Design of a flexible sensor array for pulse diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine / 国际生物医学工程杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To acquire high spatial resolution two-dimension pulse pressure distribution for objectifying research of pulse diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine.Methods A sensor array with flexible packing was designed and implemented.The array was formed on a circle substrate with 37 silicon piezoresistive pressure sensors,which were distributed as equilateral triangles with 1.95 mm pitch.The diameter of the substrate was 15 mm.By using flexible packing,the array had the hardness similar to that of human finger,which made this method closer to the traditional Chinese diagnosis.After differential amplifying,37-way pulse pressure signals were digitalized and reconstructed to obtain the pulse pressure distribution.Results With the application of the sensor array,the pulse pressure signals were measured and transformed into pulse pressure distribution.Conclusions The experimental result contains the relevant characteristics of traditional Chinese pulse diagnosis' description,providing a new way for objective study of traditional Chinese pulse diagnosis and further study.