Instrumentation for measuring frequency of cough

Existing methods of determining cough frequency rely on self-report or tedious manual scoring. A new method for detecting cough is developed based on continuous sensing of three physiological events that occur during a cough. The method for counting coughs consists of detecting three events occurring above a threshold: electromyographic (EMG) activity of expiratory muscles, acceleration/vibration of the abdominal wall, and sound. The ultimate goal of this research is the production of a monitor for cough, similar to a Holter electrocardiographic event recorder.