Browsing by Author "Bäckroos, Sami"

High pressure inside e.g. blood vessels or other biological cavities is a major risk factor for many preventable diseases. Most of the measuring methods require physical contact or other kinds of projected forces. Both variants can be unpleasant for the patient and additionally physical contact might warrant for either continuous disinfecting or single-use probes, depending on the measurement method and the target body part. We have been experimenting with handheld non-contacting pressure measuring devices based on acoustic waves. These excite mechanical waves, whose velocity varies with pressure, on the surface of a biological cavity. The tried excitation methods are nearly unnoticeable for the patient, allowing for more pleasant and waste free measurements. Using the data from the latest clinical trial, a new analysis algorithm was devised to improve the accuracy of the pressure estimates. Instead of the time-of-flight (TOF) of the main mechanical wave (MMW), the new algorithm estimates the pressure using the MMW and a previously unseen feature, improving the R^2 from 0.60 to 0.72.