Figure 1

Vibration energy image. 36 vibration response imaging (VRI) sensors are spaced over the patient's back and detect vibrations during respiration. The size of the dots is a cartoon representation of the amount of vibration energy detected by that sensor. When the detected vibrations are uniform, the resulting VRI image will be large (A). When the detected vibration is less homogeneous, i.e. if the lower sensors have decreased vibrations (B) or if the middle sensors detect increased vibration (C), a smaller VRI image results. The visual geographical area is therefore determined not by intensity of vibration but by the distribution of intensity. VRI: vibration response imaging.