Non-contact anthropometric measurements in newborn patients

New born patients require a frequent and periodic collection of some anthropometric data to evaluate their correct growth, particularly during the first weeks of their life. This information allows to eventual detect slow growth rate potentially related to some pathologies of the neonate. Among the many anthropometric data of interest, in this study, specific attention has been dedicated to tibial length (TL), cranial circumference (CC) and body height (H); such parameters that are routinely collected in clinical environment. Available measurement methods to measure these parameters are not useful for our purpose, because the aim of this study is to obtain reliable non-contact measurements on infants. In this paper, we propose the use of stereophotogrammetry, in which images are elaborated by a software in order to obtain the 3D reconstruction of the subject. This semi-automatic approach is contactless and completely safe for the infant. In our experiments, a cohort of 9 subjects (7 infants and 2 simulators) has been used and images were taken using a smart watch, CCD camera. From obtained results, measurements calculated by the proposed method are comparable with the data collected by the clinical expert. Moreover, data repeatability of the proposed measurement method is lower respect to the one estimated from the operator (±0.7 cm). For this reason, it is possible to consider the proposed method, based on stereophotogrammetry, applicable to the anthropometric measurements of infants, offering an alternative to the manual measurements routinely performed by clinicians.