A Cost-Effective Indigenous Wireless Electronic Stethoscope using RF

Abstract

Stethoscope is one of the important tools for clinical diagnosis such as diagnosis of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. In this paper we propose the working principle and design of a low cost wireless electronic stethoscope based on Radio Frequency as the wireless medium for transmitting information. To capture the heart sound using the proposed method a condenser microphone is embedded in diaphragm’s head suggesting that it converts the acoustic energy into electrical which can also be visualized as varying sinusoids having different time interval. These varying sinusoids representing the heart sound signal is processed through a preamplifier for achieving high gain followed by a filter to remove unwanted variations for desired results, which is transmitted to the receiver by means of a radio frequency module. More than one doctor can do auscultation at a given time by analyzing the heart sounds; hence it has potential to provide a basis for the effective use of Telemedicine in medical diagnosis. This paper has also made the provision of sound data storage available for further analysis simulating the designed prototype with Think Lab.