Abstract— The respiration rate of patients is an important vital sign that can be used in diagnosing various diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer…etc. It must be continuously monitored during any surgery and in the post-anesthesia care unit. A nasal cannula or a face mask Capnometry is the standard tool for monitoring the respiration rate. However, such tools might be poorly tolerated and displaced, leading to inaccurate measurements or false alarms. In this paper, a novel noninvasive system is presented to measure the respiration rate of patients. The system is based on a LED transmitter and an optical detector array. The results show that the sensory system is able to follow and record the breathing rhythm perfectly. The amplitude of the measured signal and number of peaks indicate the respiration depth and rate, respectively. The number of pulses at the output of the system matches very well the counting of the respiration rate taken by the subject. This system has an advantage in performing the respiration rate measurements non-invasively to avoid the problems of dislodging or displacing the sensor at the interface. Additionally, it has an advantage of separating the sensor from being in-contact with the subject body, which is an important factor to avoid the risk of infectious diseases. Such a system can be considered as a cost effective solution for noninvasive respiration rate monitoring systems.