Grant: Engage Grants Program

Snoring is one of the major symptoms of a sleep disorder. Surveys conducted by the National Sleep Foundation*(1999-2004) have revealed that at least 40 million Americans suffer from over 70 different sleep disorders.*Snoring seems underestimated because people cannot recognize the seriousness of their snoring since it occurs*during sleep. Manual recording and examination of a person's respiratory sounds for the entire night can be a*very time-consuming and operator-dependent task. Therefore, an automatic sound recording technique is*desirable. Furthermore, existing solutions in the market for detection of snoring are not designed to address the*core issue itself. Our aim is to both diagnose and address the core issue of snoring using our active antisnoring*solution in the users' bedroom. Almost all of the snore related products make physical contact with the snorer*which result in painful, uncomfortable or disruptive experiences. Smart Nora is the first contact-free, non-invasive*active product on the market to help stop snoring. Although the current product works fine with average*scenarios, the company receives a number of returns and negative feedbacks based on snore detection algorithm*of the current product. Customers often complain about the product as 'not catching the snore', 'activating too*much', or giving 'false alarms' when there is no snore. This project will investigate the development and*implementation of a machine learning algorithm which aims to distinguish the snore events from different type*background noises by using machine learning algorithms and advanced signal processing techniques.