A sensor embedded in a tooth could one day help track a person's daily eating, drinking, smoking, coughing, and speaking habits.
Researchers from National Taiwan University developed the sensor, which is less than 1-cm long, includes an accelerometer for transmitting data, machine learning software, and a microbattery, according to news reports. They are also working to equip the sensor with wireless capabilities so it could transmit data to the user's smartphone.
In recent tests, the researchers cemented the sensor onto eight people's teeth. For each activity, they collected 15 samples from each participant; each sample consisted of 2.56 seconds of performance.
For the coughing data, participants were asked to cough continuously. For drinking data, they were asked to drink a bottle of water. For chewing data, they were asked to chew gum, and for speaking data they were asked to read a section of an article. The researchers collected a total of 480 activity samples.
They found that the system could accurately recognize what the wearer was doing more than 90% of the time.
"Because the mouth is an opening into human health, this oral sensory system has the potential to enhance existing oral-related healthcare monitoring applications such as dietary tracking," the researchers wrote.
In the meantime, they plan to develop another prototype that can be integrated with wireless communication and battery-recharging capabilities, improve the accuracy of the system's activity classification, and continue working to improve the safety of the system.
The research is slated to be presented at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in Zurich in September.
