The sound of a beating heart is an indication of its normal functioning and can help in the diagnosis of heart failure. However, currently, it can only be assessed in a clinical setting. Researchers from King’s College London and Maastricht University, Netherlands, undertook the investigation of evaluating the viability of utilising a smartphone as a stethoscope and evaluating probable elements that may affect the calibre of heart sound recordings. The researchers created a smartphone app that monitors heart sounds in cooperation with heart patients through the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Evelina Children’s Heart Organization (ECHO), as well as with specialists at Cellule Design Studio. The Echoes app contains a signal processing algorithm that analyses the heart sound recordings to remove any background noise; all a user needs to do to start recording is lay their smartphone on their chest and tap the “record” button.
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