Respiration mode detection using a wireless instrumented mouthguard

Many ongoing research and commercial efforts seek to develop head-mounted sensor systems primarily intended to measure the severity of impacts to the head and body. The majority of these systems incorporate computational and data acquisition electronics close to the mouth or ears. The prospect of utilizing such devices for health and safety assessment during athletic, occupational, and recreational activities presents a unique opportunity to use these systems for additional physiological monitoring and detection. In particular, instrumented mouthguards provide access to bone, mucosa, arteries, saliva, and inspirated and expirated air. We have developed an instrumented mouthguard with a primary function of inertial measurement of the skull, but present a secondary functionality of measuring respiration using a simple palate impedance measurement capable of identifying respiration rate and respiration mode.