Non-Contact Measurement of Blood Oxygen Saturation Using Facial Video Without Reference Values

The continuous measurement of percutaneous oxygen saturation (SpO2) enables diseases that cause hypoxemia to be detected early and patients’ conditions to be monitored. Currently, SpO2 is mainly measured using a pulse oximeter, which, owing to its simplicity, can be used in clinical settings and at home. However, the pulse oximeter requires a sensor to be in contact with the skin; therefore, prolonged use of the pulse oximeter for neonates or patients with sensitive skin may cause local inflammation or stress due to restricted movement. In addition, owing to COVID-19, there has been a growing demand for the contactless measurement of SpO2. Several studies on measuring SpO2 without contact used skin video images have been conducted. However, in these studies, the SpO2 values were estimated using a linear regression model or a look-up table that required reference values obtained using a contact-type pulse oximeter. In this study, we propose a new technique for the contactless measurement of SpO2 that does not require reference values. Specifically, we used certain approaches that reduced the influence of non-pulsating components and utilized different light wavelengths of video images that penetrated subcutaneously to different depths. We experimentally investigated the accuracy of SpO2 measurements using the proposed methods. The results indicate that the proposed methods were more accurate than the conventional method.