Hearing Aid Audio Analysis for Early Cardiac Arrest Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems fail to effectively detect cardiac arrest outside the hospital, leading to high mortality rates due to the lack of early prediction and intervention.
Innovation Solution
A hearing system comprising a hearing aid and an accessory device that processes audio data from a microphone input signal to determine cardiac condition parameters, such as speech, breathing, and vocal expressions, and outputs a warning signal when cardiac criteria are met, utilizing processors and sensors for real-time cardiac arrest detection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a hearing aid is used for long periods during the day, then the probability of cardiac arrest detection is increased, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hearing aid is designed to perform multiple functions: traditional hearing enhancement and cardiac arrest detection. By integrating the microphone-based audio analysis for cardiac detection into the existing hearing aid platform, the system leverages the already-present microphone and processing capabilities to add cardiac monitoring functionality without requiring entirely separate hardware, thus improving detection reliability while managing complexity through multi-functionality.
2Reliability
If cardiac arrest detection capabilities are added to hearing aids, then early detection probability increases, but the processing requirements and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system processes audio data continuously but applies full analysis only when cardiac criteria are met or suspected. The processors analyze audio patterns selectively, performing comprehensive cardiac parameter determination only when relevant audio features are detected, rather than continuously processing all audio data at maximum intensity. This approach enables early detection capability while managing energy consumption by activating full processing power only when necessary.
3Measurement precision
If multiple cardiac criteria are monitored, then the precision of cardiac arrest detection is improved, but the complexity of the detection algorithm increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cardiac detection system divides the analysis into separate modular criteria: speech characteristics analysis, breathing characteristics analysis, and vocal expression analysis. Each criterion is evaluated independently by dedicated processing functions, allowing the system to maintain high measurement precision through multiple criteria while managing algorithm complexity through segmentation into manageable, independent analysis modules that can be processed sequentially.
Data Source
AI summary
A hearing system is disclosed. The hearing system comprises a hearing aid and an accessory device. The hearing aid comprises a microphone for provision of a microphone input signal. one or more processors of the hearing system are configured to obtain audio data based on the microphone input signal. The one or more processors of the hearing system are configured to determine a cardiac condition parameter indicative of a risk of cardiac arrest based on the audio data. The one or more processors of the hearing system are configured to determine whether one or more cardiac criteria are satisfied. The one or more processors of the hearing system are configured to output, in accordance with a first cardiac criterion being satisfied, a first warning signal, the first warning signal being indicative of the cardiac condition parameter.