Methods for automatic cough detection and uses thereof

A method of automatically detecting cough events comprising the following steps:

• a. continuously recording ambient sound,
• b. upon detecting a change in ambient sound exceeding a predefined first threshold, identifying an onset of a possible cough event,
• c. recording an audio snippet including the onset of a possible cough event and continuing for a predefined audio snippet duration exceeding 100 msec thereafter,
• d. classifying the audio snippet recorded in step (c) as cough or non-cough based on analyzing acoustic energy distribution of the audio snippet in a frequency-time domain at a frequency above 100 Hz,
• e. discarding all identified non-cough events,
• f. repeating steps (b) through (e) if further possible cough events are identified after the audio snippet recorded in step (c), and
• g. compiling a record of all cough events detected during the recording of ambient sound in step (a).