Low-Cost Joystick for Pediatric Respiratory Exercises
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Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Employing the Forced Oscillation Technique for the Assessment of Respiratory Mechanics in Adults
Published on: February 9, 2022
André Sanches Fonseca Sobrinho1, Paulo Rogério Scalassara2, María Eugenia Dajer1
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Technology - Paraná, Cornélio Procópio, Brazil.
Abstract:
The use of body signals for health care applications has become ubiquitous in the last decade. One utilization of such measurements is the monitoring of respiratory flow for physiotherapy assistance. This application is based on relative flow measures which can rely on inexpensive sensors. Based on that, we present a low-cost electronic device that detects blows and suctions with a pressure sensor and emulates a keyboard for interfacing with computers. This joystick allows children to control free internet games by associating blows and suctions with different intensities to keyboard actions. Also, the intensity can be calibrated according to the user's pulmonary capacities. This feature is adequate for gradual respiratory physiotherapy and can be customized for each patient. In order to verify the operation of the proposed device, practical tests were performed with three online free games, where the joystick functionality was assessed with different therapeutic configurations.
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