Spatiotemporal Analysis of Gel Eating Behavior Based on Multipoint Tongue Pressure Sensing

Abstract

This paper proposes a spatiotempolal analysis method of the tongue behavior in eating the nursing-care gel. First, we measure the tongue pressure in the process of eating the gel, by attaching the multipoint pressure sensor at the palate. Then, we introduce Lissajous figure drawn with two pressure waveforms measured at two different points. From the figure, we define three feature values: the pressure level, the pressure distribution angle, and the pressure phase difference. Finally, we confirm the correlations between the feature values and the values of sensory evaluation about the texture. The proposed method has a potential to be a useful tool for investigating the relationship between the tongue behavior and the texture of gel.