator reduces a volume of a first air gap between the torso and the first sensor; and while the inflatable body is in the second state of the inflatable body and the first actuator is in the second state of the first actuator receive a first signal from the first sensor.

Abstract: In an approach to obtaining vital signs of a subject, a subject monitoring device obtains at least two detection signals acquired from a subject that are related to a physiological property of the subject and allows extraction of a vital sign of the subject. The subject monitoring device performs a spectral decomposition of the at least two detection signals to obtain two or more spectral components of the detection signals and determines a weight per spectral component based on an estimate of the relevance. The subject monitoring device determines a weight value by determining at least one of a variance of the spectral component and a standard deviation of the spectral component and determines whether at least one of the variance and the standard deviation exceed a predetermined limit.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device, system and method for obtaining a vital signal of a subject. To achieved increased robustness against motion, the device comprises a decomposition unit (12) for performing a spectral decomposition of at least two photoplethysmography detection signals being related to a physiological property of the subject and allowing extraction of a vital sign of the subject to obtain two or more spectral components of the detection signals. A weight is determined per spectral component based on an estimate of the relevance of the respective spectral component to the vital sign, derived from a characteristic of said spectral component.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device, system and method for CO2 monitoring. To enable continuous monitoring at low cost and in a simple manner, the device comprises a signal input (10) for obtaining one or more monitoring signals (20) of a monitored area, a breathing monitor (11) for determining one or more breathing parameters (21) of one or more subjects present in the monitored area from the obtained one or more monitoring signals, and a CO2 estimation unit (12) for estimating the CO2 level (22) in the monitored area based on the determined one or more breathing parameters.

Abstract: A method of monitoring an operation of an electric breast pump (100) using an external smart device (200) is provided. The external smart device (200) comprises a vibration detection unit (210) for detecting vibrations emitted from the breast pump (100). The detected vibrations are analyzed to extract information regarding the operation of the electric breast pump (100). The information comprises at least one of mode of operation and settings of the modes of operation of the breast pump (100). The extracted information can be outputted.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes a system for providing model-based assessments of patient risk, including a processor configured to obtain, for each of a plurality of patients, a symptomatic risk score and a demographic risk score, obtain a weighting coefficient for each patient's respective demographic risk score, multiply each weighting coefficient by the respective demographic risk scores to produce respective a weighted demographic risk score for each patient, obtain, a three dimensional weighting parameter surface in which one dimension is symptomatic risk score, one dimension is demographic risk score, and one dimension is weighting parameter such that for each combination of symptomatic risk score and demographic risk score, a weighting parameter is defined, generate a two dimensional array of patient scores according to their respective symptomatic risk score and their respective weighted symptomatic risk score, and output the stratified two dimensional array of patient risk coordinates to a display.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system (100) and method (800) capable of indirectly monitoring respiratory and cardiac variables. A decomposition technique on time-series of features extracted from the chest audio signal ?(t) is proposed. The proposed monitoring system (100) may acquire the acoustic signal on the chest of a subject (140) by means of a wearable transducer (150). The proposed system may estimate a number of physiological variables such as flow estimates, respiration rate, inspiration and expiration markers and cardiac related variables. Cough and apnea detection, adventitious sound recognition, activities performed, and information about energy estimation and the status of a monitored subject can be derived as well.

Abstract: There is provided an apparatus (100) for detecting subjects with disordered breathing. The apparatus (100) comprises one or more processors (102) configured to acquire an acoustic signal from an acoustic sensor (108) in an environment, determine a plurality of acoustic signal components from the acquired acoustic signal and determine a plurality of signal envelopes or energy signals based on the acoustic signal components. One or more processors (102) are also configured to analyze the determined plurality of signal envelopes or energy signals to detect whether there are one or more subjects in the environment with disordered breathing.

Abstract: The present invention relates to fields of medical technology and camera-based vital signs monitoring using remote photoplethysmography (rPPG). A Device (10) for determining a physiological parameter of a subject (20) is presented, the device comprising: an interface (11) for receiving image data of a scene, said image data comprising a time-sequence of image frames; and a processor (12) for processing said image data, wherein the processor is configured to perform the steps of: determining, for each of said image frames, a first statistical parameter value indicative of a statistical dispersion of pixel values of said image frame (202); concatenating said first statistical parameter values over time based on the time-sequence of the corresponding image frames to obtain a first candidate signal (203); extracting a physiological parameter of the subject based on said first candidate signal (204). The present invention further relates to a corresponding system (1) and method (200).

Abstract: Various improvements are provided to breathing training, monitoring and/or assistance devices. A portable device is provided which optionally includes a gas canister, a feedback system for implementing pressure control, and a visual output for indicating adherence to a breathing exercise to the user. The pressure control may provide regulation of different pressures for inhalation and exhalation.

Abstract: In order to help reduce the effects of motion sickness, there is provided a method for reducing motion sickness in a subject which comprises acquiring a sequence of video images, extracting measurements of a heart-rate of the subject over a first period of time from the sequence of video images using photoplethysmography (PPG), calculating at least one trend in the measurements, determining a presence of motion sickness when the at least one trend is positive over a first time window, the first time window being included in the first period of time, and generating an event arranged to generate a corrective action. It is often possible to detect the onset of motion sickness before the subject actually feels the symptoms. Indeed, by the time the symptoms appear, corrective action is much less effective. Therefore, by detecting the onset early and alerting the subject so that they can react, it is possible to avoid the attack of motion sickness or, at least, reduce significantly its effects.

Abstract: The application relates to camera-based vital signs monitoring using remote PPG.

Abstract: There is provided a method of extracting a physiological information which comprises, for a defined time-period, extracting a plurality of signal segments in a time-domain form, selecting a subset of the plurality of signal segments according their maximum signal level, converting at least said subset to produce a plurality of transformed signal segments, and combining the at least said subset of the plurality of transformed signal segments to produce a combined signal segment. This has the advantage of reducing the influence of motion and or illumination-induced changes on the final result by removing parts of the raw signal segments which are worst affected by these.