Patent ID: 8790269

Claim:
A method for monitoring respiration using a thermal imaging system, the method comprising: capturing thermal images of a subject of interest intended to be monitored for respiration using a thermal image camera set to a temperature of a facial region of said subject, each thermal image comprising a plurality of pixels each corresponding to a surface temperature of said facial region across a thermal wavelength band; retrieving locational relationship of vectors and angles to determine said location of a facial feature consisting of a nose and a mouth by; using a location of eyes relative to a location of ears of said subject to locate said nose, and using a location of said ears and chin to locate said mouth; analyzing said thermal images to determine said location of said nose and said mouth; tracking physical motion of said facial feature over time to identify a physical motion pattern of respiration, said tracked physical motion being independent from determining a thermal pattern of respiration using thermal image analysis of said facial feature; determining a respiration rate from said physical motion pattern of respiration; performing any of: comparing said determined respiration rate to a pre-defined respiration rate, and comparing said determined physical motion pattern of respiration pattern to a pre-defined physical motion pattern of respiration pattern; and initiating an alarm in response to either of said comparisons falling outside a level of acceptability.