Device for Breathing Frequency Monitoring in Muscular Dystrophy

"The system is a wearable, unobtrusive inertial-sensor-based device for long-term breathing pattern monitoring, also during daily life activities. It consists of three IMU-sensor units (3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis magnetometer), positioned respectively on the patient's abdomen and thorax, and on a body area integral with thorax but not affected by espiratory movements. The peripheral units, placed on thorax and abdomen are used to record orientation changes during respiratory movements. The third unit is a central reference unit (hereafter CRU) that receives data from the other two units, save them on an SD card and communicate via Bluetooth with a smartphone / tablet / PC. Moreover, this unit detects only non-respiratory movement, representing not only a pure source of noise that must be removed from the thoracic and bdominal signals, but also a pure source of additional information regarding the state of ctivity of the subject ."