Feasibility analysis of the fusion of pressure sensors and audio measurements for respiratory evaluations

The field of remote health monitoring is a growing field, which is being driven by the rapid advances in sensors and sensor measurement systems. The respiratory system can be affected by a variety of underlying conditions and respiratory event monitoring can provide medical professionals with information that would otherwise be unavailable. A key area of concern is respiration over the course of a night, changes in which can be indicative of breathing and sleep related disorders. Previous work has proposed the use of pressure sensitive mats (PSM) or audio measurement to independently detect these changes. However, neither the PSM measurement nor the audio measurement is able to capture all respiratory events and there are privacy concerns associated with continuous monitoring (especially when recording audio). This paper presents the feasibility of a system that would utilize both PSM and audio measurements. Here, a single participant was asked to lay down on a PSM and to perform a series of respiratory events (normal breathing, fast breathing, slow breathing, gasping, mimicking central sleep apnea, wheezing, snoring, and coughing) while a microphone was recording. Signal processing was applied to both measurements in order to investigate both breathing rate and uncommon respiratory events. The resulting signals were then compared. The advantages and disadvantages of both measurements are discussed and a sample scenario of the fusion of audio and PSM measurements is presented in order to capture obstructive sleep apnea events.