Patient video monitoring systems and methods for thermal detection of liquids

Inventors

Johnson, Steven Gaildel Carpio, DerekChapman, Kenneth W.

Assignees

CareView Communications Inc

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Publication Number

US-10565456-B2

Patent

Publication Date

2020-02-18

Expiration Date


Abstract

A system for monitoring a patient in a patient area having one or more detection zones, the system comprising one or more cameras, a user interface, and a computing system configured to receive a chronological series of frames from the one or more cameras, identify liquid candidates by comparing a current frame with a plurality of previous frames of the chronological series, determine locations of the liquid candidates, identify thermal signatures of the liquid candidates, determine types of liquids of the liquid candidates based on the locations and thermal signatures of the liquid candidates, and generate an alert with the user interface corresponding to the determined types of liquids.

Core Innovation

The disclosed invention relates to monitoring a patient in a patient area having one or more detection zones using one or more cameras, a user interface, and a computing system. The computing system receives a chronological series of frames from the one or more cameras and compares a current frame with a plurality of previous frames to identify liquid candidates, determine locations of the liquid candidates, and identify thermal signatures of the liquid candidates.

The system determines that the liquid candidates are intravenous (IV) liquids based on the locations and thermal signatures of the liquid candidates, and determines volumes of the IV liquids in the current frame and in the plurality of previous frames. It compares the volumes across time, determines a rate of change of the IV liquids, determines depletion of the IV liquids, and determines an estimate of when the depletion of the IV liquids will occur.

The invention also generates an alert with the user interface corresponding to the determined types of liquids, including alerts corresponding to the classification of the liquid candidates as intravenous (IV) liquids. In additional embodiments described by the claims, bodily fluid identification is based on locations and thermal/spectral signatures, and can further use a warm substance near the patient and/or a dispersion pattern.

Claims Coverage

The document includes two independent claims. Both share the same core inventive workflow with six inventive features related to frame comparison, liquid-candidate detection, thermal-signature identification, IV liquid classification, time-based volume comparison and depletion estimation, and alert generation; the second independent claim is a method version that additionally specifies thermal sensors as part of the received frames.

Frame comparison for liquid candidates and locations

receiving a chronological series of frames from the one or more cameras; identifying liquid candidates by comparing a current frame with a plurality of previous frames of the chronological series; determine locations of the liquid candidates

Thermal signatures for liquid candidate characterization

identify thermal signatures of the liquid candidates

IV liquid classification from locations and thermal signatures

determine that the liquid candidates are intravenous (IV) liquids based on the locations and thermal signatures of the liquid candidates

Time-based IV volume comparison and rate of change

determine volumes of the IV liquids in the current frame; determine volumes of the IV liquids in the plurality of previous frames; compare the volumes of the IV liquids in the current frame to the volumes of the IV liquids in the plurality of previous frames; determine a rate of change of the IV liquids

Depletion determination and depletion timing estimate

determine depletion of the IV liquids based on the identified volumes from the comparison; determine an estimate of when the depletion of the IV liquids will occur

Alert generation corresponding to determined types of liquids

generate an alert with the user interface corresponding to the determined types of liquids

Thermal sensors in chronological frames for a monitoring method

receiving, by a computing system, a chronological series of frames from one or more cameras including thermal sensors; identifying, by the computing system, liquid candidates and volumes by comparing a current frame with a plurality of previous frames of the chronological series; determining, by the computing system, locations of the liquid candidates

Thermal signatures based on electronic signals from thermal sensors

identifying, by the computing system, thermal signatures of the liquid candidates based on electronic signals from the thermal sensors

Method classification as IV liquids based on locations and thermal signatures

determining, by the computing system, that the liquid candidates are IV liquids based on the locations and thermal signatures of the liquid candidates; determining, by the computing system, volumes of the IV liquids in the current frame; determining, by the computing system, volumes of the IV liquids in the plurality of previous frames; comparing, by the computing system, the volumes of the IV liquids in the current frame to the volumes of the IV liquids in the plurality of previous frames

Method depletion and depletion timing estimate with alert generation

determining, by the computing system, a rate of change of the IV liquids; determining, by the computing system, depletion of the IV liquids based on the identified volumes from the comparison; determining, by the computing system, an estimate of when the depletion of the IV liquids will occur; and generating, by the computing system, an alert with a user interface corresponding to the determined types of liquids

Overall, the independent claims cover a patient monitoring system/method that identifies liquid candidates by comparing a current frame with previous frames, determines locations and thermal signatures, classifies candidates as intravenous (IV) liquids from locations and thermal signatures, estimates IV volume and depletion by comparing volumes across time to determine a rate of change and depletion timing, and generates user-interface alerts corresponding to the determined types of liquids. Dependent claims further narrow extraction and classification by specifying background separation approaches and additional IV and bodily-fluid criteria, including bodily-fluid identification using locations, thermal/spectral signatures, warm-substance proximity, and/or dispersion patterns.

Stated Advantages

Enable generation of an alert corresponding to the determined types of liquids.

Determine depletion of intravenous (IV) liquids and estimate when the depletion will occur.

Determine a rate of change of the IV liquids based on volume comparison across frames.

Documented Applications

No documented applications found

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