Measurement system based on RBG camera signal for contactless breathing pattern and respiratory rate monitoring

Vital signs monitoring is pivotal in clinical environments and emerging in home-based healthcare applications. Different kind of sensors can be used to monitor the breathing pattern and the respiratory rate. However, respiration rate remains the least measured vital sign in several scenarios, due to the intrusiveness of the sensors usually adopted. In this paper, we propose a measuring system for the low-cost and contactless analysis of respiration. The system analyses a video recorded by commercial RGB camera and extracts respiratory pattern from the changes in the intensity of the light reflected back at the level of the upper chest. Then it allows estimating breath-by-breath respiratory rate from such pattern. The proposed system was tested on six healthy volunteers seated in front of the camera, with both slim-fit and loose-fit clothes. Results show promising performances for the non-intrusive monitoring of both breathing pattern and breath-by-breath respiratory rate over time. Future developments will be devoted to investigating the feasibility of the proposed measurement system for long-term observation of respiratory parameters, for subject monitoring at home or during clinical examinations (i.e., MR imaging).