Sensor for Tongue-pressure Measurement Based on Extreme Learning Machine

Abstract

Dysphagia is a common complication of cerebrovascular accidents, and greatly affects the prognosis of patients. To meet the portability requirement for instruments used in the diagnosis of dysphagia in clinical settings, a novel sensor for measuring tongue pressure is designed to help doctors evaluate the severity of dysphagia. A sensor with a special beam structure converts the deformation of strain gauges to analog voltage signals through a Wheatstone bridge, then translates the result to a value for tongue pressure. The relationship between the tongue pressure and voltage is fitted by a least squares method and also by using an extreme learning machine. The two sets of results are compared and the superiority of using the extreme learning machine is verified. For the designed tongue-pressure sensor with an outer diameter of 10 mm and a thickness of 3 mm, the detection range is from 0 to 15 kPa, and the relative error of measurement can be controlled within 0.91%.