WO2009075559A2

WO2009075559A2 - An automated cot surveillance system

Info

Publication number: WO2009075559A2
Application number: PCT/MY2008/000182
Authority: WO
Inventors: Henrique Bode Maul Tomas
Original assignee: Mimos Berhad
Priority date: 2007-12-12
Filing date: 2008-12-12
Publication date: 2009-06-18
Also published as: WO2009075559A3; MY163578A

Abstract

The present invention relates to an automated surveillance system for cot for monitoring an infant or child. The said automated surveillance system comprises of an adequately positioned video camera (10), an adequately positioned light source (12) and wherein processing the resulting information via innovative computer vision algorithms and wherein the positioning of the light source (12) and camera (10) are such that it would make effect of a shadow magnification for processing purpose.

Description

AN AUTOMATED COT SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to cot surveillance system and more particularly the present invention relates to an automated cot surveillance system used for monitoring the condition or situation of an infant or child when required.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are numerous systems for cot surveillance purposes. However, it was noticed that most of it persists the following problems or disadvantages. A first disadvantage is relating to Sudden Infant Death or also known as SIDS. In the prior art, the system is unable to determine or predict accurately when monitoring breathing patterns and checking for blocked faces.

Another disadvantage of the prior art system is that the prior art system significantly intrudes the personal space of the monitored infant or child. Another disadvantage of the prior art system is that, in the prior art system it is not possible to detect blocked faces (caused by a blanket and etc) without human intervention, i.e. not completely automated system. Another disadvantage of the prior art system is that human intervention is required to monitor if there are any unwanted bug intrusion in the vicinity of the infant, Therefore, it is an objective of the present invention to overcome the above- mentioned disadvantages by providing the following:-

i. Preventing SIDS more robustly since apart from performing breath monitoring it also checks for a blocked face (e.g. a blanket over the face), ii. Robustness is achieved by unsupervised fine-tuning of the image processing components. UL Dedicated to the monitoring of bed bugs such as cockroaches and mosquitoes. iv. The invention is also cheap and non-intrusive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an automated surveillance system for cot for monitoring an infant or child. The said automated surveillance system comprises of an adequately positioned video camera, an adequately positioned light source and processing the resulting information via innovative computer vision algorithms. The positioning of the light source and camera are such that it would make effect of a shadow magnification for processing purpose.

Chest breathing movements are amplified in their corresponding shadows and for easier detection. The chest boundary is segmented for correlated dual segmentation for mote robust results. The shadow is examined for amplification, continuity and correlation. Bed bugs are monitored and an alert triggered when they are detected. A further modification will allow for automated intervention such as brief targeted air jets, feathered strokes or the like interventions.

A method comprises of fbr each new frame that is captured, a generic process of de- noising and enhancing is applied. Then several different types of local features are extracted such as edges, corners and junctions, which are then used for tracking all motion phenomena. If motion is found outside of the chest region this would trigger the bug detection processes. The motion regions are carefully segmented and classified. An alarm is sounded and wherein eventually continues with the processing and tracking of infant chest motion. The method is repeated throughout the surveillance period.

After the chest tracking process, the analytical process is run and if any anomalies are found in the breathing rhythm then an alarm is continuously sounded until it is manually deactivated.

Further improvements would be including remote surveillance over the web for monitoring the infant or child and applying the present invention on transparent cot made of translucent or plastics material or any other material that could reflect light from the light source.

4

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1 shows flow chart of a high level system architecture according to the present invention. Figure 2 shows a simplified diagram of the present invention.

Figure 3 shows a diagram illustrating a breathing chest shadow magnification.

Figure 4 shows a flow chart of a method according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The present invention will now be described with reference made to the accompanied drawings but the scope of the invention is not limited thereto.

The present invention solves the earlier mentioned problems in the following ways:

SIPS anticipation

This problem is solved by monitoring breathing patterns and checking for blocked faces. If the breathing, pattern is anomalous (e.g. irregular breathing or hyperventilation or hypoventilation) then an alarm is triggered so that the caretakers 5 may intervene. Likewise, if the infant's face is blocked, an alarm is triggered such that the caretakers may intervene and prevent suffocation.

Automated non-intrusive monitoring of breathing patterns

This problem is solved via a robust method that exploits the effect of shadow magnification, and performs a double extraction of chest movements. The approach is made even more robust by unsupεrvϊsed fine-tuning of the processing algorithms.

Automated detection of blocked faces

This problem is solved by robust face detection (i.e. detection of many facial poses), When a face is not detected then, contingent upon further classificatory processing for verification purposes^ a hloςked face is assumed,

Automated detection of bed bugs

This problem is solved by illumination compensation, high resolution segmentation, motion analysis and shape classification.

The present invention is designed for monitoring an infant or a child in a cot The main objective of the invention is to anticipate and prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), also referred to as cot death. The secondary objective of the 6 invention is to detect the presence of bugs (e.g. cockroaches and mosquitoes) in order to alert parents, which can then intervene appropriately.

