SpiroMask: Measuring Lung Function Using Consumer-Grade Masks

TL;DR

This paper introduces SpiroMask, a system that uses consumer masks with microphones to continuously monitor lung health, accurately estimating lung parameters and demonstrating robustness across different mask types and sensor placements.

Contribution

We developed a novel system that retrofits consumer masks with microphones for lung health monitoring, achieving accurate estimations within clinical error ranges.

Findings

Estimated lung volume and respiration rate within ATS-approved error range.

System is robust to different sensor placements inside masks.

Validated on 48 participants, including those with lung issues.

Abstract

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 235 million people suffer from respiratory illnesses and four million people die annually due to air pollution. Regular lung health monitoring can lead to prognoses about deteriorating lung health conditions. This paper presents our system SpiroMask that retrofits a microphone in consumer-grade masks (N95 and cloth masks) for continuous lung health monitoring. We evaluate our approach on 48 participants (including 14 with lung health issues) and find that we can estimate parameters such as lung volume and respiration rate within the approved error range by the American Thoracic Society (ATS). Further, we show that our approach is robust to sensor placement inside the mask.