Phonocardiogram Sensing with Ambient Noise Cancellation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for detecting cardiovascular and lung diseases through heart and lung auscultation are limited by the clinician's skill and the inability to hear low-frequency sounds, leading to inaccurate diagnoses.
Innovation Solution
A phonocardiogram sensing device with body and ambient audio sensing transducers, connected via a vibration-reducing mechanism, enhances signal-to-noise ratio by filtering and amplifying body audio signals, integrated with ECG electrodes and other sensors in a wearable garment to collect and analyze heart and lung sounds across a wide frequency range.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If heart auscultation is performed by a clinician, then heart conditions can be detected based on intensity, frequency, location and timing, but the detection accuracy depends on the clinician's skill and many relevant heart sounds have frequencies below the range of human hearing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical/physiological system of human hearing with electronic sensors and signal processing systems. The body audio sensing transducer converts acoustic heart sounds into electrical signals that can be amplified and analyzed, eliminating the limitation of human hearing frequency range and skill dependency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary ambient audio sensing transducer that captures environmental noise, which then serves as a reference signal for noise cancellation processing. This intermediary component enables the system to selectively remove background noise and enhance the quality of heart sound detection.
2Measurement precision
If lung auscultation is performed to detect lung abnormalities, then sounds indicating lung disease can be identified, but accurate diagnosis depends on the clinician's skill and the sounds must be audible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical system of human auscultation with electronic sensing and digital signal processing. The body audio sensing transducer captures lung sounds across a broader frequency range than human hearing, and digital processing enhances audible and inaudible frequencies for automatic analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables the system to automatically detect and analyze lung abnormalities without requiring clinician expertise for interpretation. The processing circuitry automatically identifies abnormal lung sounds and generates diagnostic information, making the system self-sufficient for preliminary diagnosis.
3Measurement precision
If ambient noise is present during heart and lung auscultation, then the signal-to-noise ratio decreases and detection accuracy is reduced, but using noise cancellation requires additional processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an ambient audio sensing transducer as an intermediary component that specifically captures environmental noise. This reference noise signal is then fed to the processing circuitry which performs noise cancellation by subtracting the ambient noise profile from the body audio signal, thereby enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the ambient noise captured by the second transducer continuously informs the signal processing algorithm. The processing circuitry uses this feedback to dynamically adjust noise cancellation parameters and maintain optimal signal-to-noise ratio throughout the auscultation process.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device provides accurate, skill-independent detection of heart and lung anomalies by enhancing low-frequency sound detection and analysis, enabling early diagnosis and monitoring of diseases like CVD and lung conditions with improved granularity and frequency range.
Implementation Method 1
a body audio sensing transducer arranged to sense animal body audio when the body audio sensing device is disposed adjacent an animal body in a body audio sensing position
Implementation Method 2
an ambient audio sensing transducer arranged to sense ambient audio present in an environment adjacent the phonocardiogram sensing device
Implementation Method 3
The body audio sensing device is connected to the ambient audio sensing device using a vibration reducing connection
Data Source
AI summary
A phonocardiogram (PCG) sensing device is disclosed that comprises a body audio sensing device including a body audio sensing transducer arranged to sense animal body audio when the body audio sensing device is disposed adjacent an animal body in a body audio sensing position and an acoustic path for body audio is defined between the animal body and the body audio sensing transducer. The PCG sensing device also includes an ambient audio sensing device including an ambient audio sensing transducer arranged to sense ambient audio present in an environment adjacent the phonocardiogram sensing device when the body audio sensing device is disposed in the body audio sensing position. The body audio sensing device produces a body audio signal indicative of animal body audio, the ambient audio sensing device produces an ambient audio signal indicative of the ambient audio, and the ambient audio signal is used to increase the signal to noise ratio of the body audio signal.