Method and apparatus for auscultating inaudible signals

• US 10,289,377 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2014
• Issued: 05/14/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wei Wu
• Original Assignee: Wei Wu
• Inventors: Wu, Wei
• Primary Examiner(s): Olson, Jason C
• Application Number:
  US15/021,688
• Publication Number:
  US 20160224312A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,710 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 11/06 by electric means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/008 Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 1/001 Analogue/digital/analogue conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/46 Special adaptations for use as contact microphones, e.g. on musical instrument, on stethoscope throat mountings H04R1/14

Abstract

The prior auscultation technology is only applicable to the sound signals within the audio range and conducted by vibration. Disclosed in the present invention are a method and an apparatus for auscultating inaudible signals, and thus inaudible signals can be mapped into the audible range to form audible signals. The method comprises: obtaining signal data which comprise audible or inaudible signal data; extracting a signal waveform from the signal data; determining a play rate which allows the signal waveform to phonate by means of an audio play apparatus; and performing the auscultation with the signal waveform being played through the audio play apparatus at the play rate, or combining the play rate and the signal waveform to thereby constitute an audio signal, and then playing the audio signal through the audio player so as to achieve auscultation. When the method and apparatus of the present invention are applied, auscultation can be achieved on any physical parameter changes expressed by wave-shaped curve, which promises to extract information which would have been difficult to find within the inaudible signal in the prior art and promote the development of science and technology innovations.

Claims

1. A method for auscultating non-sound signals, wherein the method comprises:

obtaining non-sound data, wherein the non-sound data represents physical parameter changes configured to be expressed in a waveform format;

processing the non-sound data, wherein processing the non-sound data includes extracting a waveform from the non-sound data and normalizing the extracted waveform;

mapping the normalized waveform into an audible signal, wherein mapping the normalized waveform includes combining the normalized waveform with an audible play rate to form the audible signal; and

outputting the audible signal with an audio player device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said extracting a waveform from the non-sound data includes ignoring parameters other than the waveform.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said normalizing the extracted waveform includes calculating maximum value and minimum value from the extracted waveform.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said normalizing the extracted waveform includes calculating all acquired signals to find out a signal with maximum amplitude variation, and calculating maximum and minimum value of the signal, and the maximum and minimum value of the signal are used for normalizing all acquired signals.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said combining the normalized waveform with an audible play rate to form an audible signal, further comprises:

saving the audible signal in audio file format capable of being played by an audio player.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the non-sound data includes statistical results of a physical phenomenon.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the non-sound data includes voltage change of an electronic circuit.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said processing the non-sound data includes:

extracting multiple waveforms from multiple data, and combining the waveforms with an audible play rate to form a multichannel audible signal.

9. An apparatus for auscultating non-sound signals, comprising:

a signal data acquisition unit configured to obtain non-sound data, wherein the signal data acquisition unit includes an analog-to-digital sampling unit and the non-sound data represents physical parameter changes configured to be expressed in a waveform format;

a signal processing unit configured to process non-sound data and map a processed waveform into an audible signal, wherein the signal processing unit includes a calculation unit and storage unit; and

an audio play device configured to output the audible signal, wherein the audio play device includes a digital-to-analog conversion unit and an electric-to-acoustic conversion unit;

wherein processing the non-sound data includes extracting a waveform from the non-sound data and normalizing the extracted waveform, and mapping the processed waveform includes combining the normalized waveform with an audible play rate to form the audible signal.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the signal processing unit extracts the waveform from the data, including ignoring parameters other than the waveform.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein normalizing the extracted waveform includes calculating maximum value and minimum value from the extracted waveform.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein normalizing the extracted waveform includes calculating all acquired signals to find out a signal with maximum amplitude variation, and calculating maximum and minimum value of the signal, and the maximum and minimum value of the signal are used for normalizing all acquired signals.

13. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the non-sound data includes statistical results of a physical phenomenon, the statistical results of the physical phenomenon are mapped into audible signal by the signal processing unit.

14. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the non-sound data includes voltage change of an electronic circuit, the voltage change is mapped into audible signal by the signal processing unit.

15. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the signal processing unit combining the normalized waveform with an audible play rate to form an audible signal, further comprises:

saving the audible signal in audio file format capable of being played by an audio player.

16. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the signal processing unit also extracts multiple waveforms from multiple data, and combines the waveforms with an audible play rate to form a multichannel audible signal.

17. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the signal processing unit extracts waveform from data, and combines the waveform with a play rate which makes the waveform inaudible through an audio play apparatus, to thereby constitute an inaudible signal.