Noninvasive monitoring system for early detection of apnea in newborns and infants

An image-processing method has been applied to the contactless detection of the respiration activity of a baby in order to prevent the sudden infant death syndrome. By using a conventional camera to obtain a video stream, the system can estimate the respiratory rate of a newborn through an image processing algorithm in an embedded system. Likewise, if an apnea episode of more than 10 seconds occurs, an audible alarm is triggered in an effort to stop the attack; additionally, a wireless data transmission device is able to send an alarm to any nearby mobile device.