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Another acoustics question - what will it take to develop a cough and breathing analyser

BigG

Hi all

 

Following on from the valuable feedback I received from my last acoustics related question on developing a high pass filter, I wanted to open up this highly topical acoustics related question.

 

As we probably all know by now, the covid-19 coronovirus has some fairly specific symptoms, one of which is a dry cough and/or breathing difficulties.

 

As I had acoustics projects on my brain, I wondered what techniques and sensors could be used to detect a cough and with the use of machine learning and/or AI is there a means of differentiating different coughs (as well as breathing patterns). Maybe this could then eventually form some type of data set for automated monitoring.

 

I did a quick online search and this academic paper (published 2018) popped up on my search list, which is a rather useful reference: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/js/2018/9845321/

 

So, I thought this could make for an interesting community related project and hence I'm putting it out there.

 

Where does one start, for example? Does this require a low pass filter or a pass band filter? What other acoustic techniques could be used etc.

 

Similarly with breathing - what techniques and sensors would be best suited to monitor the speed and depth of breathing.

 

Any thoughts and suggestions, will be welcomed.

 

Thanks

 

Colin (BigG)

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    Thanks for all the very helpful replies.

     

    When starting off, I like to aim at developing a low cost product/system that just works.

     

    In this case I think it is a not that straight forward as a mobile phone or tablet could be readily used as a substitute to achieve the same goal, assuming the software can be developed. In my view, phones/tablets are probably the more useful for cough analysis as it can take a once off sample of a cough, while for breathing assessment a phone/tablet might not be that practicable when someone is sleeping, for example, as this requires more continuous monitoring (although if a person is sitting up it would probably work).

     

    If it is going to be a new bit of kit, which I quite like, then what components could be added (besides mic and amplifier) to our new sensor breakout board that would deliver enhancements to make it easier and more reliable for the software to come up with the correct answers.

     

    It is the hardware side that I always struggle with. So, could a decent circuit design, specific for this application, make life easier. What components could be added etc. This is the first question to look at, in my opinion.

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  • 0

    Thanks for all the very helpful replies.

     

    When starting off, I like to aim at developing a low cost product/system that just works.

     

    In this case I think it is a not that straight forward as a mobile phone or tablet could be readily used as a substitute to achieve the same goal, assuming the software can be developed. In my view, phones/tablets are probably the more useful for cough analysis as it can take a once off sample of a cough, while for breathing assessment a phone/tablet might not be that practicable when someone is sleeping, for example, as this requires more continuous monitoring (although if a person is sitting up it would probably work).

     

    If it is going to be a new bit of kit, which I quite like, then what components could be added (besides mic and amplifier) to our new sensor breakout board that would deliver enhancements to make it easier and more reliable for the software to come up with the correct answers.

     

    It is the hardware side that I always struggle with. So, could a decent circuit design, specific for this application, make life easier. What components could be added etc. This is the first question to look at, in my opinion.

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