Enhancement of cardiac and respiratory sounds for cellphone reproduction by means of digital sound processing methods

Telemedicine’s rising popularity, driven by its convenience and accessibility, faces a challenge in remote physical auscultation, particularly for assessing lung and heart sounds. We propose a smartphone-based tele-auscultation approach for capturing lung and heart sounds, based on pitch-shifting cu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personal and ubiquitous computing 2024-10, Vol.28 (5), p.845-856
Main Authors: Echenique, Maria Belen, Godoy, Eduardo J., Cádiz, Rodrigo F., Andia, Marcelo E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Audio data
Auscultation
Computer Science
Heart
Lungs
Medical students
Mobile Computing
Open source software
Original Paper
Personal Computing
Pitch
Smartphones
Sound processing
Sound reproduction
Students
User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction
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Summary:Telemedicine’s rising popularity, driven by its convenience and accessibility, faces a challenge in remote physical auscultation, particularly for assessing lung and heart sounds. We propose a smartphone-based tele-auscultation approach for capturing lung and heart sounds, based on pitch-shifting customized for smartphone listening, overcoming the technical obstacle found in the limited accuracy of smartphone speakers for reproducing low-frequency sounds, such as heart sounds. We created a database of heart and lung sounds captured with a smartphone, and then we conducted two evaluations, one with sounds from open-source databases and one with sounds from an in-house database. Pitch-shifting algorithms from PaulStretch and SoundTouch libraries were applied, and validated against original recordings through a web survey, initially using conventional headphones, as a first step towards delivering them through loudspeakers. In the open-source database experiment, 71.6% and 80% of 40 final-year medical students indicated preserved clinical information in respiratory and heart sounds, respectively. In the in-house database experiment, 14 physicians and final-year medical students validated the processed audio samples, revealing that 76.5% and 71% of respiratory and heart sounds, respectively, maintained clinical information. These results suggest the potential use of pitch-shifted sounds in tele-auscultation devices like smartphones. However, further research is essential to understand smartphones’ playback capabilities in a clinical setting.
ISSN:1617-4909
1617-4917
DOI:10.1007/s00779-024-01833-5