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: 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 respiratory monitoring device comprises: a light source (30) arranged to generate a projected shadow (S) of an imaging subject (P) positioned for imaging by an imaging device (8); a video camera (40) arranged to acquire video of the projected shadow; and an electronic processor (42) programmed to extract a position of an edge of the projected shadow as a function of time from the acquired video. In some embodiments, the light source is arranged to project the shadow onto a bore wall (20) of the imaging device, and the video camera is arranged to acquire video of the projected shadow on the bore wall. The electronic processor may be programmed to extract the position of the edge (E) as a one-dimensional function of time (46) based on the position of the edge in each frame of the acquired video and time stamps of the video frames.

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: 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: 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.

Abstract: There is provided a system and method of assessing the quality of the extraction of the signal and the reliability of the physiological measurement by providing a system for producing a quality metric for physiological information extraction from a sequence of image frames, the system comprising a signal extraction unit configured to extract a signal representative of a physiological characteristic from a plurality of the image frames, a signal analyzer configured to calculate a plurality of physiological information results from the signal using a plurality of calculation functions, the plurality of calculation functions being comprised within a list of calculation functions, each physiological information result being calculated using a different calculation function, and a quality metric calculator for calculating a quality metric value based on a signal analysis metric derived from a comparison between the physiological information results of the plurality of physiological information results.

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 respiratory monitoring device comprises: a light source (30) arranged to generate a projected shadow (S) of an imaging subject (P) positioned for imaging by an imaging device (8); a video camera (40) arranged to acquire video of the projected shadow; and an electronic processor (42) programmed to extract a position of an edge of the projected shadow as a function of time from the acquired video. In some embodiments, the light source is arranged to project the shadow onto a bore wall (20) of the imaging device, and the video camera is arranged to acquire video of the projected shadow on the bore wall. The electronic processor may be programmed to extract the position of the edge (E) as a one-dimensional function of time (46) based on the position of the edge in each frame of the acquired video and time stamps of the video frames.

Abstract: There is provided a system and method of assessing the quality of the extraction of the signal and the reliability of the physiological measurement by providing a system for producing a quality metric for physiological information extraction from a sequence of image frames, the system comprising a signal extraction unit configured to extract a signal representative of a physiological characteristic from a plurality of the image frames, a signal analyzer configured to calculate a plurality of physiological information results from the signal using a plurality of calculation functions, the plurality of calculation functions being comprised within a list of calculation functions, each physiological information result being calculated using a different calculation function, and a quality metric calculator for calculating a quality metric value based on a signal analysis metric derived from a comparison between the physiological information results of the plurality of physiological information results.

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 device for obtaining a vital sign of a subject despite motion of the subject, in particular for discriminating a vital sign such as a respiratory information signal from noise in a projection based vital signs registration, comprises an interface that receives a set of image frames of a subject. An analysis unit determines the amount of direction changes and/or the time distances between direction changes within a region of interest in a subset of image frames comprising a number of image frames of said set. An evaluation unit determines if said region of interest within said subset of image frames comprises a vital sign information and/or noise by use of the determined amount of direction changes and/or the time distances for said subset of image frames. A processor determines the desired vital sign of the subject from said region of interest within said subset of image frames.

Abstract: A device for obtaining a vital sign of a subject despite motion of the subject, in particular for discriminating a vital sign such as a respiratory information signal from noise in a projection based vital signs registration, comprises an interface that receives a set of image frames of a subject. An analysis unit determines the amount of direction changes and/or the time distances between direction changes within a region of interest in a subset of image frames comprising a number of image frames of said set. An evaluation unit determines if said region of interest within said subset of image frames comprises a vital sign information and/or noise by use of the determined amount of direction changes and/or the time distances for said subset of image frames. A processor determines the desired vital sign of the subject from said region of interest within said subset of image frames.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for determining vital sign information from a subject are disclosed. The proposed apparatus comprises a detection unit for detecting radiation from a field of view and for determining characteristic parameter including vital sign information of the subject from different areas of the field of view, a frequency analysis unit for determining a spectral parameter of the characteristic parameter derived from the different areas, a selection unit for selecting at least one of the areas of the field of view on the basis of the spectral parameter, and a calculation unit for calculating the vital sign information on the basis of the characteristic parameter from the at least one selected area.