A finger-perimetric tactile sensor for analyzing the gripping force by chopsticks towards personalized dietary monitoring

The unique oriental dietary culture, 'chopsticks,' has been widely distributed and used since oriental culinary arts and delights were introduced. However, few studies were there on sensing the gripping force of chopsticks while cooking and eating. Here, we report a stretchable finger-perimetric sensor that can help analyze the gripping force of food mass intake by chopsticks. Briefly, the device consists of a force sensing element to analyze finger-gripping forces and a flexible gap for the measurement of a radial swelling of finger perimetric diameters. Besides, food mass and intake can be calculated by the leverage mechanism of chopsticks. The results show that this method has a high accuracy of testing, 97.7% in F1 score. This approach can help understand better the gripping force mechanism of chopsticks, potentially useful for rehabilitation exercise programs for seniors, well-educated eating habits for children, and personalized dietary monitoring and diagnosis based on chopsticks. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. CC_BY_4.0

Automated summary

A new stretchable finger-perimetric sensor has been developed to analyze the gripping force mechanism of chopsticks when taking food, showing a high accuracy of 97.7% in F1 score. This method can potentially benefit seniors' rehabilitation, children's dietary education, and personalized dietary monitoring and diagnosis.