Augmentation of Toothbrush by Modulating Sounds Resulting from Brushing

Abstract

Brushing teeth is a daily habit to maintain oral hygiene, including the maintenance of oral cleanliness and prevention of caries and periodontal disease. However, tooth brushing is often not carried out correctly or forgotten because the task is boring. Although several works have contributed to improving brushing performance and motivation, the feedback seems to be very remote from the brushing itself, i.e., not intuitive. In this study, we establish two objectives to deal with these issues. The first is not to present information on a visual display, but to augment the ordinary tooth brushing experience consisting of haptic and auditory sensations, while the other is to design the modulation so that users feel as if their teeth are gradually becoming cleaner, thereby providing the necessary motivation. To achieve these aims, we propose a novel approach to augment the tooth brushing experience by modulating the brushing sounds to make tooth brushing entertaining in an intuitive manner. A microphone embedded in the toothbrush records the brushing sounds, which are presented to users after being modified by a PC. In the experiment, we demonstrate that increasing the sound gain and manipulating the frequency can control the overall impression of brushing by giving a sense of comfort and accomplishment.