Lung Disease Diagnosis Through Mel Spectrogram and Acoustic Feature Analysis

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a significant global health challenge, responsible for approximately 3 million deaths annually and ranking as the third leading cause of mortality worldwide. Early detection and diagnosis are crucial to mitigating its impact, but traditional diagnostic tools like MRI, X-rays, and CT scans, while effective, are expensive and require specialized equipment. This makes them less feasible for widespread screening, particularly in resource-limited areas. An alternative approach utilizing lung sounds offers a non-invasive and cost-effective solution. Lung sounds provide critical insights into respiratory health, making them valuable for diagnosing conditions such as COPD, asthma, and pneumonia. However, traditional auscultation with a stethoscope is highly subjective, relying on the expertise of clinicians and prone to variability in diagnosis. These limitations can delay accurate detection, especially in areas lacking experienced healthcare providers. To address this, an automated system is proposed to classify lung sounds using electronic stethoscopes, which ensure superior audio capture. The recordings undergo preprocessing to eliminate noise, followed by conversion into Mel's spectrum representations. These representations mimic human auditory perception, enhancing the system's ability to identify subtle variations in lung sounds. Spectral features derived from the processed data are analyzed to ensure consistent, objective, and accurate diagnostic results, effectively eliminating the subjectivity associated with human interpretation. The proposed system is affordable, portable, and scalable, making it particularly suited for large-scale screenings and early detection in underserved regions. By facilitating timely intervention, it can significantly reduce the global burden of respiratory diseases such as COPD, asthma, and pneumonia. This innovative approach combines cutting-edge technology with practical application, offering a powerful tool to improve respiratory health outcomes worldwide. It underscores the potential of advanced medical techniques in addressing global health challenges while emphasizing accessibility and affordability.