Development of Smartphone Application for Pulmonary Function Testing

Chronic respiratory diseases are widespread all over the world. According to World Health Organization forecasts, lung diseases, in which breathing is severely restricted because of lung damage (they are also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD), are predicted to be third leading cause of death in 2030. Increasing of the incidence of airway diseases is due to urban air pollution, dusts and chemicals, climate change, tobacco use and other risk factors.

Functionality of the lungs is examined by means of so-called pulmonary function tests. There is a variety of different tests, but spirometry test is the simplest one and the purpose of this technique is to measure the amount and speed of inhaled or exhaled air. Hence, spirometry provides fast and low cost way to diagnose type and extent of impairment.

Lately, advances in lung sound spectra analysis and quality of sound-recording equipment provide tools for automatic detection of lung function abnormalities. Widespread use of smartphones equipped with microphone gives an opportunity of using mobile technologies for early detection of respiratory disease cases.

Presented project is aimed at developing the application for Android and Windows Phone that provide a rough spirometry test on captured breathing signal from on-board microphone.