Non-contact method for measuring facial skin temperature

Because facial skin temperature varies with sensations, it is an effective means of objectively evaluating sensations. The present report proposes a method that continuously measures facial skin temperature automatically using color and infrared cameras. With this method, the skin temperature range within an infrared image is superimposed over the skin color range within a color image to produce overlapping areas from which the facial area is extracted. Low-luminosity areas are then extracted from the extracted facial area in order to identify the eyes and eyebrows. Once the eyes and eyebrows are identified, the nose and forehead sections can be identified using their relative positions to the eyes and eyebrows, so now skin temperature for relevant facial areas can be measured from infrared image values. Relevance to the industry The present method can be used to develop systems that evaluate sensations through facial skin temperature without placing stress on test subjects. Accidents caused by human error can be prevented, because the system estimates both stress and fatigue of operators in nuclear power plant.