Non-contact detection of physiological characteristics of experimental animals
AssigneeVium, Inc.
InventorsKyle Howard Heath, Jonathan Noble Betts-Lacroix
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A respiration rate detector is provided for determining a rate of respiration of an experimental animal. The respiration rate detector includes one or more optical detectors to observe an experimental animal and generate a video signal relating to the experimental animal. A controller is provided to process the video signal to determine an optical flow of the video signal and generate an optical-flow signal, and analyze the optical-flow signal to determine the respiration rate of the experimental animal based on a detected repetitive movement of the experimental animal. The respiration rate is thereby detected without requiring physical contact with the experimental animal.
Claims26
A respiration rate detector for determining a rate of respiration of an experimental animal, the respiration rate detector comprising:
- one or more optical detectors to observe an experimental animal and generate a video signal relating to the experimental animal;
- and
- a controller to:
- process the video signal to determine an optical flow of the video signal and generate an optical-flow signal,
- process the optical-flow signal to determine a spatial region-of-interest of the optical-flow signal, the spatial region-of-interest comprising one or more spatial cells of the optical-flow signal, wherein processing the optical-flow signal to determine the spatial region-of-interest comprises evaluating the optical-flow signal in frequency space and selecting one or more spatial cells having a value in frequency space that exceeds a threshold value,
- analyze the optical-flow signal within the spatial region-of-interest to determine the respiration rate of the experimental animal based on a detected repetitive movement of the experimental animal, and
- display the determined respiration rate to an operator,
- wherein the respiration rate is detected without requiring physical contact with the experimental animal.
A method of determining a rate of respiration of an experimental animal, the method comprising:
- observing an experimental animal with one or more optical detectors to generate a video signal;
- processing the video signal to determine an optical flow of the video signal and generate an optical-flow signal;
- processing the optical-flow signal to determine a spatial region-of-interest of the optical-flow signal, the spatial region-of-interest comprising one or more spatial cells of the optical-flow signal, wherein processing the optical-flow signal to determine the spatial region-of-interest comprises evaluating the optical-flow signal in frequency space and selecting one or more spatial cells having a value in frequency space that exceeds a threshold value;
- analyzing the optical-flow signal to determine the respiration rate of the experimental animal based on a detected repetitive movement of the experimental animal;
- and
- displaying the determined respiration rate to an operator,
- wherein the respiration rate is detected without requiring physical contact with the experimental animal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.