Apparatus based on image for detecting heart rate activity and method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9364157-B2
Application number	US-201414243110-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 2, 2014
Priority date	Nov 14, 2013
Publication date	Jun 14, 2016
Grant date	Jun 14, 2016

Abstract

An apparatus and method based on image for detecting heart rate activity is provided. The method includes: obtaining a plurality of color images; based on a complexion target condition, defining a target region; performing color composition analysis on the target region to obtain red channel signal, green channel signal and blue channel signal, respectively; performing independent component analysis on separate red, green and blue channel signals to obtain separate first independent component signal, second independent component signal and third independent component signal; performing frequency domain transform, signal energy computation and signal optimization processes on separate first, second and third independent component signals to obtain a filter signal, comparing filter signal based on a pre-set condition to determine if target region belonging to a human, and performing a physiological information analysis.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity, comprising:
a detecting unit, configured to obtain a plurality of color images of a monitored target;
a memory unit, coupled to the detecting unit, configured to store the color images obtained by the detecting unit; and
a processor, coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processor further comprising:
a target area defining module, configured to execute a target area detection process targeting the color images, wherein the target area detection process performing computation analysis on the color images to define a target area in the monitored target in the color image according to a predefined skin color target condition;
a color image composition analysis module, configured to perform a color image composition analysis on the target area, wherein the color image composition analysis performing statistic computation for a red channel, a green channel and a blue channel of the target area to obtain a red channel signal, a green channel signal and a blue channel signal;
an independent component analysis module, based on an independent component analysis method, configured to perform computation on the red channel signal, the green channel signal and the blue channel signal to obtain a first independent component signal, a second independent component signal, and a third independent component signal;
a signal processing module, configured to perform a frequency domain transform process, a signal energy computation process and a signal fitness process for the first independent component signal, the second independent component signal, and the third independent component signal to obtain a filtered signal;
a comparison module, configured to compare the filtered signal with at least a pre-defined condition to confirm the monitored target as a real human and provide an analysis instruction accordingly; and
a physiological information analysis module, based on the analysis instruction, configured to execute a physiological information analysis process,
wherein the signal energy computation process comprises the Euclidean norm.

2. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the physiological analysis process is to analyze the heart rate activity of the monitored target.

3. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the frequency domain transform process is a Fourier Transform process.

4. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the signal fitness process further comprises a smoothing processing method.

5. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the processor is able to obtain a regularity parameter according to the filtered signal.

6. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the pre-defined condition further comprises a regularity default value.

7. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the monitored target is determined as a real human when the regularity parameter is greater than the regularity default value.

8. An image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity, comprising:
a detecting unit, configured to obtain a plurality of color images of a plurality of monitored targets;
a memory unit, coupled to the detecting unit, configured to store the color images obtained by the detecting unit; and
a processor, coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processor further comprising:
a target area defining module, configured to execute a target area detection process targeting the color images, wherein the target area detection process performing computation analysis on the color images to define a plurality of target areas in the monitored target in the color image according to a predefined skin color target condition;
a color image composition analysis module, configured to perform a color image composition analysis on each of the plurality of target areas, wherein the color image composition analysis performing statistic computation for a red channel, a green channel and a blue channel of each of the target areas to obtain a red channel signal, a green channel signal and a blue channel signal;
an independent component analysis module, based on an independent component analysis method, configured to perform computation on the red channel signal, the green channel signal and the blue channel signal of each of the target areas to obtain a first independent component signal, a second independent component signal, and a third independent component signal;
a signal processing module, configured to perform a frequency domain transform process, a signal energy computation process and a signal fitness process for the first independent component signal, the second independent component signal, and the third independent component signal of each of the target areas to obtain a filtered signal;
a comparison module, configured to compare the filtered signal of each of the target areas with a first pre-defined condition to confirm the filtered signal of each of target areas as a real human signal;
a relevance analysis module, configured to compare each filtered signal of each of the target areas with a second pre-defined condition to identify relevance among each of the target areas to confirm whether each of the target areas belonging to a real human and provide an analysis instruction accordingly; and
a physiological information analysis module, based on the analysis instruction, configured to execute a physiological information analysis process,
wherein the signal energy computation process comprises the Euclidean norm.

9. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the physiological analysis process is to analyze the heart rate activity of the plurality of monitored targets.

10. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the frequency domain transform process is a Fourier Transform process.

11. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the signal fitness process further comprises a smoothing processing method.

12. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the first pre-defined condition is a regularity default value.

13. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the processor is able to obtain a regularity parameter according to each filtered signal of each target area.

14. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the filtered signal is determined as a real human signal when the regularity parameter of the target area is greater than the regularity default value.

15. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the second pre-defined condition is a waveform difference default value.

16. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the processor obtains a peak interval parameter according to computation on the filtered signal of each of the plurality of target areas.

17. The image-based apparatus for detecting heart rate activity as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the processor compares the peak interval parameter of each target area and computes difference between any two peak interval parameters of the targe

Assignees

• Ind Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Lu Tung-Hung
• Ku Hui-Chen
• Chen rong-rong

Classifications

• G06T7/206

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T2207/10024

  Color image · CPC title

• A61B5/004

  adapted for image acquisition of a particular organ or body part (A61B5/0082 takes precedence; arrangements for optical scanning A61B5/0062) · CPC title

• A61B5/024 Primary

  Measuring pulse rate or heart rate · CPC title

• G06T2207/30048

  Heart; Cardiac · CPC title