Contactless recording of vital parameters to evaluate the quality of sleep in the nursing environment

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a nervous system disorder that causes severe physical weakness in patients worldwide. The number of people affected in Europe is currently estimated at two million, including around 300,000 in Germany. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a sharp increase in the number of affected people can be expected. The post-viral symptoms such as fatigue, muscle pain, and neurocognitive symptoms that occur after a corona infection are known as long-COVID. It is assumed that around 30% of those infected with COVID-19 suffer from these symptoms.
The goal of this work is to develop contactless monitoring of body parameters of CFS patients, quantify the level of activity and thus avoid overexertion of patients. Measurable parameters include vital and sleep parameters. The measurement hardware consists of a multispectral 3D sensor system with an RGB camera and two near-infrared cameras, as well as dedicated narrow-band infrared LEDs. Sleep parameters are estimated through the estimation of the pose of the person lying in the bed although a blanket obscures the person. Vital parameters are determined by measuring and analyzing the time course of color, spectral, and temperature values of human skin. Using ensemble learning approaches, the body parameters are bundled into a sleep protocol and quantified to a sleep score. A connection to a database and the design of a visualization system allows for two-way feedback, for both the patient and the physician. The measurements are carried out with reference to polysomnography, the gold standard in sleep diagnostics. The visualized results are evaluated by sleep physicians.
The proposed solution for contactless sleep quality monitoring of CFS patients has the potential of improving the assessment of available energy during the day and therefore reduce overexertion events. This hypothesis shall be validated and quantified with respect to polysomnography in the continuation of this study.