BIE-PInCS: Brain injury evaluation with pupillometer based on infrared camera system

Filippo Bracco, Chiara Di Vece, Luca Cerina, Marco D. Santambrogio

Abstract: Concussion is the leading cause of death among young people under 40 years in industrialized countries, and it is fundamental to diagnose it optimally and steadily after an head trauma. The reactivity to light of both the pupils, the photopupillary reflex, is useful to evaluate the severity of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). However, the limited capabilities of the first responders and the absence of precise quantitative assessment methods increase the complexity of TBI diagnoses for first medical responders. The aim of this project is to realize an integrated device, based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology, for pupillometry measurements in order to help the neurological assessment at the Point-of-Care. Thanks to the pupil detection and tracking, the automatic pupillometer allows to estimate the pupil diameter and the speed of response to light flashes, providing a quantitative information to help medical doctors. Precision and repeatability of measurements could be also helpful to evaluate subject's condition during rehabilitation phase and avoid post-trauma issues. The proposed device guarantees real-time pupillary measurement with an infrared camera at 60 fps, with an overall speed of execution of 8.7 ms per frame (114 fps). Furthermore, thanks to FPGA characteristics, the proposed device is highly reconfigurable, portable, and power efficient.