Recognizing area of pulsations on the neck via video camera systems

This paper presents the principle of a non-contact method to detect area of pulsations (AP) on a patient´s neck via a video camera system for medical applications such as jugular venous pulsations (JVP). The color frames in the video clips are used to pinpoint the areas of pulsations after the frames going through principal processing such as denoising, motion tracking, and light enhancing. The capturing system comprises a video camera and a computer with a custom built program installed to capture and process the frames. Experiments were performed to detect the area of the right jugular venous pulsation. The results are comparable to the observation of the doctors who are experts in jugular venous pressure. Recognizing the area of pulsations is significant in determining the cardiopulmonary status, especially with the highest oscillation point of the right internal JVP (IJVP) to calculate the jugular venous pressure. This preliminary work has not yet distinguished different types of pulsation on the neck such as jugular venous pulsations, external jugular venous pulsations, or carotid artery pulsations.