Measurement of Respiration Rate Using Thermal Imaging

Respiration rate (RR) refers to the number of breaths per minute of a person. It is one of the primary health parameters. The current method of measuring RR is to attach a sensor to the patient, leading to discomfort and stress. The method discussed in this paper is contactless, by using thermal imaging of nostril air flow. The proposed method, for the sake of detection accuracy, consists of two major components: (1) robust detection of region of interest (ROI), the nasal canthus and the nasolabial groove area. (2) reliable tracking of ROI in image sequences using particle filter. Preliminary experimental results with 5 volunteers have shown its high detection accuracy: relative error rate less than 2%.