Development of a Touchless Respiratory Monitor

Respiratory rate is a key indicator of an individual’s health and is considered an important vital sign in medical care field.  However, in many medical situations, patients are not commonly monitored for respiratory rate.  One of the reasons for this is the obtrusive nature of the monitoring equipment that makes treatment of patients difficult.  Instead of using these monitors most health care providers rely on the use of a brief visual assessment that occurs every few hours.  Recently, research has shown that changes in respiratory rate as compared to other vital signs is the best indicator of cardiac arrest, organ failure and other detrimental physiological events.  In order to identify these changes in respiratory rate we are developing a system capable of continuously monitoring respiratory activity that is not only non-invasive but fully non-contact.  This new system relies on the use of LIDAR imaging and thermo sensors to assess breathing rate.   Additionally, with these new instruments our system would have the ability to measure respiratory volumes.  Respiratory volumes are not normally measured except in limited settings but changes to it are associated with several lung diseases.   We believe this innovative system that will continuously measure respiratory rates and volumes will benefit both the medical industry and human research within the NASA organization.

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