A conceptual smart-phone-based virtual reality framework to monitor respiration movements

Breathing is one of the most essential bodily functions that humans perform involuntarily. Nowadays, research on breathing/respiratory functionality has received much attention across the medical fields as well as various cognitive/meditation, and systems/engineering research aspects. As lungs distribute oxygen to the entire body through blood flow via blood cells, any form of exercise that regulates the respiratory system, can improve the lung functionality in providing oxygen to the rest of the body, and as a result, can help diminish breathing/lung disorder symptoms.;Breathing is one of the most essential bodily functions that humans perform involuntarily. Nowadays, research on breathing/respiratory functionality has received much attention across the medical fields as well as various cognitive/meditation, and systems/engineering research aspects. As lungs distribute oxygen to the entire body through blood flow via blood cells, any form of exercise that regulates the respiratory system, can improve the lung functionality in providing oxygen to the rest of the body, and as a result, can help diminish breathing/lung disorder symptoms.;In this dissertation, a novel conceptual virtual reality framework is presented that monitors breathing movements in real time. The acoustic signal of respiration of the user is used as the major input to this framework. An efficient, yet feasible technique is introduced to identify breathing movements (i.e. inhale and exhale), and a model is developed for lung capacity estimation through time and frequency analysis of the acoustic signal of breath. The developmental framework integrates these components along with a visualization feature where users can observe a virtually real animation of their lungs inflate and deflate as they inhale and exhale. One direct application of this framework is to aid users regulate their breath through real-time analysis of the respiration movements in a breathing exercise session. Users will be virtually/cognitively motivated to take the next coming breath more deeply if the previous one was insufficient. The theories, methodologies and approaches of this conceptual virtual reality framework using the smart-phone are discussed in this dissertation. The architecture and technical aspects of the offshore platform are also presented. Experimental results of the implemented framework on a number of subjects yield high accuracies for the breathing movement classification and lung capacity estimation modules.