Method of estimating blood pressure based on image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9795306-B2
Application number	US-201615204133-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2016
Priority date	Jul 7, 2015
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

A method of estimating a blood pressure based on an image is provided. The method includes obtaining, by camera, an image including a skin of a user, determining, by a computer device, a skin region, in which at least one portion of the skin is displayed, from the image, and storing a mean value of color data of a designated color model for each of two target regions which have different positions in the skin region from each other, estimating, by the computer device, a pulse-wave transit time (PTT) based on a pulse wave signal determined based on a change in the mean value of the color data for each of the two target regions, and estimating, by the computer device, the blood pressure using the PTT.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of estimating a blood pressure based on a video of a user, comprising:
obtaining, by camera, an image including a skin of the user;
determining, by a computer device, a skin region, in which at least one portion of the skin is displayed, from the image, and storing a specific value generated from color data of a designated color model for each of two different portions of the skin;
estimating, by the computer device, a pulse wave signal based on a change in specific value of color data for each of the two different portions of the skin;
estimating, by the computer device, a pulse-wave transit time (PTT) based on a time difference between local extrema of the pulse wave signals from the two different portions of skin; and
estimating, by the computer device, the blood pressure using the PTT.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storing of the specific value comprises:
dividing the skin region in the image into two and storing the specific value of the color data for the two different portions of the skin; or
extracting skin regions from images obtained by two cameras respectively and storing the specific value of the color data by determining the extracted two skin regions as the two different portions of the skin.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storing of the specific value comprises:
setting, by the computer device, the two different portions of the skin by dividing the image; and
generating a change in the specific value of the color data for each of the two different portions of the skin.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the obtaining of the image comprises obtaining, by the camera, an image including a facial region of the user; and
the storing of the specific value comprises extracting, by the computer device, the facial region from the image and classifying the facial region as two target different portions to be the two different portions of the skin.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storing of the specific value comprises storing, by the computer device, the specific value of the color data of the portions of the skin in units of frames or frames of a reference interval.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimating of the PTT comprises generating, by the computer device, pulse wave signals for the portions of the skin from the change in the specific value of the color data using a band pass filter.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimating of the PTT further comprises determining two associated peak points from the pulse wave signals for the respective target regions and estimates the PTT based on a time difference between the two peak points.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimating the blood pressure comprises applying the PTT to an equation which is provided in advance through a multiple regression analysis and estimates the blood pressure.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising before the estimating of the blood pressure, receiving age, height, and weight of the user, and applying the age, the height, the weight, and the PTT to an equation which is provided in advance through a multiple regression analysis.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specific value generated from color date is a mean value of the color data.

Assignees

• Res And Business Found Sungkyunkwan Univ
• Univ Sungkyunkwan Res & Bus

Inventors

• Hong Kwang-Seok
• Lee Ho Sung
• Park Jinsoo

Classifications

• A61B5/725

  using specific filters therefor, e.g. Kalman or adaptive filters (specific diagnostics methods using using bioelectric or biomagnetic signals A61B5/316) · CPC title

• A61B5/0077

  Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens · CPC title

• A61B5/1032

  Determining colour of tissue for diagnostic purposes · CPC title

• A61B5/7278

  Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesizing signals from measured signals · CPC title

• A61B5/02125 Primary

  of pulse wave propagation time · CPC title