Passive phonography heart monitor
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A fetal heart monitoring device, comprising:
- a housing defining a cavity having an opening;
polymer film that spans the opening and has an upper surface exposed within the cavity, the polymer film having an adhesive layer configured to adhere the housing to a maternal epidermis and to transmit vibrations of the maternal epidermis;
a piezoelectric transducer disposed within the cavity and coupled to the upper surface so that vibrations from the maternal epidermis are communicated to the piezoelectric transducer, the piezoelectric transducer including a piezoelectric polymer sheet and electrodes disposed over major opposing surfaces of the piezoelectric polymer sheet; and
an electrical circuit disposed within the housing and operatively coupled to the electrodes to generate a first transducer signal, the electrical circuit configured to be coupled to a processor that processes the first transducer signal to generate a signal representative of a fetal heartbeat.
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Abstract
A fetal heart monitor device includes a channel to receive a first signal representative of acoustic energy principally from a maternal heartbeat and a second signal representative of acoustic energy including a fetal heart beat. The device includes a computing device including a processor, a memory operatively coupled to the processor and non-volatile storage operatively coupled to the processor, the non-volatile storage storing a computer program including instructions to cause the processor to process the first and second electrical signals into an electrical signal representative of the acoustic energy emitted by the fetal heart.
49 Citations
8 Claims
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1. A fetal heart monitoring device, comprising:
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a housing defining a cavity having an opening; polymer film that spans the opening and has an upper surface exposed within the cavity, the polymer film having an adhesive layer configured to adhere the housing to a maternal epidermis and to transmit vibrations of the maternal epidermis; a piezoelectric transducer disposed within the cavity and coupled to the upper surface so that vibrations from the maternal epidermis are communicated to the piezoelectric transducer, the piezoelectric transducer including a piezoelectric polymer sheet and electrodes disposed over major opposing surfaces of the piezoelectric polymer sheet; and an electrical circuit disposed within the housing and operatively coupled to the electrodes to generate a first transducer signal, the electrical circuit configured to be coupled to a processor that processes the first transducer signal to generate a signal representative of a fetal heartbeat. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Specification