CardioSounds: Real-time Auditory Assistance for Supporting Cardiac Diagnostic and Monitoring

Abstract

This paper presents a real-time sonification system for Electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring and diagnostic. We introduce two novel sonification designs: (a) Auditory magnification loupe, a method to sonify important beat-to-beat variations when doing sports activities, and (b) ST-segment water ambience sonification, which aims to assist clinicians in the diagnostic process by building a soundscape that exhibits ECG signal abnormalities as the analysed signal deviates from a healthy ECG. The proposed methods were designed to assist users to unobtrusively monitor their own (or their patients') heart signal in situations when a visual-only representation is not convenient for the proper fulfilment of a given task. Using CardioSounds users receive auditory feedback in order to monitor important heart rhythm disturbances (e.g. Arrhythmia) or pathologies due to a blocking of the heart's vessels.