Methods for Detecting the Patient’s Pupils’ Coordinates and Head Rotation Angle for the Video Head Impulse Test (vHIT), Applicable for the Diagnosis of Vestibular Neuritis and Pre-Stroke Conditions

Abstract

In the contemporary era, dizziness is a prevalent ailment among patients. It can be caused by either vestibular neuritis or a stroke. Given the lack of diagnostic utility of instrumental methods in acute isolated vertigo, the differentiation of vestibular neuritis and stroke is primarily clinical. As a part of the initial differential diagnosis, the physician focuses on the characteristics of nystagmus and the results of the video head impulse test (vHIT). Instruments for accurate vHIT are costly and are often utilized exclusively in healthcare settings. The objective of this paper is to review contemporary methodologies for accurately detecting the position of pupil centers in both eyes of a patient and for precisely extracting their coordinates. Additionally, the paper describes methods for accurately determining the head rotation angle under diverse imaging and lighting conditions. Furthermore, the suitability of these methods for vHIT is being evaluated. We assume the maximum allowable error is 0.005 radians per frame to detect pupils’ coordinates or 0.3 degrees per frame while detecting the head position. We found that for such conditions, the most suitable approaches for head posture detection are deep learning (including LSTM networks), search by template matching, linear regression of EMG sensor data, and optical fiber sensor usage. The most relevant approaches for pupil localization for our medical tasks are deep learning, geometric transformations, decision trees, and RASNAC. This study might assist in the identification of a number of approaches that can be employed in the future to construct a high-accuracy system for vHIT based on a smartphone or a home computer, with subsequent signal processing and initial diagnosis.