Cough detecting methods and devices for detecting coughs

Abstract

Examples of the present invention utilize principal component analysis (PCA) to detect cough sounds in an audio stream. Comparison of all or portions of the audio stream with a cough model may be conducted. The cough model may include a number of basis vectors may be based on initial portions of known coughs. The initial portions may be non-user specific, and accordingly the cough model may be used to detect coughs across individuals. Moreover, examples of the present invention may reconstruct the cough sounds from stored features such that the cough sounds are reconstructed but the reconstruction techniques used may be insufficient to reconstruct speech sounds that may also have been recorded, which may increase user privacy.

1 . A method for reconstructing cough sounds, the method comprising:
 receiving features extracted from an audio signal corresponding to cough sounds, wherein the features were extracted using basis vectors from a cough model and a lesser dimensional matrix based on a comparison between the basis vectors and the audio signal; and   reconstructing the features using the basis vectors and lesser dimensional matrix; and   wherein the reconstructing results in reconstruction of the cough sounds but does not result in effective reconstruction of speech sounds in the audio signal.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the basis vectors are based on selected portions of a cough. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the cough model is not based on a final, wheeze phase of a cough. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the features include features corresponding to cough sounds and further include features from the audio signal occurring within a specified period of time after the features corresponding to cough sounds. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the features from the audio signal include detected audio features. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the features from the audio signal include stored audio features. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the features include features corresponding to cough sounds and further include features from the audio signal within a specified period of time preceding the features corresponding to cough sounds. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising recording the audio signal from a microphone. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein a mobile phone comprises the microphone. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising converting at least a portion of the audio signal into a frequency-based representation and transforming the frequency-based matrix into the lesser dimensional matrix. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein reconstructing the features further comprises creating a reconstructed audio signal. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising replaying the reconstructed audio signal. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising providing data associated with the portions of the reconstructed audio signal, wherein the data includes a number of coughs and a number of cough epochs. 
     
     
         14 . A method for reconstructing cough sounds, the method comprising:
 receiving an audio signal from a microphone;   converting at least a portion of the audio into a frequency-based matrix representation;   transforming the frequency-based matrix into a lesser dimensional matrix using projections from a set of basis vectors in a cough model to prevent reconstruction of speech sounds from the audio signal;   classifying a portion of the audio signal as corresponding to a cough based, at least in part, on the lesser dimensional matrix;   reconstructing the at least a portion of the audio signal using multiplication of the basis vectors with the lesser dimensional matrix to provide a reconstructed audio signal, wherein the reconstructed audio signal excludes the speech sounds from the audio signal; and   providing data associated with the multiple portions of the audio signal, wherein the data includes a number of coughs and a number of cough epochs.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising classifying multiple portions of the audio signal as respective multiple coughs and the multiple coughs as a cough epoch, based at least in part, on the lesser dimensional matrix. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein reconstructing the at least a portion of the audio signal includes implementing an iterative reconstruction approach including minimizing differences between the frequency based representation of the at least a portion of the audio signal and a reconstructed frequency-based representation. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising replaying the reconstructed audio signal. 
     
     
         18 . A method for reconstructing cough sounds, the method comprising:
 receiving an audio signal from a microphone;   converting at least a portion of the audio into a frequency-based matrix representation;   transforming the frequency-based matrix into a lesser dimensional matrix using projections from a set of basis vectors in a cough model to prevent reconstruction of speech sounds from the audio signal;   classifying a portion of the audio signal as corresponding to a cough based, at least in part, on the lesser dimensional matrix;   reconstructing the at least a portion of the audio signal using multiplication of the basis vectors with the lesser dimensional matrix to provide a reconstructed audio signal; wherein the reconstructed audio signal excludes the speech sounds from the audio signal, wherein reconstruction includes implementation of an iterative reconstruction approach including minimizing differences between the frequency based representation of the at least a portion of the audio signal and a reconstructed frequency-based representation;   providing data associated with the multiple portions of the audio signal, wherein the data includes a number of coughs and a number of cough epochs; and   replaying the reconstructed audio signal.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein providing data associated with the portions of the reconstructed audio signal includes statistics regarding the quality and length of each cough. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein a mobile phone comprises the microphone.