Xerox, Manipal to Develop Non-Contact Diagnostics Solutions

Xerox is collaborating with Manipal University Hospital to develop a noncontact health-sensing technology at its research centre in Bangalore, the company told reporters on Thursday.

Under the collaboration, it is working on the neonatal unit, where it can analyse and detect respiratory and other medical conditions in infants without requiring contact probes attached to the skin. The new non-contact diagnostics solution can obtain and track healthcare vitals such as heart rate, temperature and some respiratory functions . It can also detect cardiac dysrhythmia (irregular heart beat) with the help of imaging technology.

Xerox has developed image and signal processing algorithms that convert patient video captured from cameras into health indicators such as heart rate. The light emitted from the cameras penetrates into the patient's skin allowing information to be captured and converted to health indicators. The visible light is captured and is not harmful, making it suitable for long observation periods, Xerox researchers in Bangalore said.

Apart from this, researchers are also working on distributed emergency care management with the goal of reducing morbidity and mortality of patients. "This research can have great implications for the future of healthcare and telemedicine in the country," said Manish Gupta, vice president, Xerox and director of Xerox Research Centre in India ( XCRI). XRCI was established in 2009 with seven researchers.

It has now grown to more than 35 researches. The centre is focused in areas of human computing, mobility, analytics and distributed computing in verticals such as healthcare, banking, transportation and education.