Comparison of Camera-Acquired Vital Signs to Conventional Vital Signs in a Space-Analog Environment.

Introduction: Vital sign acquisition is a key component of modern medical care. In wilderness and space medical settings, vital sign acquisition can be a difficult process because of limitations on available personnel or lack of access to the patient. Camera-acquired vital signs could address each of these difficulties.

Methods: Healthy volunteers used software designed by Presage Technologies to acquire heart rate and respiratory rate at the HI-SEAS space-analog site in Mauna Loa, Hawai'i. Camera-acquired vital signs were compared to more conventionally acquired vital signs.

Results: Camera-acquired heart rate showed high correlation to conventionally acquired heart rate (R ∼ 0.95). Camera-acquired respiratory rate showed moderate correlation (R ∼ 0.65).

Conclusions: These results show that camera acquisition of vital signs is theoretically feasible in wilderness and space-analog environments. HR may be highly accurate even using current technology. Additional studies will be needed to further validate other types of camera sensors and other potential environments such as partial gravity and microgravity.