Neonatal non-contact respiratory monitoring based on real-time infrared thermography

The aim of this study is to develop and investigate a new non-contact respiration monitoring modality for neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using infrared thermography imaging. This development includes subsequent image processing (region of interest (ROI) detection) and optimization. Moreover, it includes further optimization of this non-contact respiration monitoring to be considered as physiological measurement inside NICU wards.Continuous wavelet transformation based on Debauches wavelet function was applied to detect the breathing signal within an image stream. Respiration was successfully monitored based on a 0.3°C to 0.5°C temperature difference between the inspiration and expiration phases.Although this method has been applied to adults before, this is the first time it was used in a newborn infant population inside the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The promising results suggest to include this technology into advanced NICU monitors.Basically, vital signals are physical quantities measured from the body and can be used to determine the physiological status and functioning. Examples of these signals include heart rate, breathing rate, body temperature and blood pressure. The normal range of vital signs varies with age, sex, weight, exercise tolerance and body conditions [1,2]. Nasal inspiration, the way neonates acquire air and hence oxygen, is important for maintaining the internal milieu of the lung, since ambient air is conditioned to nearly alveolar conditions (i.e. body temperature and fully saturated with water vapor) upon reaching the nasopharynx cavity. Essentially, respiration measurement can be performed by using nasal thermocouples, respiratory-effort belt transducer, piezoelectric transducer, optical sensor (pulse oximetry) and electrocardiography ECG. However, all these techniques are inconvenient to take in at home and they may bring discomfort and soreness to the patient [2-4]. Apnoea (abrupt stopping of respiration) and bradycardia (r