Potential Pneumoconiosis Patients Monitoring and Warning System with Acoustic Signal

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Signal Processing
• Respiratory Medicine

Background:

• Early detection of pneumoconiosis is crucial for prevention.
• Traditional monitoring methods (wearable sensors, cameras) have limitations.
• Wireless sensing, particularly acoustic signals, offers contactless and low-cost monitoring advantages.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a contactless, low-cost system (P3Warning) for early pneumoconiosis symptom detection.
• To utilize inaudible acoustic signals for monitoring abnormal respiration and cough.
• To overcome challenges in contactless vital sign sensing using acoustic signals.

Main Methods:

• A system using commercial speakers and microphones to capture inaudible acoustic signals.
• Development of a delay elimination method for transceiver signal synchronization.
• Implementation of a search-based strategy for long-distance vital sign sensing.
• Application of signal decomposition for respiration waveform reconstruction and cough detection.

Main Results:

• P3Warning achieved a median error of 0.39 bpm for abnormal respiration monitoring.
• The system demonstrated 95% accuracy for cough detection.
• Effective contactless sensing was achieved up to a range of 4 meters.

Conclusions:

• P3Warning offers a robust and accurate contactless solution for early pneumoconiosis symptom monitoring.
• The system leverages inaudible acoustic signals, overcoming limitations of existing methods.
• This technology has the potential to improve early intervention and patient outcomes for pneumoconiosis.