Incubator illumination

摘要

Monitoring of infants in an incubator may use cameras to measure vital signs and other medical parameters, including oxygen saturation of arterial blood. However, the images obtained by these cameras suffer from a reduced signal-to-noise ratio due to specular reflectance from light reflecting off the skin of the infant. By including radiation scattering structures within the incubator walls and light sources arranged along the edges of the incubator walls, diffuse illumination may be achieved, specular reflectance may be reduced, and the above-mentioned adverse affects on the signal-to-noise ratio of the camera images may be avoided and/or reduced.

主权项

1. An incubator system configured to provide illumination for one or more cameras, comprising:
a plurality of walls forming a cavity, the walls being substantially transparent, wherein the individual walls include
(i) a surface that faces into the cavity,(ii) a surface that faces away from the cavity, and(iii) edges along top, bottom and sides, wherein at least two of the plurality of walls includes radiation scattering structures arranged to scatter electromagnetic radiation, the scattered electromagnetic radiation being guided within the wall and being guided out into the cavity through the surface that faces into the cavity, such that at least part of the cavity is illuminated diffusely; one or more sensors that generate one or more output signals conveying information related to a position of an infant within the cavity; one or more light sources configured such that electromagnetic radiation emitted by the one or more light sources is guided into one of the walls that includes the radiation scattering structures; and one or more processors configured to execute computer program modules, the computer program modules comprising:
a positioning module configured to determine the position of an infant within the cavity, wherein the determination is based on information from the one or more sensors; anda light module configured to control the one or more light sources based on the determined position of the infant such that electromagnetic radiation emitted by the one or more light sources impacts specular reflectance observed through at least one camera by affecting an incidence angle between the one or more light sources and the at least one camera.