Development of a real-time analyzer for peripheral venous evaluation during blood pressure measurement

A home healthcare monitoring system is a useful tool to check the cardiovascular condition in our daily life. Instead of diagnostic medical equipment, low-cost infrared cameras can measure vein images noninvasively and simply. However, the recorded image may result in low contrast with external noise. An efficient image filtering method to assess the state of peripheral veins will enable the early detection of disease. Therefore, a real-time analyzer with a new filtering method was developed for evaluating vein images acquired from a near-infrared camera. The novel image filter was automatically designed by the genetic algorithm with the expectation maximization algorithm, and it was able to alter the low image quality. If the real-time analyzer developed for the assessment of venous states is incorporated into e-healthcare applications, it could be easily distributed through smartphones or tablets.