Semi-automated extraction of perinasal region of interest (ROI) from thremal facial images

S-Interface is a C# WinForms software developed by Computational Physiology Lab (CPL) at University of Houston for studying physiological variables such as perinasal perspiration, breathing rate etc. These physiological variables, particularly perspiration, account for the amount of stress faced by a human being in strenuous situations. The noticeable and frequent area of perspiration of a human body is the perinasal (around mustache) region. The accuracy of physiological algorithms running in the current S-Interface software depends on the operator selection of the measurement region of interest (MROI), which may vary from one operator to another. The main goal of this thesis is to semi-automate the MROI detection process by requiring the operator to click on the nose tip and then automatically extracting the perinasal region consistently.