The use of thermographic techniques and analysis of thermal images to monitor the respiratory rate of premature new-borns

Abstract

The problem studied in this paper is the possibility of applying a non-invasive technique in monitoring respiratory rate in premature infants. At this time the systems used to monitor respiration in the newborn are difficult to use and do not provide satisfactory results. This paper proposes the use of thermographic technique and the analysis of thermal images that could be used to monitor the respiratory rate of premature infants. The thermographic technique was chosen because it is a non-invasive technique. In this case, monitoring is based on the determination of temperature changes in the nostrils caused by breathing (inhale/exhale). Video images focused on the region of the nostrils, with duration of 1 min, were used in processing at different times, from which the rate of inspiration/expiration was extracted starting from the temperature variations. Following the results obtained, we believe that IR thermography it is a technique that can be integrated into a complex system that can be used to monitor the respiratory rate of the newborn.

Keywords

• Infrared thermography
• Biomedical systems
• Image analysis
• Respiration monitoring
• Thermal images