Measuring multiple physiological parameters through blind signal processing of video parameters

1. A patient support system comprising

a patient support apparatus embodied as a patient bed having a touch screen display and user inputs spaced from the touch screen display,

a camera, and

a controller coupled to the patient support apparatus and to the camera, the controller also being coupled to the touch screen display and to the user inputs, the controller configured to receive image data from the camera and to use blind signal processing image analysis to determine at least one of pulmonary and circulatory characteristics of a patient supported on the patient support apparatus and to determine a pulse transit time (PTT) of an amount of time taken for an arterial pulse pressure wave to travel from the patient's aortic valve to a peripheral site, wherein the controller is also operable to control a motion system that is operable to reposition a patient supported on the patient bed and an air system that is operable to inflate and deflate at least one bladder of a mattress of the patient bed, wherein the PTT is used to trigger a change in operational characteristics of the patient support apparatus, wherein the change in the operational characteristics includes repositioning the patient using the motion system and changing inflation of the at least one bladder using the air system.

2. The patient support system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to determine relative blood pressure value of a patient supported on the patient support apparatus based on image data from the camera.

3. The patient support system of claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to resolve color signals corresponding to a patient face and to a patient extremity based on image data from the camera, to determine blood volume pulse information corresponding to the patient face and to the patient extremity based on the color signal, and to determine a relative blood pressure value based on the blood volume pulse information corresponding to the patient face and to the patient extremity.

4. The patient support system of claim 3 , wherein resolving color signals corresponding to the patient face and to the patient extremity includes determining which portion of the image data contains a patient face and which portion of the image data contains a patient extremity.

5. The patient support system of claim 4 , wherein determining which portion of the image data contains a patient face and which portion of the image data contains a patient extremity includes detecting skin and performing gradient analysis to detect body edges.

6. The patient support system of claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to enhance the portions of the image data that contain the patient face and the patient extremity.

7. The patient support system of claim 6 , wherein the controller is configured to enhance the portions of the image data that contain the patient face and the patient extremity by blob processing the portions of the image data to reshape the image using convex hulls of contours and filling the area into a closed shape.

8. The patient support system of claim 7 , wherein the controller is configured to process the closed shape.

9. The patient support system of claim 3 , wherein determining blood volume pulse information corresponding to the patient face and to the patient extremity includes transforming the color signals into three independent source signals using independent component analysis.

10. The patient support system of claim 9 , wherein the independent component analysis is based on the joint approximate diagonalization of eigenmatrices algorithm.

11. The patient support system of claim 9 , wherein the controller is configured to order the three independent source signals by reviewing the power spectrum of the three independent source signals.

12. The patient support system of claim 11 , wherein determining blood volume pulse information corresponding to the patient face and to the patient extremity includes selecting a signal of interest with the highest peak from the three independent source signals by determining the power spectrum of the three independent signals.

13. The patient support system of claim 12 , wherein controller is configured to smooth the signal of interest using a five-point moving average filter and bandpass filter.

14. The patient support surface of claim 2 , wherein determining relative blood pressure based on the blood volume pulse information includes comparing time differences between peak blood volume pulse information corresponding to the patient face and peak blood volume pulse information corresponding to the patient extremity.

15. The patient support surface of claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to determine actual blood pressure based on the relative blood pressure value.

16. The patient support system of claim 1 , wherein the camera is coupled to the patient support apparatus.

17. A method of determining a circulatory patient characteristic corresponding to a patient supported on a patient support apparatus, the method comprising

receiving image data from a camera,

determining a pulse transit time (PTT) of an amount of time taken for an arterial pulse pressure wave to travel from the patient's aortic valve to a peripheral site and determining blood volume pulse information based on the image data using a controller of the patient support apparatus to perform blind signal processing image analysis, wherein the patient support apparatus is embodied as a patient bed having a touch screen display and user inputs spaced from the touch screen display, the controller being coupled to the touch screen display and to the user inputs, wherein the controller is also operable to control a motion system that is operable to reposition a patient supported on the patient bed and an air system that is operable to inflate and deflate at least one bladder of a mattress of the patient bed,

determining with the controller a relative blood pressure value based on the blood volume pulse information corresponding to a face of the patient and to an extremity of the patient, and

using the PTT to trigger a change in operational characteristics of the patient support apparatus, wherein the change in the operational characteristics includes repositioning the patient using the motion system and changing inflation of the at least one bladder using the air system.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising receiving an externally entered blood pressure value and determining an actual blood pressure value based on the externally entered blood pressure value and the relative blood pressure value.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein determining relative blood pressure based on the blood volume pulse information includes comparing time differences between peak blood volume pulse information corresponding to the face of the patient and peak blood volume pulse information corresponding to the extremity of the patient.

20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising determining which portion of the image data includes data corresponding to the face of the patient and which portion of the image data contains data corresponding to the extremity of the patient.