UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI, MI, USA. A software application that incorporates an old Chinese Medical practice of checking the tongue in analyzing the zheng or overall health condition of the body. This can be a good pre-screening tool that will help preventive medicine.
The 5,000 year old Chinese Medical tradition checks the tongue in assessing the zheng or total physical condition of a person. The red coating of the tongue usually refers to the hot zheng that is a good indicator of any immune problem. While the white coating represents the cold zheng that is a good indicator of hormonal problems.
Ratchadaporn Kanawong, a doctoral student and his colleagues developed a software that analyzes the tongue image taken by the camera. The software incorporates the old Chinese method of analyzing the color and coating of the tongue that will determine cold or hot zheng.
Based on 48 healthy volunteers and 263 patients with gastritis, the latter showed both signs of cold and hot zheng. This provided the researchers a threshold for the software. So far there is an 84.68% accuracy when the software analyzed the main features of the tongue. While there is an 85.89% accuracy when the entire tongue was analyzed based on hot versus a cold zheng (white tongue coating versus a yellow tongue coating).
This application can be used on smartphones or homes using a webcam that will help in monitoring the zheng of a person to determine early signs of diseases.
| Invention | Tongue Software Pre-Screening Tool |
|---|---|
| Organization | University of Missouri, MI, USA |
| Researcher | Ratchadaporn Kanawong and colleagues |
| Field(s) | Tongue Analysis, Health, Zheng, Pre-Screening Tool |
| Further Information | Discovery News |
