New tool detects vital signs of premature babies through non-invasive methods

INESC TEC’s SEED project MICOS – Monitoring Infants with a Contactless Solution, developed a tool for detecting vital signs in premature babies using low-cost cameras and computer vision algorithms.

Hélder Oliveira, researcher at INESC TEC and project coordinator, explained that “vital signs are crucial to monitor the evolution of patients during hospitalisation. In the case of new-borns, this monitoring process plays a major role, since it allows the early detection of medical conditions and the definition of corresponding treatment. With the new technology, and resorting to the images of the babies’ faces, we were able to measure the respiratory and heart rate without the need to use probes applied directly to the skin, thus improving the patients’ well-being, and reducing potential problems on the epidermis”.

The MICOS project, funded by INESC TEC at €15K, is currently in the prototype and testing phase, in real and offline environments.

The INESC TEC researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC.