Face Images, Feature Extraction and Pattern Recognition: Computational Methods to Assess Neonatal Procedural Pain

• Grant number: 18/13076-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2018
• End date: April 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computing Methodologies and Techniques
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Eduardo Thomaz
• Grantee: Carlos Eduardo Thomaz
• Host Institution: Centro Universitário FEI (UNIFEI). Campus de São Bernardo do Campo. São Bernardo do Campo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: MARINA CARVALHO DE MORAES BARROS ; Rita de Cássia Xavier Balda ; Ruth Guinsburg ; Tatiany Marcondes Heiderich

Abstract

More than 500 painful interventions are carried out during the hospitalization of a newborn baby in an intensive medical care unit. In these situations, there is, however, a challenging difficulty to identify pain, owing to the unlikeliness of direct and objective verbal communication commonly used among adults. Over the last decades, research on pain assessment has allowed the investigation and development of non-invasive approaches to automatic monitoring neonates subjected to painful procedures related to daily care management. In this context, changes on facial movements and expression have provided relevant scientific information and clinical significance for not only describing the presence of the pain itself perceived by the newborns, but also their emotional status. The aim of this research project is to develop a computational framework to interpreting and recognizing patterns on face images for automatic assessment of neonatal procedural pain. More specifically, our goal will focus on the investigation, implementation and combination of face image detection, segmentation, registration and classification techniques based on information extracted by data mining and human cognitive perception. The newborn face database has been developed by a national research group expert on this issue that jointly composes the research team of this project. We believe that such investigation might provide a general computational processing suitable to understanding the relation between neonatal facial movements and procedural pain and, consequently, helping health professionals in the corresponding clinical practice. (AU)

Scientific publications

(8)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SILVA, GISELLE VALERIO TEIXEIRA DA; BARROS, MARINA CARVALHO DE MORAES; SOARES, JULIANA DO CARMO AZEVEDO; CARLINI, LUCAS PEREIRA; HEIDERICH, TATIANY MARCONDES; ORSI, RAFAEL NOBRE; BALDA, RITA DE CASSIA XAVIER; THOMAZ, CARLOS EDUARDO; GUINSBURG, RUTH. What Facial Features Does the Pediatrician Look to Decide That a Newborn Is Feeling Pain?. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PERINATOLOGY, JUN 2021. (12/50157-0, 18/13076-9)

DE MORAES BARROS, MARINA CARVALHO; THOMAZ, CARLOS EDUARDO; TEIXEIRA DA SILVA, GISELLE VALERIO; AZEVEDO SOARES, JULIANA DO CARMO; CARLINI, LUCAS PEREIRA; HEIDERICH, TATIANY MARCONDES; ORSI, RAFAEL NOBRE; XAVIER BALDA, RITA DE CASSIA; SANTOS ORONA SILVA, PEDRO AUGUSTO; SANUDO, ADRIANA; et al. Identification of pain in neonates: the adults' visual perception of neonatal facial features. Journal of Perinatology, v. 41, n. 9, JUL 2021. (18/13076-9, 12/50157-0)

TAMANAKA, FERNANDA G.; CARLINI, LUCAS PEREIRA; HEIDERICH, TATIANY M.; BALDA, RITA C. X.; BARROS, MARINA C. M.; GUINSBURG, RUTH; THOMAZ, CARLOS E.. Neonatal pain assessment: A Kendall analysis between clinical and visually perceived facial features. COMPUTER METHODS IN BIOMECHANICS AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING-IMAGING AND VISUALIZATION, v. N/A, p. 10-pg., 2022-03-08. (18/13076-9)

SILVA, GISELLE VALERIO TEIXEIRA DA; BARROS, MARINA CARVALHO DE MORAES; SOARES, JULIANA DO CARMO AZEVEDO; CARLINI, LUCAS PEREIRA; HEIDERICH, TATIANY MARCONDES; ORSI, RAFAEL NOBRE; BALDA, RITA DE CASSIA XAVIER; THOMAZ, CARLOS EDUARDO; GUINSBURG, RUTH. What Facial Features Does the Pediatrician Look to Decide That a Newborn Is Feeling Pain?. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PERINATOLOGY, v. N/A, p. 7-pg., 2021-06-30. (18/13076-9, 12/50157-0)

AZEVEDO SOARES, JULIANA DO CARMO; DE MORAES BARROS, MARINA CARVALHO; TEIXEIRA DA SILVA, GISELLE VALERIO; CARLINI, LUCAS PEREIRA; HEIDERICH, TATIANY MARCONDES; ORSI, RAFAEL NOBRE; XAVIER BALDA, RITA DE CASSIA; SANTOS ORONA SILVA, PEDRO AUGUSTO; THOMAZ, CARLOS EDUARDO; GUINSBURG, RUTH. Looking at neonatal facial features of pain: do health and non-health professionals differ?. Jornal de Pediatria, v. 98, n. 4, p. 7-pg., 2022-06-30. (12/50157-0, 18/13076-9)

CARLINI, LUCAS P.; FERREIRA, LEONARDO A.; COUTRIN, GABRIEL A. S.; VAROTO, VICTOR V.; HEIDERICH, TATIANY M.; BALDA, RITA C. X.; BARROS, MARINA C. M.; GUINSBURG, RUTH; THOMAZ, CARLOS E.; IEEE COMP SOC. A Convolutional Neural Network-based Mobile Application to Bedside Neonatal Pain Assessment. 2021 34TH SIBGRAPI CONFERENCE ON GRAPHICS, PATTERNS AND IMAGES (SIBGRAPI 2021), v. N/A, p. 8-pg., 2021-01-01. (18/13076-9)

ORSI, RAFAEL NOBRE; CARLINI, LUCAS PEREIRA; HEIDERICH, TATIANY MARCONDES; DA SILVA, GISELLE VALERIO TEIXEIRA; SOARES, JULIANA DO CARMO AZEVEDO; BALDA, RITA DE CASSIA XAVIER; BARROS, MARINA CARVALHO DE MORAES; GUINSBURG, RUTH; THOMAZ, CARLOS EDUARDO. Visual attention during neonatal pain assessment: A 2-s exposure to a facial expression is sufficient. ELECTRONICS LETTERS, v. 59, n. 6, p. 3-pg., 2023-03-01. (18/13076-9)

SILVA JUNIOR, LAERCIO; DA SILVA, WILSON; THOMAZ, CARLOS; IEEE COMP SOC. Performance analysis of chess players comparing traditional and novel cognitive perception ranking measures. 2021 34TH SIBGRAPI CONFERENCE ON GRAPHICS, PATTERNS AND IMAGES (SIBGRAPI 2021), v. N/A, p. 7-pg., 2021-01-01. (18/13076-9, 12/22377-6)