Patent ID: 7967760

Claim:
A detecting means for detecting a signal that is indicative of the activity of the respiratory muscles of a person to be examined, said detecting means comprising: a band means for widening and narrowing in response to the respiration of the person to be examined, the band means being passable around a torso region of the person to be examined; and a structure which is included in the band means and is loaded by said band means in accordance with narrowing and widening of the torso region caused by the respiration of the person to be examined, wherein said structure is configured such that it causes a change in the volume of a measuring space means for receiving the load, wherein the change in the volume is caused by squeezing or widening an elastically deformable chamber at a tube portion thereof, wherein said tube portion is squeezed or widened by the structure in accordance with tensile force applied to the band means caused by the respiration of the person to be examined, and wherein walls surrounding the tube portion have a geometry such that deformation conditions are obtained which, in turn, cause the squeezing or widening of the tube portion depending on the tensile force applied to the band means.