Patent Document ID: 9842193
Application ID: 14127420
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A swallowing simulation apparatus, comprising; an input unit; a display unit; an evaluation result recording unit; a storage unit; and a computer storing, in a non-transitory computer readable medium, a swallowing simulator software including instructions which, when executed by the computer, the computer controls an oral cavity modeling unit, an organ property setting unit, an organ movement setting unit, a food product physical property setting unit, a movement analysis unit, and a physical property determiner, the computer controlling: the oral cavity modeling unit to form an oral cavity model formed of oral-cavity organs; the organ property setting unit to set an organ property of each of the oral-cavity organs in the oral cavity model; the organ movement setting unit to set a movement of each of the oral-cavity organs in the oral cavity model; the food product physical property setting unit to set a food product, a medicinal product, or a nonmedicinal product (hereinafter referred to as a food product or similar product) as an analysis target, and a physical property of the food product or similar product; the input unit to input a pseudo-food product to the oral cavity, the pseudo-food product being formed by modeling the food product or similar product; the movement analysis unit to analyze a movement of each of the oral-cavity organs and a behavior of the pseudo-food product while being swallowed in the oral-cavity model using a particle method; and the display unit to display an analysis result of the movement of each of the oral-cavity organs and the behavior of the pseudo-food product while being swallowed on a moving screen, the analysis result being analyzed by the movement analysis unit; wherein, under control of the computer: the organ property setting unit sets an oral cavity wall as a rigid body and a tongue as an elastic body; the organ movement setting unit sets a plurality of moving walls embedded in the tongue, the tongue being set so as to move in a peristaltic movement or a wave movement by moving the plurality of moving walls to a direction intersecting with a surface of the tongue with a predetermined period and a predetermined phase difference, and sets a soft palate, an epiglottis, and a gullet wall so as to move together with a predetermined phase difference to the peristaltic movement or the wave movement; the movement analysis unit treats the tongue and the pseudo-food product as particles; the oral cavity modeling unit forms a two dimensional oral cavity model; and the movement analysis unit analyzes the behavior of the pseudo-food product in a two dimensional space; the evaluation result recording unit records an evaluation result of easiness of eating and/or easiness of drinking of the food product or similar product based on an analysis result of the behavior of the pseudo-food product while being swallowed; the physical property determiner determines the physical property of the food product or similar product regarded as appropriate based on the evaluation result recorded in the evaluation result recording unit; and the storage unit stores, in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the oral cavity model, the organ properties, the analysis result, and the evaluation results, wherein the evaluation result includes whether the accidental swallowing or accidental ingestion risk exists or not, wherein the swallowing simulator software includes a two-dimensional particle method analysis software that changes dimensionless physical quantities of the physical property value of the fluid and time, wherein in the oral cavity model, four portions exclusively are set as the movable parts, the four portions being the tongue, the soft palate, the epiglottis, and an entrance of the gullet, wherein the movement of three or four of the moving walls embedded in the tongue is performed by changing an amplitude of oscillation of the three or four walls at the same period and shifting a phase.