A thermographic method for detecting Respiratory Alkalosis by monitoring breath patterns

Abstract

This paper describes a method for computing the respiration rates of an individual using thermography for the detection of Respiratory Alkalosis. We identify inhalation and exhalation in the thermal images of faces to count the respiration rate. Based on the face orientation we employ two different algorithms separately for the computation of respiration rate. First, we find the body temperature from specific face regions and extract the appropriate ROI for identifying the respiration rate. The exhalations are identified from the thermal images by finding the feature of the hot patches around the extracted region. Thus the respiration rate, as well as the respiration pattern, is monitored from the thermal signature obtained. The method has been tested on 30 subjects and validated using spirometry.