Measurement device and method for estimating mouthfeel and behavior of alimentary bolus during eating and swallowing

Abstract

The present invention is directed to development of a device which makes it possible to precisely and easily measure, evaluate, and quantify dynamic properties of an alimentary bolus by simulating swallowing of a wide variety of types of food products, and also directed to a method to estimate mouthfeel from the dynamic properties by use of the device. The above measurement device to simulatively reproduce a state of the swallowing of the alimentary bolus, and to measure motion and shape of a specimen as a simulative alimentary bolus, comprises a tilted plate having a tilted surface; a supply unit (a) to supply the specimen onto the tilted surface; a supply sensor (c) to detect the specimen supplied from the supply unit (a) onto the tilted surface; arrival sensors (d, f) to detect the specimen downwardly flowing through a predetermined site on the tilted surface; a data logger (i) to record an output from each of the sensors; an upper camera (h) to image, from a position above the tilted surface, the specimen downwardly flowing on the tilted surface, to produce an upper image; a side camera (g) to image, from a side of the tilted surface, the specimen downwardly flowing on the tilted surface, to produce a side image; and a calculation unit which uses at least one of the output from the data logger (i), the side image, and the upper image to calculate a state parameter that represents a state of the specimen downwardly flowing on the tilted surface.