Feasibility of Contactless Pulse Rate Monitoring of Neonates using Google Glass

In neonatal intensive care units in hospitals, vital signs of neonates are monitored continuously using wired sensors. However, these wired sensors introduce skin irritations, pain, discomfort and sleep disruptions for the neonates. State of the art camera-based vital sign algorithms are becoming popular as a solution to these issues. However, there are limited investigations into the feasibility of monitoring the neonates in a clinical setting with these algorithms. Also, recent emergence of a wide variety of wearable head-mounted devices, like Google Glass, enable vital sign monitoring to be ubiquitous. Again, feasibility of the use of such a device for vital sign monitoring is unknown. This paper investigates both the feasibility of using a camera-based algorithm for pulse rate monitoring of neonates in a clinical setting and the feasibility of using Google Glass for such pulse rate monitoring. The results of our research show under what conditions the monitoring of the pulse rate of neonates would be reliable and highlights the challenging conditions. Also, they give insights into the applicability of a Google Glass prototype for pulse rate monitoring and it’s current limitations.