Philips developing camera that can monitor your vital signs just by watching you - CNET

Philips was in New York recently to show off some future health technology as part of its Iovation Experience.

There was some interesting stuff, but one thing that stood out was a "contactless monitoring" system that was able to show your pulse and breathing rate without anything touching your body. All the monitoring is done with a camera, which feeds images to a computer ruing Philips proprietary software that then detects changes in your skin color (imperceptible to the human eye) to get a pulse reading. It can also calculate your breathing rate from subtle changes in body movement.

While this technology is still in the research and development phase it shows off the future of medicine. Some day these cameras could be set up in hospitals, doctors offices and or even in your own home, with maybe even a future smartphone serving as the monitoring device.

Philips is still developing the technology, but it's already done laboratory studies and expects to undertake clinical studies in the coming months.