Statistical and Machine Learning-Based Recognition of Coughing Events Using Triaxial Accelerometer Sensor Data From Multiple Wearable Points

Recent studies have investigated the use of the accelerometer sensors in smartphones and wearable devices for human activity recognition such as sitting, standing, walking, and laying down with reasonably high accuracy. In this letter, we use a triaxial microelectromechanical accelerometer that is commonly used in smartphones to detect and discern coughing events. Our letter focuses on detecting and differentiating coughing from other human activities such as sitting, standing, and walking using accelerometer's x, y, and z data from various body positions where electronics such as smartphones, watches, headphones, and earphones are commonly worn. Our research compares acceleration measured at five different positions on the body: chest, stomach, shirt-pocket, upper arm, and ear. The measurements are analyzed in the x, y, and z directions using the statistical and machine learning (ML) approaches to study how well coughing activity can be differentiated from acceleration due to other human motions. Analysis of the measured data using both methods show accelerometers mounted on the ear/headphones to be the ideal spot to detect and differentiate coughing with the highest accuracy. ML analysis of accelerometer measurements on ear and chest shows 96 and 93% accuracy, respectively, for cough detection. Measurements show the standard deviation and convolution neural network detection accuracy for cough detection in the ear to be 15 and 3% more sensitive compared to the next best position, which is chest.