Optical-to-electrical Conversion, Stethoscopes, Applications, Directions for development
Abstract
Cutting-edge developments in medicine require more precise medical equipment and more effective methods. In response to the current societal challenges of an ageing population and the prevalence of coronary heart disease, I propose a photoelectric stethoscope in this study to enhance the diagnostic capabilities of existing medical equipment and reduce the barrier to using traditional stethoscopes. This photoelectric stethoscope, firstly, by pressing its metallic inner chamber closely to the chest, detects heart vibrations and converts them into optical signals with a phase difference using a built-in LED. Secondly, it employs photoelectric conversion to transform the optical signals to electronic signals, which is then filtered and amplified to output the human heart sound signals. Finally, those signals will be collected in large quantities and used for training heart sound models, enabling the photoelectric stethoscope to have the capability to distinguish heart murmurs and pathological sounds among heart sound, which can effectively avoid the drawbacks of using traditional stethoscopes.
