Respiration monitor for monitoring respiration based upon an image signal of a facial region

Abstract

A respiration monitor of the invention includes: an infrared camera for forming an image of a face; an operation section for selecting an imaging temperature to be set for the infrared camera out of a predetermined temperature range and setting the selected imaging temperature; an image memory for storing a facial image signal outputted from the infrared camera; a control section for defining a facial region in the facial image signal, binarizing the facial image signal within the facial region, calculating and outputting a respiratory waveform signal from a change in an area of the facial region every inspiration, and outputting an alarm by judging an apnea when a condition in which there is no change in the area of the facial region lasts for a predetermined time; an alarm section for generating an alarm out of the alarm signal; a synthesis section For synthesizing the facial image signal with the respiratory waveform signal; and a display apparatus for inputting the facial image signal and the respiratory waveform signal synthesized and outputted from the synthesis section, chronologically continuously displaying the facial image with the area of the facial region of the facial image changing, and displaying a respiratory waveform so as to correspond to the facial image with the area of the facial region of the facial image changing.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.