Patent ID: 7215984

Claim:
A physiological monitoring system including an optical probe configured to output one or more intensity signals representative of at least one physiological characteristic of body tissue, and a signal processing device configured to accept the one or more intensity signals and configured to determine a resulting value indicative of the at least one physiological characteristic, the physiological monitoring system comprising: an optical probe including a light-sensitive detector configured to detect light of at least first and second wavelengths attenuated by body tissue carrying pulsing blood and configured to output one or more intensity signals based on the detected light; and a signal processing device including: a first calculator capable of utilizing a first calculation technique to determine at least a first ratio representative of at least one physiological characteristic of the pulsing blood based on at least one of the one or more intensity signals generated from said detection of said light at said at least first and second wavelengths, a second calculator capable of utilizing a second calculation technique different from the first calculation technique, to determine at least a second ratio representative of the at least one physiological characteristic based on at least one of the one or more intensity signals generated from said detection of said light at said at least first and second wavelengths, and a processing module configured to utilize at least one of the first and second calculators to determine a resulting value indicative of the at least one physiological characteristic.