BACKGROUND: An objective measurement of chronic itch is necessary for improvements in patient care for numerous medical conditions. While wearables have shown promise for scratch detection, they are currently unable to estimate scratch intensity, preventing a comprehensive understanding of the effect of itch on an individual. METHODS: In this work, we present a framework for the estimation of scratch intensity in addition to the detection of scratch. This is accomplished with a multimodal ring device, consisting of an accelerometer and a contact microphone, a pressure-sensitive tablet for capturing ground truth intensity values, and machine learning algorithms for regression of scratch intensity on a 0-600 milliwatts (mW) power scale that can be mapped to a 0-10 continuous scale. RESULTS: We evaluate the performance of our algorithms on 20 individuals using leave one subject out cross-validation and using data from 14 additional participants, we show that our algorithms achieve clinically-relevant discrimination of scratching intensity levels. By doing so, our device enables the quantification of the substantial variations in the interpretation of the 0-10 scale frequently utilized in patient self-reported clinical assessments. CONCLUSIONS: This work demonstrates that a finger-worn device can provide multidimensional, objective, real-time measures for the action of scratching.
Chronic itch can be caused by many medical conditions including eczema and psoriasis. Itch leads to scratching behaviors that can affect a person's sleep, productivity, mood, and overall well-being. We developed a ring device that can be placed on a person's finger to measure the intensity of scratching. Different types and intensities of scratching behavior could be distinguished in human volunteers. Further development of this device should enable more consistent and comprehensive measurement of scratching behaviors and help doctors and patients to better understand, and treat, chronic itch.
