公开(公告)号：US20210369187A1

公开(公告)日：2021-12-02

申请号：US17211097

申请日：2021-03-24

申请人： THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA

发明人： Viprav Bhaskar Raju ,  Edward Sazonov

IPC分类号： A61B5/00 ,  A61B5/11

摘要： In an embodiment, a non-contact chewing sensor is provided. The chewing sensor includes an optical proximity sensor specifically designed to monitor chewing. An IR emitter/receiver pair of the chewing sensor may be positioned over a muscle of a user that is involved in the chewing process such as the temporalis muscle. The IR emitter of the sensor emits IR light onto the surface of the skin covering the muscle where it is reflected. When the user chews, the amount of light that is received by the IR receiver changes due to the activation of the muscle. The amount of light received can be used as a signal to determine when the user is chewing and likely eating.