Vision Sensing Technologies for Healthcare Diagnosis

Inspired by recent advances in computer vision together with medical evidences indicating correlation between facial symptoms and some medical conditions, this project aims to devise computational models for detecting abnormalities reflective of diseases in person's facial structures and expressions based mainly on visual information. This would help designing futuristic unobtrusive technologies for health diagnosis and monitoring that people can effortlessly use in their daily lives without any contact. Imagine a "magic" mirror at home which unobtrusively monitors your physiological health measurements (e.g. heart rate and blood pressure), recognizes your affect states (e.g. stress and fatigue) and diagnoses possible diseases (e.g. imminent stroke or kidney infection) by only observing your face while you are in front of the mirror for activities such as shaving, brushing your teeth or washing your face. Such a "magic" medical mirror could, for instance, provide real-time feedback information about your health condition and even act as an assistive and therapeutic device by displaying a realistic 3D face avatar for engaging emotional interaction and preventive activities. As a second example, imagine a doctor wearing "smart" glasses which can unobtrusively estimate the pain of neonates and post-surgery patients that are incapable of articulating and expressing their pain experiences.

Strategic research project of the University of Oulu

Focus institute: Infotech Oulu

Faculty: Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE)