No abstract

For critically ill preterm infants, there is a clinical need for contact-free monitoring technologies, which would eliminate discomfort and potential harm (e.g., necrosis) due to adhesive electrodes, temperature and saturation sensors. Hence, this chapter focuses on non-contact physiological monitoring of infants based on infrared (IR) thermography. This technique has the potential to replace the conventional temperature sensing by detecting radiated thermal energy emitted from the baby’s surface according to black-body radiation principle. This allows the application of a less invasive method giving more detailed information about the thermoregulation status of newborn infants. As an illustrative example, an investigation into thermoregulation physiology during kangaroo care method has been chosen to illustrate the benefit of this method for standardized neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) procedures. Furthermore, this technique may have a large impact on non-contact respiratory monitoring, as it allows quantitative evaluation of the heat transfer processes over nostrils region. Moreover, the ability to detect infrared respiration (IRTR) signature with thermography imaging, will pave the road toward a non-contact breathing monitoring. This in turn will influence the development efforts for wireless and smart incubator solutions.