Conventional physiological monitoring relies on multiple contact-based biomedical sensors, such as electrocardiograms, pulse oximeters, and blood pressure (BP) cuffs, which often necessitate the use of cumbersome sensors (e. g. , electrodes, patches, diodes) and extensive wiring. These conventional methods not only impose significant inconvenience on both caregivers and patients but also elevate the risk of patient infections. In this study, we introduce a novel non-contact, multi-parameter vital signs monitoring platform based on the red, green and near Infrared (RG-IR) spectral imaging system, which measures five critical patient parameters in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), including heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate (RR), blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂) and BP. Clinical trials were conducted in the ICUs of two hospitals, involving 30 critically ill patients. The clinical outcomes indicate that our system achieves reasonable performance, with mean absolute errors of 1. 89 bpm for HR, 19. 04 ms for SDNN (standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals), 0. 99 bpm for RR, 2. 75% for SpO₂ and 5. 67-8. 98 mmHg for BP, providing timely physiological information and marking a significant step toward contactless ICU monitoring. Additionally, the real-time performance of the core algorithms were validated on low-cost embedded chips, demonstrating the system's capability for edge computation and on-board patient monitoring. The proposed system has entered the registration process of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) as a Class II medical device (No. 2024007).
Huang et al. (2025) studied this question.