Level-Set Segmentation-Based Respiratory Volume Estimation Using a Depth Camera

In this paper, a method is proposed to measure human respiratory volume using a depth camera. The level-set segmentation method, combined with spatial and temporal information, was used to measure respiratory volume accurately. The shape of the human chest wall was used as spatial information. As temporal information, the segmentation result from the previous frame in the time-aligned depth image was used. The results of the proposed method were verified using a ventilator. The proposed method was also compared with other level-set methods. The result showed that the mean tidal volume error of the proposed method was 8.41% compared to the actual tidal volume. This was calculated to have less error than with two other methods: the level-set method with spatial information (14.34%) and the level-set method with temporal information (10.93%). The difference between these methods of tidal volume error was statistically significant (p <; 0.0001). The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of the respiratory volume waveform measured by a ventilator and by the proposed method was 0.893 on an average, while the ICC between the ventilator and the other methods were 0.837 and 0.879 on an average.