Experiments

Measurement plan

Research question

Is it possible to know in what sleep phase a person is by analyzing the sounds that he/she makes while breathing?

Sub-questions

• What is the best way to measure the sound present in the bedroom? 1) High-frequency recording of the sleep measuring the pitch 2) Low-frequency recording of the sleep measuring the decibel level

• What conclusions can be drawn from the results we encounter?

What has to be done

• Measuring 1) Measure the sounds of multiple persons their bedroom throughout the night. 2) Measuring multiple nights. 3 ) Measuring on a high-frequency sound level as well as on a low-frequency sound level.

• Processing the measuring results 1) Analyzing which method brought us the best results. 2) Determining if it is possible to use the data that we have for future work.

What are we going to use for the measuring For the measuring of the sound levels, an Arduino is used. This Arduino will be connected to a sound detector. We chose an Arduino Mega with a SparkFun Sound Detector. The results will be stored to be reviewed afterwards.

When and where do we do the measuring The testing will be done as soon as all the components arrived. The plan is to do as many tests as possible in about one week. Two persons will do the testing at their own home. This way there are twice as much testing results in the same time period.

The sound detector was recommended to us by Ruud van den Bogaert. It is more that suited for our needs, for it has both analogue frequency output and volume level or ‘envelope’ output. It also has a digital output that’s high when the volume rises above a certain threshold, which we won’t use.