• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.108-112
• /
• 2001

Heart sound contains rich information regarding the dynamics of the heart and the auscultation has been a first choice of routine procedures for diagnosis of the heart. However, heart sounds captured using a conventional stethoscope are not often loud or clear enough for doctors to precisely classify their characteristics, especially, under the noisy environments of the hospital. A simple auscultation device that removed shortcomings of the conventional stethoscope was constructed in the study. The device employed a polymer based adherent differential output sensor which was on contact with skin through a coupling medium and appropriated electronic circuits for signal amplification and conditioning An ordinary headphone is taken to hear the captured heart sounds and the volume can be adjusted to hear well. It is also possible that the device sends the captured heart sound signals to a PC where the signals are further processed and viualized.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
• /
• 2000.08a
• /
• pp.185-188
• /
• 2000

Heart sound contains rich information regarding the dynamics of the heart and the auscultation has been a first choice of routine procedures for diagnosis of the heart. However, heart sounds captured using a conventional stethoscope are not often loud or clear enough for doctors to precisely classify their characteristics, especially, under the noisy environments of the hospital. A simple auscultation device that removed shortcomings of the conventional stethoscope was constructed in the study. The device employed a polymer based adherent differential output sensor which was on contact with skin through a coupling medium and appropriated electronic circuits for signal amplification and conditioning. An ordinary headphone is taken to hear the captured heart sounds and the volume can be adjusted to hear well. It is also possible that the device sends the captured heart sound signals to a PC where the signals are further processed and viualized.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.241-246
• /
• 2001

The conventional stethoscope can not store its stethoscopic sounds. Therefor a doctor diagnoses a patient with instantaneous stethoscopic sounds at that time, and he can not remember the state of the patient's stethoscopic sounds on the next. This prevent accurate and objective diagnosis. If the electronic stethoscope, which can store the stethoscopic sound, is developed, the auscultation will be greatly improved. This study describes an amplifier for electronic stethoscope system that can extract heart sounds of fetus as well as adult and alow us hear and record the sounds. Using the developed stethoscopic amplifier, clean heart sounds of fetus and adult can be heard in noisy environment, such as a consultation room of a university hospital, a laboratory of a university. Surprisingly, the heart sound of a 22-week fetus was heard through the developed electronic stethoscope. Pitch detection experiments using the detected heart sounds showed that the signal represents distinct periodicity. It can be expected that the developed electronic stethoscope can substitute for conventional stethoscopes and if proper analysis method for the stethoscopic signal is developed, a good electronic stethoscope system can be produced.