Medical Engineering & Physics
Volume 32, Issue 6 , Pages 668-672, July 2010

Vocalization removal for improved automatic segmentation of dual-axis swallowing accelerometry signals

  • Ervin Sejdić

      Affiliations

    • Bloorview Research Institute, Bloorview Kids Rehab and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • ,
  • Tiago H. Falk

      Affiliations

    • Bloorview Research Institute, Bloorview Kids Rehab and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • ,
  • Catriona M. Steele

      Affiliations

    • Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • ,
  • Tom Chau

      Affiliations

    • Bloorview Research Institute, Bloorview Kids Rehab and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +1 416 425 6620x3515.

Received 16 February 2010; received in revised form 6 April 2010; accepted 7 April 2010. published online 19 May 2010.

Abstract 

Automatic segmentation of dual-axis swallowing accelerometry signals can be severely affected by strong vocalizations. In this paper, a method based on periodicity detection is proposed to detect and remove such vocalizations. Periodic signal components are detected using conventional speech processing techniques and information from both axes are combined to improve vocalization detection accuracy. Experiments with 408 healthy subjects performing dry, wet, and wet chin tuck swallows show that the proposed method attains an average 95.3% sensitivity and 96.3% specificity. When applied in conjunction with an automatic segmentation algorithm, it is observed that segmentation accuracy improves by approximately 55%. These results encourage further development of medical devices for the detection of swallowing difficulties.

Keywords: Speech removal, Cough removal, Dysphagia, Dual-axis swallowing accelerometry signals, Signal processing

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PII: S1350-4533(10)00082-2

doi:10.1016/j.medengphy.2010.04.008

Medical Engineering & Physics
Volume 32, Issue 6 , Pages 668-672, July 2010

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