Background: Monitoring of vital parameters is an important topic in neonatal daily\r\ncare. Progress in computational intelligence and medical sensors has facilitated the\r\ndevelopment of smart bedside monitors that can integrate multiple parameters into\r\na single monitoring system. This paper describes non-contact monitoring of neonatal\r\nvital signals based on infrared thermography as a new biomedical engineering\r\napplication. One signal of clinical interest is the spontaneous respiration rate of the\r\nneonate. It will be shown that the respiration rate of neonates can be monitored\r\nbased on analysis of the anterior naris (nostrils) temperature profile associated with\r\nthe inspiration and expiration phases successively.\r\nObjective: The aim of this study is to develop and investigate a new non-contact\r\nrespiration monitoring modality for neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using infrared\r\nthermography imaging. This development includes subsequent image processing\r\n(region of interest (ROI) detection) and optimization. Moreover, it includes further\r\noptimization of this non-contact respiration monitoring to be considered as\r\nphysiological measurement inside NICU wards.\r\nResults: Continuous wavelet transformation based on Debauches wavelet function\r\nwas applied to detect the breathing signal within an image stream. Respiration was\r\nsuccessfully monitored based on a 0.3�°C to 0.5�°C temperature difference between\r\nthe inspiration and expiration phases.\r\nConclusions: Although this method has been applied to adults before, this is the\r\nfirst time it was used in a newborn infant population inside the neonatal intensive\r\ncare unit (NICU). The promising results suggest to include this technology into\r\nadvanced NICU monitors.
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