New Frontiers for Applications of Thermal Infrared Imaging Devices: Computational Psychopshysiology in the Neurosciences

Abstract

Thermal infrared imaging has been proposed, and is now used, as a tool for the non-contact and non-invasive computational assessment of human autonomic nervous activity and psychophysiological states. Thanks to a new generation of high sensitivity infrared thermal detectors and the development of computational models of the autonomic control of the facial cutaneous temperature, several autonomic variables can be computed through thermal infrared imaging, including localized blood perfusion rate, cardiac pulse rate, breath rate, sudomotor and stress responses. In fact, all of these parameters impact on the control of the cutaneous temperature. The physiological information obtained through this approach, could then be used to infer about a variety of psychophysiological or emotional states, as proved by the increasing number of psychophysiology or neurosciences studies that use thermal infrared imaging. This paper presents a review of the principal achievements of thermal infrared imaging in computational psychophysiology, focusing on the capability of the technique for providing ubiquitous and unwired monitoring of psychophysiological activity and affective states. It also presents a summary on the modern, up-to-date infrared sensors technology.

Does Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment Induce Autonomic Changes in Healthy Participants? A Thermal Imaging Study

“…In this regard, IRI allows researchers to precisely estimate cutaneous temperature, a proxy of autonomic activity, through a contactless technique. The validity of IRI has been extensively demonstrated by studies showing how autonomic activities can be depicted from specific facial temperature patterns induced by different physical or psychological states (Shastri et al, 2009;Ioannou et al, 2014;Merla, 2014;Cardone and Merla, 2017). The specific variability of temperature patterns in distinct, standardized facial regions has been regarded as reflecting the activation or deactivation of the sympathetic nervous system.…”

Remote sensing of vital signs and biomedical parameters: A review

“…Sensors embedded in thermal cameras are manufactured to operate in the infrared spectral range (between near and far infrared). Pulse rate [10] and breathing rate [11] have been measured from thermal images (Fig.3).…”

“…This effect is even more perceptible in superficial blood vessels, like the carotid for example (Fig.3 A). Digital processing techniques allow pulse recovering from composite signals [10]. Temperature fluctuations of (A) carotid and (B) nostrils are continuously monitored to respectively measure pulse rate and breathing rate in thermal images.…”

“…Temperature fluctuations of (A) carotid and (B) nostrils are continuously monitored to respectively measure pulse rate and breathing rate in thermal images. Modified from [10] Expiration and inspiration are the two phases that characterize breathing in humans. During inspiration, heat exchanges with the external atmosphere cause a temperature decrease near the nostrils.…”

V-RBNN Based Small Drone Detection in Augmented Datasets for 3D LADAR System

“…The electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) systems based on the 2D image are efficient for detecting drones in both day and night time but they cannot differentiate between the background and the target cluster when images contain a complex background [ 4 ]. Additionally, such systems suffer from thermal image saturation due to which target sometimes overlap with the saturation region limiting the efficiency of the detection [ 5 ]. LiDAR is 3D sensor commonly used for outdoor target detection.…”