Method and device for swallowing impairment detection
First Claim
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1. A device for use in identifying a possible swallowing impairment in a candidate during execution of a swallowing event, the device comprising:
- a dual axis accelerometer configured for alignment along an anterior-posterior (A-P) axis and a superior-inferior (S-I) axis of the candidate'"'"'s throat and to acquire axis-specific vibrational data representative of the swallowing event; and
a processing module that is a local or remote computing device operatively coupled to the accelerometer, the processing module configured for processing the axis-specific data to (i) extract therefrom distinct axis-specific features representative of the swallowing event, the distinct axis-specific features comprising a log energy of vibrational data acquired along the A-P axis and absent a log energy of vibrational data acquired along the S-I axis, the distinct axis-specific features further comprising an entropy of vibrational data acquired along the S-I axis and absent an entropy of vibrational data acquired along the A-P axis, (ii) perform a comparison of the distinct axis-specific features against preset classification criteria defined for each of swallowing safety and swallowing efficiency, and (iii) classify the vibrational data as one of a first classification or a second classification based on the comparison of the distinct axis-specific features against the preset classification criteria defined for each of the swallowing safety and the swallowing efficiency.
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Abstract
A method and an apparatus for swallowing impairment detection acquire dual axis accelerometry data representative of one or more swallowing events executed by a candidate. Upon feature extraction and classification, vibrational data acquired in respect of each swallowing event is classified as indicative of one of normal or possibly impaired swallowing. Computer-readable media comprising statements and instructions for implementation by a processing device are also described in facilitating swallowing impairment detection respective to candidate swallowing events.
25 Citations
33 Claims
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1. A device for use in identifying a possible swallowing impairment in a candidate during execution of a swallowing event, the device comprising:
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a dual axis accelerometer configured for alignment along an anterior-posterior (A-P) axis and a superior-inferior (S-I) axis of the candidate'"'"'s throat and to acquire axis-specific vibrational data representative of the swallowing event; and a processing module that is a local or remote computing device operatively coupled to the accelerometer, the processing module configured for processing the axis-specific data to (i) extract therefrom distinct axis-specific features representative of the swallowing event, the distinct axis-specific features comprising a log energy of vibrational data acquired along the A-P axis and absent a log energy of vibrational data acquired along the S-I axis, the distinct axis-specific features further comprising an entropy of vibrational data acquired along the S-I axis and absent an entropy of vibrational data acquired along the A-P axis, (ii) perform a comparison of the distinct axis-specific features against preset classification criteria defined for each of swallowing safety and swallowing efficiency, and (iii) classify the vibrational data as one of a first classification or a second classification based on the comparison of the distinct axis-specific features against the preset classification criteria defined for each of the swallowing safety and the swallowing efficiency. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for classifying cervical dual-axis accelerometry data acquired in respect of a candidate swallowing event to identify a possible swallowing impairment, the method comprising:
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receiving as input axis-specific vibrational data from an anterior-posterior (A-P) axis and a superior-inferior (S-I) axis and representative of the swallowing event, a processing module that is a local or remote computing device operatively coupled to a dual axis accelerometer receives the axis-specific vibrational data from the dual axis accelerometer; extracting distinct axis-specific features representative of the swallowing event from the axis-specific vibrational data, the processing module extracts the distinct axis-specific features, the distinct axis-specific features comprising a log energy of vibrational data acquired along the A-P axis and absent a log energy of vibrational data acquired along the S-I axis, the distinct axis-specific features further comprising an entropy of vibrational data acquired along the S-I axis and absent an entropy of vibrational data acquired along the A-P axis; comparing the distinct axis-specific features with preset classification criteria defined as a function of the distinct axis-specific features, the processing module compares the distinct axis-specific features with the preset classification criteria; and outputting, based on the comparing step, classification of the vibrational data as one of a first classification or a second classification, the processing module outputs the classification. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method for identifying a possible swallowing impairment in a candidate via execution of one or more preset swallowing events, comprising:
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recording dual-axis vibrational data along an anterior-posterior (A-P) axis and a superior-inferior (S-I) axis, the dual-axis vibrational data is representative of the one or more preset swallowing events, a processing module that is a local or remote computing device operatively coupled to a dual axis accelerometer records the dual-axis vibrational data from the dual axis accelerometer; extracting distinct axis-specific time-frequency domain features from the dual-axis vibrational data, the processing module extracts the distinct axis-specific time-frequency domain features, the distinct axis-specific time-frequency domain features comprising a log energy of vibrational data acquired along the A-P axis and absent a log energy of vibrational data acquired along the S-I axis, the distinct axis-specific time-frequency domain features further comprising an entropy of vibrational data acquired along the S-I axis and absent an entropy of vibrational data acquired along the A-P axis; and classifying the distinct axis-specific time-frequency domain features as one of a first classification or a second classification, the processing module classifies the distinct axis-specific time-frequency domain features. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification