Measuring human respiration rate using depth frames of PrimeSense camera

This paper presents a method to count the number of breaths per minute (RR) using the PrimeSense camera, in particular, the depth camera. Based on the reflection of a pattern of the infrared (IR) dots on depth frames created by the IR camera, the oscillation of the certain region on human body is detected and recorded at different time points. The data are used to build a depth map whose data are converted into the distance in millimeter between the camera and the measured subject. The respiration rate measuring algorithm is designed to appropriately find the breathing rate (BR). The algorithm and method are verified in the experiments. The measured results are compared to the practical counting. The current method is now only used in off-line processing on the recorded videos, it needs to be developed to work in real time to be applicable in telehealth and computer-aided diagnosis.