Design of an Occupancy Monitoring Unit: A Thermal Imaging Based People Counting Solution for SocioTechnical Energy Saving Systems in Hospitals Aside from their physical exteriorinterior design, the energy demands of industrial buildings are strongly related to how they are used. It follows that the behaviour of the occupants contributes and is related to the energy consumption of a building. In a hospital, this could mean equipment usage, heating, water and so on. This implies that energy consumption in a specific area may be measured as a function of occupancy, making occupancy monitoring an important part of an organisationxe2x80x99s energy management plan. This paper presents the design, implementation and testing of an Occupancy Monitoring Unit (OMU), based on thermal imaging technology, to provide occupancy data on individual selected wardsareas of Medway NHS Foundation Trust (MWNFT). The paper also presents successful tests performed to assess the functionality of the OMU in counting people and identifying the direction of motion. The results show the potential for the OMU to count individual people as well as groups.

Pilot Study of Emergency Department Patient Vital Signs Acquisition Using Experimental Video Photoplethysmography and Passive Infrared Thermography Devices Objective: Investigators conducted pilot sessions in live Emergency Department (ED) settings to prepare for formal comparative study of contact and experimental noncontact vital signs (VS) measurement devices. Methods: Contactbased cardiorespiratory monitors (CM) and video photoplethysmography (vPPG) measured heart rates (HR); contact thermometers and passive infrared thermography (pIR) obtained core and surface temperatures. Subject VS data comprised two 25min CM and vPPG recordings (initial unprimed xe2x80x9cTriage Checkxe2x80x9d window; four 1min xe2x80x9cFull Checkxe2x80x9d windows; 20min of xe2x80x9cRestingxe2x80x9d intervals) and temperature measurements. Results: Fortyeight of 102 approached patients participated: at least 5 subjects each in 012mo, 15y, 612y, 1317y agegroups, and at least 2 subjects each in 1829y, 3039y, 4049y, 5059y, 6069y, 7079y, 80y agegroups. Subjects were 40.4% female with median Fitzpatrick skin type of 3.0 (interquartile range 13: 2.05.0), ESI score of 3.0 (2.03.0), and core temperature of 98.6xc2xb0F (97.999.1xc2xb0F). Twelve subjects were excluded from vPPG analysis due to inadequate lighting, excessive motion, andor datastream loss. From the remaining 36 subjects with median HR CM  of 78.2bpm (69.894.8bpm), vPPG measured median HR vPPG of 75.0bpm (68.393.0bpm) from 170 (70.5%) of 241 possible Full Check windows; the median difference between HR CM  and HR vPPG  was 0.6bpm (0.22.3bpm). All Emergency Severity Index (ESI) HR components for 34 subjects with Triage Check HR vPPG measurements matched CMbased ESI HR components. Median differences between contact and pIR temperatures ranged from xe2x88x925.4xc2xb0F to xe2x88x924.4xc2xb0F. Conclusion: vPPG and pIR devices experimentally measured select live VS with promising results. Significance: Pilot data and protocol testing set the groundwork for fullscale ED vPPGpIR investigation.