Vital-Sign Monitoring via Video

Collaborators 

• Prof. Lionel Tarassenko (project lead)
• Prof. Chris Pugh (Nuffield Department of Medicine)

Description

This research took place within the Biomedical Signal Processing Research Group under Prof. Lionel Tarassenko, which involved novel methods for non-contact vital sign monitoring using a webcam. The webcam measures the light reflected from one or more regions of interest in the patient's face. Previous work by others had shown that photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals could be remotely acquired from the human face with normal ambient light as the source. A problem with making this work in a real-world setting, however, is the presence of aliased components from artificial light; e.g., fluorescent light, found in most indoor environments outside daylight hours and often within daylight hours as well.

A university spin-out company, Oxehealth Ltd., has been created to commercialise this research, and related on-going projects led by Prof. Tarassenko.