Analysis of swallowing in infants and adults using speckle pattern analysis

Abstract

The ability to detect and evaluate ingestion is especially important in toddlers. The development of new methods for detecting and accurately measuring ingestion is therefore extremely important. One of the methods allowing such measurements is speckle pattern analyses, a well-known phenomenon in coherent imaging. The method allows extraction of various medical parameters, such as blood pulse pressure, temporal signature of heartbeats and breath. The current work contains further development and application of the speckle tracking technique for remote detection and quantification of swallowing and distinguishing between sucking and swallowing to identify feeding disorders in infants and elderly individuals.