Embedded Stethoscope

A stethoscope is an instrument used for auscultations to convey heart sounds as well sounds in the other parts of the body. However, traditional stethoscopes are restricted only to audio representation of such sounds and the diagnosis depends on the expertise of the doctor. This project is an attempt to develop an Embedded Stethoscope to capture heart sounds which offers better noise cancellation, signal amplification and also added functionalities like storage, analysis and visual representation of sound signals. The proposed system consists of amplifier followed by a filter for removing undesired frequencies. It is then amplified using power amplifier and this analog signal is converted to digital using the C2000 High Performance 32 bit microcontroller. For visual representation, heart sounds will then be displayed on graphic LCD and also stored on embedded flash memory of the controller. Hence we aim at developing a prototype which offers a low power replacement to the traditional stethoscope which will aid physicians as an effective diagnostic tool.