SIDS affects approximately 2 in every 1000 babies in Malaysia (based on extrapolated statistics Error! Reference source not found.for 2004). One of the main causes seems to be asphyxiation, which in turn may be caused by blanket suffocation, accumulation of CO₂, or other factors. Thus, the present invention intends to anticipate SIDS in two ways. First* by detecting whether a blanket or another object is covering the baby's face and second, by tracking and analyzing the baby's breathing patterns.

The present invention is designed to achieve these two objectives by having an adequately positioned video camera (10), and an adequately positioned light source

(12), and processing the resulting information via innovative computer vision algorithms. The positioning of the light source (12) and camera (10) are crucial since the present invention aims to exploit the effect of shadow magnification,

Here, chest breathing movements are greatly amplified in their corresponding shadows and thus are easier to detect, Error! Reference source not found.. Other advantages of exploiting shadows are such as the chest boundary is easier to segment and it allows for correlated dual segmentation which leads to more robust results.

The advantage of using shadows can probably be summarized in their triple auxiliary effect: amplification, continuity and correlation. Bed bugs (e.g. cockroaches and mosquitoes) can cause anxiety and can represent a health hazard in many circumstances (e.g. Aedes). Therefore, the present invention proposes to monitor such bugs and alert parents when they are detected, Future embodiments will allow for automated intervention (e.g. brief targeted air jets, feathered strokes or others), The current invention will rely on the same video camera (10) and light source (12) mentioned above, but will include extra processing for the implementation of bug classification.

Reference should also be made to Error! Reference source not found, wherein an illustration of the system's physical setup is shown and to Error! Reference source not found, wherein is shown therein a depiction of its high level architecture.

Reference is now made to Error! Reference source not found, wherein a diagram summarizing the main process flow of the software on which the invention is based is shown. For each new frame that is captured, first a generic process of de- noising and enhancing is applied. Then several different types of local features are extracted (e.g. edges, corners and junctions) which are then used for tracking all motion phenomena (the diagram did not depict the fact that a buffer of recent frames is required for the computation of motion, where the smallest possible buffer consists of only two frames, i.e.: the current and previous frame).

If motion is found outside of the chest region (specified manually or automatically detected) this triggers the bug detection processes. In this case, the motion regions are carefully segmented and classified (further feature extraction can occur within the classification process). If bugs are detected then an alarm is sounded. Eventually processing continues to the tracking of chest motion.

This is where the triple auxiliary effect of shadows takes place (amplification, continuity and correlation). After the chest tracking process, the analytical process is run. If any anomalies are found in the breathing rhythm (e.g. cessation, excessive irregularity, etc.) then an alarm is continuously sounded until it is manually deactivated. Finally a decision is made on whether to continue running the system or to consolidate all analyses and end execution.

Further improvements to the present invention would be including remote surveillance over the web to monitor the features as described earlier. Further improvement to the present invention would be monitoring other features of the infant such as movements, style of body language, type of cry from the baby (hungry, sick, uncomfortable) and etc.

Further improvements could include provision of using the present invention on transparent cot made of translucent or plastics material or any other material that could reflect light from the light source.

Claims

1. An automated surveillance system for cot for monitoring an infant or child characterized in that wherein the said automated surveillance system comprises of an adequately positioned video camera (10), an adequately positioned light source

(12) and wherein processing the resulting information via innovative computer vision algorithms and wherein the positioning of the light source (12) and camera (10) are such that it would make effect of a shadow magnification for processing purpose.

2. An automated surveillance system for cot for monitoring an infant or child as claimed in Claim 1 wherein chest breathing movements are amplified in their corresponding shadows and for easier detection and wherein the chest boundary is segmented for correlated dual segmentation for more robust results.

3. An automated surveillance system for cot for monitoring an infant or child as claimed in Claim 2 wherein the shadow is examined for amplification, continuity and correlation,

4. An automated surveillance system for cot for monitoring an infant or child as claimed in Claim 1 wherein bed bugs are monitored and an alert triggered when they are detected. An automated surveillance system for cot for monitoring an infant or child as claimed in Claim 1 wherein further modifications will allow for automated intervention such as brief targeted air jets, feathered strokes or the like interventions.

A method of surveillance according to any of the preceding claims characterized wherein the method comprises of for each new frame that is captured, a generic process of de-noising and enhancing is applied.

A method as claimed in Claim 6 wherein then several different types of local features are extracted such as edges, corners and junctions, which are then used for tracking all motion phenomena

A method as claimed in Claim 6 wherein if motion is found outside of the chest region this would trigger the bug detection processes wherein the motion regions are carefully segmented and classified and wherein an alarm is sounded and wherein eventually continues with the processing and tracking of infant chest motion and wherein the method is repeated throughout the surveillance period.

A rriethod as claimed in Claim 6 wherein after the chest tracking process, the analytical process is run and if any anomalies are found in the breathing rhythm then an alarm is continuously sounded until it is manually deactivated.

An automated surveillance system for cot for monitoring an infant or child as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein further improvements would be including remote surveillance over the web for monitoring the infant or child and applying the present invention on transparent cot made of translucent or plastics material or any other material that could reflect light from the light source.