Implementation of a non-contact method for monitoring the patient's breathing and heartbeat during a magnetotherapy session
Authors: Gurzhin S.G. , Nguyen V.L. 
Published: November 2021

Nowadays, it is becoming especially important to use in clinical practice non-contact automated methods and hardware and software for the prompt obtaining of objective diagnostic information about the current physiological state of the patient during physiotherapy sessions. In particular, in magnetotherapy, there is a need for continuous monitoring of the patient's body responses to magnetic effects, so that the doctor can visually observe the dynamics of the normalization of the patient's vital signs, quickly assess the effectiveness of the treatment technique and, if possible, correct biotropic parameters. The problem is that today there are no non-contact diagnostic tools that can work together with magnetotherapy equipment under the control of a single computer and promptly present a large set of diagnostic indicators to the doctor in real time. An important feature and advantage of the proposed method is the use of publicly available standard and certified hardware tools for building a monitoring system: a personal computer, a web camera, a mouse, and a USB interface. The functions of a sensor or primary measuring transducer are performed by a webcam with high sensitivity and resolution. The original software is in the form of virtual instruments in the LabVIEW environment and the Vison Development application. As a result of this development, it became possible to flexibly control both the process of formation and reproduction of magnetic therapy effects and the process of automatic control of the patient's physiological state during a therapy session. Rapid assessment of diagnostic indicators also allows not only objectively, documenting and quantitatively confirming the level of effectiveness of each treatment session, but also serves the doctor with timely information to correct the method of exposure. Purpose – to show the possibility of implementing a non-contact method for monitoring the patient's breathing and heartbeat process, on-line assessment of diagnostic indicators using standard and publicly available hardware and software. A method has been developed and an algorithm has been implemented for non-contact monitoring of the patient's respiration and heartbeat on the basis of a personal computer, web camera, virtual instruments of the LabVIEW library and the Vison Development application. It is shown that the algorithm fully meets the requirements for computer vision algorithms: robustness, accuracy, and computational feasibility. The algorithm provides stability of video information conversion processes to significant distortions and changing factors, elimination of errors in object positioning or false detection, as well as a quick search for an object and a targeted organization of the image analysis process. Practical significance. The introduction of the developed hardware and software into the systems of complex magnetotherapy «Multimag» and «Relaxmag» will significantly increase the effectiveness of treatment due to the operational and continuous monitoring of the functional state of the patient and an objective assessment of a number of diagnostic indicators.