Apparatus for acquiring and processing of physiological auditory signals
DCFirst Claim
1. An apparatus for acquiring and processing physiological sounds comprising:
- a sensor comprising a diaphragm, wherein said sensor is configured to be positioned on a body surface, and said sensor is configured to convert analogue signals, in response to vibration of said diaphragm by said physiological sounds, into an electrical output representative of said physiological sounds;
an analogue to digital converter operatively coupled to said sensor, wherein said analogue to digital converter is configured to convert said electrical output into a stream of digital data;
a processing unit operatively coupled to said analogue to digital converter, said processing unit configured to receive and process said stream of digital data into a processed signal representative of said physiological sounds; and
a display device operatively coupled to said processing unit, said display device configured to display a plurality of icons, wherein each icon of said plurality of icons displayed respectively correspond to at least one operation of a plurality of operations that said processing unit is configured to perform, wherein a sequence of said plurality of operations is configured for customization by a user through insertion of an additional icon in said plurality of icons displayed and modification of at least one operation of said plurality of operations by said user through interaction with at least one icon of said plurality of icons displayed, and wherein said processing unit is further configured to process said processed signal by said customized sequence, and said display device further is configured to display a characterization of said processed signal.
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Abstract
A diagnostic system for collecting, processing, recording and analyzing sounds associated with the physiologic activities of various human organs. The system includes a plurality of transducers placed on the body surface at the operator'"'"'s discretion. The transducers are coupled to analog/digital signal processing circuitry for enhancement of the desired signal and exclusion of ambient noise. An A/D converter digitizes the incoming data and transmits data, which is divided into a multitude of discrete blocks, received over very finite intervals of time, to a computer workstation and moved through an analysis program sequentially. The program is displayed as a series of icons which depict operations that the program performs and which allow the operator to reprogram the system at any time. The data is finally displayed in graphical format and stored in memory as the program processes each block sequentially.
1535 Citations
52 Claims
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1. An apparatus for acquiring and processing physiological sounds comprising:
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a sensor comprising a diaphragm, wherein said sensor is configured to be positioned on a body surface, and said sensor is configured to convert analogue signals, in response to vibration of said diaphragm by said physiological sounds, into an electrical output representative of said physiological sounds; an analogue to digital converter operatively coupled to said sensor, wherein said analogue to digital converter is configured to convert said electrical output into a stream of digital data; a processing unit operatively coupled to said analogue to digital converter, said processing unit configured to receive and process said stream of digital data into a processed signal representative of said physiological sounds; and a display device operatively coupled to said processing unit, said display device configured to display a plurality of icons, wherein each icon of said plurality of icons displayed respectively correspond to at least one operation of a plurality of operations that said processing unit is configured to perform, wherein a sequence of said plurality of operations is configured for customization by a user through insertion of an additional icon in said plurality of icons displayed and modification of at least one operation of said plurality of operations by said user through interaction with at least one icon of said plurality of icons displayed, and wherein said processing unit is further configured to process said processed signal by said customized sequence, and said display device further is configured to display a characterization of said processed signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus for acquiring and processing physiological sounds comprising:
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a plurality of sensors each respectively comprising a corresponding diaphragm, wherein at least one sensor is configured to be positioned on a body surface, and at least two sensors of said plurality of sensors are configured to convert said physiological sounds, in response to vibration of said corresponding diaphragms by said physiological sounds, into a corresponding plurality of electrical signals; a corresponding plurality of analogue to digital converters each operatively coupled to a corresponding one sensor of said plurality of sensors, said analogue to digital converters configured to convert at least a portion of said plurality of electrical signals into a plurality of streams of digital data; and a processing unit operatively coupled to the plurality of analogue to digital converters, said processing unit configured to process said plurality of streams of digital data, wherein at least a portion of said plurality of streams of digital data are input into a parallel to serial converter to generate a serial output. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. An apparatus for acquiring and processing physiological sounds comprising:
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a sensor comprising a diaphragm, wherein said sensor is configured to be positioned on a body surface, and said sensor is configured to convert analogue signals, in response to vibration of said diaphragm by said physiological sounds, into an electrical output representative of said physiological sounds; a processing unit operatively coupled to said sensor, said processing unit configured to receive and process a stream of digital data representative of said electrical output into a processed signal representative of said physiological sounds; and a display device operatively coupled to said processing unit, said display device configured to display a plurality of icons, wherein each icon of said plurality of icons displayed respectively correspond to at least one operation of a plurality of operations that said processing unit is configured to perform, wherein a sequence of said plurality of operations is configured thr customization by a user through insertion of an additional icon in said plurality of icons displayed and modification of at least one operation of said plurality of operations by said user through interaction with at least one icon of said plurality of icons displayed, and wherein said processing unit is further configured to process said processed signal by said customized sequence, and said display device further is configured to display a characterization of said processed signal. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. An apparatus for acquiring and processing physiological sounds comprising:
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a plurality of sensors each respectively comprising a corresponding diaphragm, wherein at least one sensor is configured to be positioned on a body surface, and at least two sensors of said plurality of sensors are configured to convert said physiological sounds, in response to vibration of said corresponding diaphragms by said physiological sounds, into a corresponding plurality of electrical signals; and processing unit operatively coupled to said plurality of sensors said processing unit configured to process a plurality of streams of digital data representative of said corresponding plurality of electrical signals, wherein at least a portion of said plurality of streams of digital data are input into a parallel to serial converter to generate a serial output. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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Specification