Dysphagia 

-is the medical term for swallowing difficulties, a common problem encountered among elderly.

-One of the most common threats to those having Dysphagia, is coughing or choking when food goes down the “wrong way” and blocks the airway. This can lead to chest infections, such as aspiration pneumonia, which require urgent medical treatment.

-If Dysphagia is discovered at an early stage, there are various ways to help the patient and prevent the situation from getting worse.

-Even if Dysphagia is discovered at a late stage, precautions can be taken to avoid the patient getting choked.

-In short, early discovery of Dysphagia can help a lot

粵語簡介短片:

https://youtu.be/L9PV1YjMiO8

吞嚥困難

-這是在老年人中很常見的問題。

-吞嚥困難的患者在進食時，有機會引起咳嗽或窒息,使食物有機會阻塞, 甚至進入呼吸道，並導致感染，引致吸入性肺炎。

-早期的吞嚥困難患者，能通過合適的口腔肌肉運動改善，或控制病情。

-避免進食高風險的食物，能減低吞嚥困難患者遇上咳嗽或窒息的風險。

-越早查出患上吞嚥困難，越能應對其引起的問題。

The NEED of Simpler Detection

Current detection of Dysphagia requires at least a specialist to check the client in person. And clients have to do the test in clinic with an endoscope (Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallow (FEES)) or even with an X-ray table (Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study (VFSS)).

Today, with the help of latest sound analysis tool for analysising muscular movement with sound, we are able to build a non-invasive way to detect any irregular muscular movement during swallowing, hence sugguest the likelihood to have Dysphagia. 

To maximize the screen effect to the general public, we would integrate the check within an App on smartphone. This would make anyone can perform the check with a smartphone anytime.

更簡單的檢測

目前要吞嚥困難，少需要專科醫生親自檢查。 而且必須在診所內，使用內窺鏡（吞嚥纖維內窺鏡評估 (FEES)）或什至使用 X 光台（視頻熒光吞嚥研究 (VFSS)）進行檢測。

在最新的聲音分析工具的幫助下，我們能通過聲音分析肌肉運動，建立一種非侵入性的方法檢測吞嚥過程中任何不規則的肌肉運動，從而檢測患上吞嚥困難的可能性。

我們會將檢測嵌入到智能手機上的應用程序中。 這將使任何人都可以隨時使用手機進行檢查。

Perks

To thanks those willing to contribute make this detection into 

感謝那些願意貢獻，盡快把這個檢測建成的人，會按貢獻量返還:

1. 100 or above  (7500) 
    Thankyou card 
    List on the credit listing on website

    感謝卡，在網站上的感謝名單中列出名稱
    
2. 1000 or above (750)
    health report on muscular activities ,  by recording 5 phrases in English (max 10s each)

   通過說出 5 個英語短句錄音(每個 10 秒內)，檢查和分析口腔肌肉運動的健康報告
    
3. 5000 or above (100)

    Accent Accuracy report against US /UK accent ,  by recording 5 phrases in English (max 10s each)

   通過說出 5 個英語短句錄音(每個 10 秒內)，檢查和分析美國/英國口音的口音準確度報告
    
4. 10000 or above (50)
    report and data collabration of the swallowing sound collected using for dysphagia detection.

用於檢測吞嚥困難的吞嚥聲音的數據和報告。
   

Risks & Challenges

Technically, the sound analysis tool provide enough detail to check the irregularity required. Data and sample collection would be time consuming, but would not be a problem 

The fund collected would cover the development and building cost of the App, one year upkeep cost of the App after distribution. 

As the product is a free App, there would not be any advertisement at least if we can gather enough upkeep cost from crowdfunding.

Currently, the analysis engine have to be placed within our server. If we would like to distribute it worldwide, it is best if we can integrate everything within the App and enable it to run offline. This would be biggest challenge of this project.

After it is completed, the App would be distribute freely. 

If we have the funding after the development, we would like add the support to varies languages(the initial version would cover English and Traditional Chinese)

風險與挑戰

從技術上講，我們獨有的聲音分析工具提供了足夠的細節情報來判決檢查所需。雖然數據和样本收集的會很耗時，但不會成大為問題。

募集到的資金將用於App的開發，和App發布後一年的維護費用。

由於成品是一款免費的App，如果我們能從眾籌中籌集到足夠的維護費用，那不需要有任何廣告。

目前，聲音分析分析引擎必須放在互聯網上的服務器中。 如果我們想在全球發布它，最好可以將所有內容放在應用程序裡面並使其能夠離線運行。 這將是這個項目中最大的挑戰。

該應用程序將免費發布。

如果開發後有餘的資金，我們希望增加對多種語言的支持（初始版本將涵蓋英文和繁體中文）

Other Ways You Can Help

Some people just can’t contribute, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help:

• Ask folks to get the word out and make some noise about the campaign.