Fetal Heart Rate Audio Correlation for Calming Sound Replay
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ultrasound fetal monitoring systems do not effectively correlate background sounds with fetal heart rates (FHRs, taking into account the developmental changes in fetal auditory organs and sound attenuation by maternal tissues and fluids, which can impact fetal neurodevelopment and stress levels.
Innovation Solution
A system that employs ultrasound FMS to detect defined average FHR periods, correlates them with external sounds, identifies audio patterns causing these periods, and replays modified sounds based on fetal development stages to promote neurodevelopment and maintain healthy FHRs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If ultrasound FMS is used to detect FHR periods and correlate with external sounds, then neurodevelopmental care is promoted and healthy FHR ranges are maintained, but device complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-records audio patterns during the monitoring session when the fetus is exposed to external sounds, so that when beneficial FHR patterns are detected, the corresponding audio can be immediately replayed without delay. This preliminary recording action enables rapid response while maintaining system reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates audio copies of external sounds that are correlated with healthy FHR patterns, then replays these copied audio patterns to the fetus. This copying approach allows the system to reproduce beneficial acoustic environments without requiring complex real-time sound generation capabilities.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If audio patterns are replayed to fetus with modifications based on womb characteristics, then sound attenuation effects are compensated and fetal hearing is protected, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system modifies audio pattern parameters (such as volume, frequency, or duration) based on measured womb characteristics and sound attenuation data. By dynamically adjusting these parameters, the system compensates for the natural filtering effects of maternal tissues and amniotic fluid without requiring complex real-time analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from FHR monitoring to determine whether audio patterns are having the desired calming effect. If the FHR remains in healthy ranges after audio replay, the system continues or adjusts the audio pattern; if not, it modifies the approach. This feedback loop enables adaptive sound delivery while keeping processing requirements manageable.
3Loss of information
If the system correlates FHR periods with external sounds to identify audio patterns, then neurodevelopmental benefits are enhanced, but measurement and detection difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the monitoring period into discrete segments or time windows, correlating FHR data from each segment with audio patterns present during that segment. This segmentation approach transforms a complex continuous correlation problem into manageable discrete comparisons, reducing detection difficulty while preserving important correlation information.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs correlation analysis at periodic intervals rather than continuously, comparing FHR patterns with audio patterns at defined time points. This periodic approach reduces the computational burden and detection complexity while still capturing meaningful correlations between external sounds and fetal heart rate responses.
Data Source
AI summary
One or more systems, devices, computer-implemented methods and/or computer program products of use provided herein relate to correlating background sounds to fetal heart rates (FHRs). A system can comprise a processor that can execute computer-executable instructions stored in memory that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations comprising employing an ultrasound fetal monitoring system (FMS) to detect a plurality of periods of a defined average FHR for a fetus, correlating the plurality of periods of the defined average FHR to sounds external to a womb carrying the fetus to identify and record one or more audio patterns that can cause the plurality of periods of the defined average FHR in the fetus, and replaying the one or more audio patterns to the fetus after applying a first level of modification to the one or more audio patterns based on characteristics of the womb.