Method and apparatus for determining a respiration rate of a subject

A non-transitory computer readable medium computer comprising a computer readable code embodied therein, the computer readable code being configured such that, on execution by a suitable computer or processor, the computer or processor is caused to:

• obtain a signal from a sensor that is worn or carried by the subject;
• analyze the signal to determine a plurality of values for a breathing-related feature;
• form a histogram from the plurality of values for the breathing-related feature, the histogram comprising a plurality of groups, each group corresponding to one or more possible values of the breathing-related feature, with each group having an associated count that corresponds to the number of occurrences of a value or values for the breathing-related feature corresponding to the group;
• apply a weighting to the count associated with one or more of the groups to form weighted counts by determining the weighted count for each group by subtracting a threshold value from a respective count;
• wherein weighted counts are set to zero in the event that the threshold value is equal to or greater than the respective count;
• and
• determine the respiration rate from a mean of the histogram with the weighted counts.

An apparatus for determining the respiration rate of a subject, the apparatus comprising:

• a processing unit configured to:
• receive a signal from a sensor;
• analyze the signal to determine a plurality of values for a breathing-related feature;
• form a histogram from the plurality of values for the breathing-related feature, the histogram comprising a plurality of groups, each group corresponding to one or more possible values of the breathing-related feature, with each group having an associated count that corresponds to the number of occurrences of a value or values for the breathing-related feature corresponding to the group;
• apply a weighting to the count associated with one or more groups to form weighted counts by determining the weighted count for each group by subtracting a threshold value from a respective count;
• wherein weighted counts are set to zero in the event that the threshold value is equal to or greater than the respective count;
• and
• determine the respiration rate from a mean of the histogram with the weighted counts.