360° 口腔卫士

栏目：科学60s 来源：中国数字科技馆

An accelerometer-based oral sensory system embedded in a tooth could identify various oral habits based on dental movement. Larry Greenemeier reports

只要向牙齿中植入一个传感器，它就能监视你口腔的一举一动，从而判断你的“用嘴”习惯。

拉里•格林迈耶( Larry Greenemeier )

A person’s mouth says a lot about them. Sounds obvious, but I’m talking less about what vocalizes and more about the way it behaves when we eat, drink, speak or even cough.

福祸皆从口出。想要了解一个人，一个极佳的方法就是了解他如何“使用”自己的嘴巴。但在这里，我想强调的并不是嘴巴的发音功能，而是它在我们吃饭、喝水、说话，甚至咳嗽之时的作用。

Researchers at National Taiwan University believe that monitoring such oral behavior can provide doctors with a wealth of information about a patient’s dietary habits, dental hygiene and overall health.

国立台湾大学的研究人员认为，监控这些日常的口腔习惯，十分有助于医生理解病人的饮食情况、口腔卫生，以及我们整体的健康水平。

To test their idea, they built an accelerometer-based oral sensory system to identify how a mouth is being used based on the movement of its teeth. Placed in the mouths of eight people, a prototype system correctly recognized each person’s oral behavior up to 94 percent of the time. [Cheng-Yuan Li et al., Sensor-Embedded Teeth for Oral Activity Recognition]

为了验证这个想法，他们在加速度计的基础上设计了一个口腔传感系统。加速度计将根据牙齿的运动，记录我们口腔的状态。研究人员将传感器植入到8位被试者的口腔中，经过测试，传感器成功识别出了被试者94%的口腔活动。

The researchers now want to build a wireless version that might someday fit inside a fake tooth or attach to a pair of braces. The sensor could send you or your doctor a message when you’re not sticking to your diet or not keeping your promise to quit smoking.

现在，研究人员试图为传感器设计一个无线的版本，以便将其植入假牙或牙齿矫正器。这些传感器能够告诉你和医生，你什么时候没有好好吃饭，又再什么时刻重新开始抽起了烟。

Let’s hope they also build in an alarm for bad breath. That would benefit the person wearing the sensor, and everyone around them as well.

要是这个传感器还能防口臭就更好了，这样的功能实在是利己又利人。