| abstract |
The present invention relates to a device and a method for extracting physiological information from remotely detected electromagnetic radiation (15) emitted or reflected by a subject. A data stream (24) derived from detected electromagnetic radiation (14) is received, the data stream (24) comprising a sequence (102) of signal samples (104) representing a region of interest (58; 108) exhibiting a continuous or discrete characteristic signal (128) including physiological information indicative of at least one at least partially periodic vital signal (20; 138, 142). The sequence (102) of signal samples (104) is selectively partitioned into at least two distinct sub-sequences (116a, 116b, 116c, 116d) of defined signal subsets (66, 84) representing spatial sub-regions of the region of interest (58; 108). Each of a plurality of the at least two distinct sub-sequences (116a, 116b, 116c, 116d) is processed and thereby a plurality of distinct indicative characteristic sub-signals (74a, 74b, 74c, 74d; 122) is extracted, wherein each of the at least two distinct indicative characteristic sub-signals (74a, 74b, 74c, 74d; 122) is extracted from a respective distinct sub-sequence (116a, 116b, 116c, 116d). Consequently, an enhanced characteristic signal (72; 135) is generated by combining the extracted characteristic sub-signals (74a, 74b, 74c, 74d; 122). |