Analysis on Chewing and Swallowing Motions Based on Feature points of Throat

Abstract

Ingestion of food and water is an important part of human life support. However, as we age, oral sensation and saliva secretion decline, so it tends to be difficult to swallow. The elderly persons often suffer from aspiration, such as choking when food gets stuck in the throat or pneumonia when it enters the lungs. As the evaluation test, there are many method such as conventional screening tests such as repetitive saliva swallowing test (RSST), water swallowing test (MWST), food test (FT), cough test, and pre- and post-swallowing radiography (SwXP). However, these screening tests require help of the professional persons who also have specialized knowledge to perform the tests, such as occupational therapists and speech pathologists. In this study, we developed a simple non-contact sensing system for eating and swallowing motions using image processing. By observing the image of the throat and capturing the movements with optical flow, we analyzed the motions of the feature points on the throat and we were able to discriminate between chewing and swallowing.