סמינר המחלקה להנדסה ביו רפואית -הרצאת אורח של ד"ר יניב ציגל מהמחלקה להנדסה ביו-רפואית באונ' בן גוריון

Sleep evaluation using audio signal processing

Dr.Yaniv Zigel

 Millions of people worldwide experience sleep disorders; unrecognized or ignored sleep problems can lead to poor health, accidents, and even death. Early diagnosis and treatment can improve quality of life and health. However, the number of sleep testing sites is limited and many people are left undiagnosed and untreated. The biomedical engineering field of sleep evaluation is on a “fast track” towards simple home-based testing. Existing technology for home-based testing uses contact sensors that can lead to poor data acquisition and often disturb sleep.

In this ongoing research we aim to develop signal processing and pattern recognition algorithms for the estimation of sleep on the basis of audio signals. Our findings show that sleep/wake activity, sleep quality parameters, snoring, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can be estimated solely by the analysis of breathing sound signals, using non-contact microphones.

Dr. Yaniv Zigel (BSc 1992, MSc 1998, PhD, 2004) is a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and the head of the Biomedical Signal Processing Research Laboratory for the last 11 years. Dr. Zigel main interest is in the fields of biomedical signal processing, speech and audio analysis, and pattern recognition.