Detecting febrile seizure with a thermal video camera

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9521335-B2
Application number	US-201414306817-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 17, 2014
Priority date	Jun 17, 2014
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

What is disclosed is a system and method for detecting febrile seizure using a thermal video camera. In one embodiment, a video is received comprising time-sequential thermal images of a subject. The video is acquired of the subject in real-time using a thermal video system. Each thermal image comprises a plurality of pixels with an intensity value of each pixel corresponding to a temperature. The thermal images are processed to determine an occurrence of a febrile seizure. The processing involves identifying a region of interest in the thermal image and determining a temperature for the region of interest based on values of the pixels isolated in that region of interest. Thereafter, a rate of change of temperatures is obtained for the subject in real-time on a per-frame basis. If the rate of change is determined to have exceeded a pre-defined threshold level, then the subject is having a febrile seizure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting febrile seizure using a thermal video device, the method comprising:
receiving a video comprising time-sequential frames of thermal images of a subject being monitored for febrile seizure, said video being acquired by a thermal video system, each thermal image comprising a plurality of pixels, an intensity value of each pixel corresponding to a surface temperature; and
processing thermal images to determine an occurrence of a febrile seizure, said processing comprising:
isolating pixels associated with at least one region of interest;
determining a temperature for the subject based on values of said pixels isolated in said region of interest;
determining a rate of change of said subject's temperature; and
in response to said rate of change exceeding a threshold level, determining that said subject is having a febrile seizure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said thermal video system is any of: a single-band infrared video camera, a multi-band infrared video camera in the thermal range, and a multi-spectral infrared video camera in the thermal range.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein pixels are isolated in the regions of interest using any of: pixel classification, color, texture, spatial features, spectral information, facial recognition, object identification, pattern recognition, and a user input.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a temperature for said subject comprises any of:
integrating pixel values over at least a portion of said region of interest; and
weighted averaging pixel values over at least a portion of said region of interest.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
weighting values of any of said isolated pixels;
averaging values of any of said isolated pixels;
normalizing values of any of said isolated pixels; and
discarding any pixels with intensity values below a level of acceptability.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said threshold is based on any of:
a rate of fever progression of patients who have had a febrile seizure; and
a user input.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determination of febrile seizure further utilizes health vitals of said subject comprising any of: cardiac pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, muscle twitch, a signal from an electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG), and a signal from electroencephalogram (EEG).

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether a movement occurred during video acquisition which is likely to adversely impact said temperature determination, comprising any of:
analyzing pixels in said thermal image;
performing facial recognition on said thermal image;
performing object tracking on said thermal image;
performing pattern recognition on said thermal image;
using a motion detector; and
visually observing said subject.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein, in response to said determination, further comprising any of:
adjusting a position of said thermal video system;
adjusting a position of said subject;
changing a frame rate of said thermal video system;
swapping said thermal video system for another thermal video system;
ignoring video image frames captured during movement;
initiating an alert that movement has occurred; and
stopping video acquisition altogether.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising communicating said rate of change to any of: a display device, a storage device, a smartphone, a laptop, tablet-PC, a workstation, and a remote device over a network.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein, in response to said subject having a febrile seizure, initiating a notification comprising any of: an audio message, a text message, an email, a voicemail message, a phone call, a video, an image, and an alert signal.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said video is a streaming video and febrile seizure determination occurs in real-time.

13. A thermal video system for detecting febrile seizure using a thermal video device, the system comprising:
a video camera a video comprising time-sequential frames of thermal images, each thermal image comprising a plurality of pixels, an intensity value of each pixel corresponding to a surface temperature; and
a processor in communication with a memory, said processor executing machine readable instructions for performing:
receiving thermal images of a subject being monitored for febrile seizure;
isolating pixels associated with at least one region of interest;
determining a temperature for said subject based on values associated with said isolated pixels;
determining a rate of change of said subject's temperature; and
in response to said rate of change exceeding a threshold, determining that said subject is having a febrile seizure.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein said thermal video system is any of: a single-band infrared video camera, a multi-band infrared video camera in the thermal range, and a multi-spectral infrared video camera in the thermal range.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein pixels are isolated in the regions of interest using any of: pixel classification, color, texture, spatial features, spectral information, facial recognition, object identification, pattern recognition, and a user input.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein determining a temperature for said subject comprises any of:
integrating pixel values over at least a portion of said region of interest; and
weighted averaging pixel values over at least a portion of said region of interest.

17. The system of claim 13 , further comprising:
weighting values of any of said isolated pixels;
averaging values of any of said isolated pixels;
normalizing values of any of said isolated pixels; and
discarding any pixels with intensity values below a level of acceptability.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein said threshold is based on any of:
a rate of fever progression of patients who have had a febrile seizure; and
a user input.

19. The system of claim 13 , wherein said determination of febrile seizure further utilizes health vitals of said subject comprising any of: cardiac pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, muscle twitch, a signal from an electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG), and a signal from an electroencephalogram (EEG).

20. The system of claim 13 , further comprising determining whether a movement occurred during video acquisition which is likely to adversely impact said temperature determination, comprising any of:
analyzing pixels in said thermal image;
performing facial recognition on said thermal image;
performing object tracking on said thermal image;
performing pattern recognition on said thermal image;
using a motion detector; and
visually observing said subject.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein, in response to said determination, further comprising any of:
adjusting a position of said thermal video system;
adjusting a position of said subject;
changing a frame rate of said thermal video system;
swapping said thermal video system for another thermal video system;
ignoring video image frames captured during movement;
initiating an alert that movement has occurred; and
stopping video acquisition altogether.

22. The system of claim 13 , further comprising communicating said rate of change to any of: a display device, a storage device, a smartphone, a laptop, tablet-PC, a workstation, and a remote device over a network.

23. The system of claim 13 , wherein, in response to

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Mestha Lalit Keshav
• Xu Beilei
• Kulkarni Rakesh Suresh

Classifications

• G01J5/10 Primary

  using electric radiation detectors · CPC title

• H04N23/80

  Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof · CPC title

• H04N23/23

  from thermal infrared radiation · CPC title

• G01J5/089

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T7/0016

  involving temporal comparison · CPC title