Noise reduction method for the heart sound records from digital stethoscope

PhD Thesis


Chen, Haoyu. 2015. Noise reduction method for the heart sound records from digital stethoscope. PhD Thesis Doctor of Philosophy. University of Southern Queensland.
Title

Noise reduction method for the heart sound records from digital stethoscope

TypePhD Thesis
Authors
AuthorChen, Haoyu
SupervisorGururajan, Raj
Xiang, Wei
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
Qualification NameDoctor of Philosophy
Number of Pages135
Year2015
Abstract

In recent years, digital instruments have been widely used in the medical area with the rapid development of digital technology. The digital stethoscope, which converts the
acoustic sound waves in to electrical signals and then amplifies them, is gradually replacing the conventional acoustic stethoscope with the advantage of additional usage
such as restoring, replaying and processing the signals for optimal listening. As the sounds are transmitted in to electrical form, they can be recorded for further signal processing. One of the major problems with recording heart sounds is noise corruption. Although there are many solutions available to noise reduction problems, it was found that most of them are based on the assumption that the noise is an additive white noise [1]. More research is required to find different de-noising techniques based on the specific noise present. Therefore, this study is motivated to answer the research question: ‘How might
the noise be reduced from the heart sound records collected from digital stethoscope with suitable noise reduction method’.

This research question is divided into three sub-questions, including the identification of the noise spectrum, the design of noise reduction method and the assessment of the
method. In the identification stage, five main kinds of noise were chosen and their characteristics and spectrums were discussed. Compared with different kinds of adaptive
filters, the suitable noise reduction filter for this study was confirmed. To assess the effect of the method, 68 pieces of sound resources were collected for the experiment. These sounds were selected based on the noise they contain. A special noise reduction method was developed for the noise. This method was tested and assessed with those sound samples by two factors: the noise level and the noise kind. The results of the experiment showed the effect of the noise reduction method for each
kind of noise. The outcomes indicated that this method was suitable for heart sound noise reduction. The findings of this study, including the analysis of noise level and noise kind, indicated and concluded that the chosen method for heart sound noise reduction performed well.

This is perhaps the first attempt to understand and assess the noise reduction method with classified heart sound signals which are collected from the real healthcare environment. This noise reduction method may provide a de-noising solution for the specific noise present in heart sound.

Keywordsdigital stethoscope, noise reduction, Otsu’s method, noise classification
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020429999. Other health sciences not elsewhere classified
400308. Medical devices
400305. Biomedical instrumentation
Byline AffiliationsSchool of Management and Enterprise
Permalink -

https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q32yz/noise-reduction-method-for-the-heart-sound-records-from-digital-stethoscope

Download files


Published Version
Chen_2015_whole.pdf
File access level: Anyone

  • 1930
    total views
  • 255
    total downloads
  • 4
    views this month
  • 2
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

Otsu's threshold selection method applied in de-noising heart sound of the digital stethoscope record
Chen, Haoyu and Gururajan, Raj. 2012. "Otsu's threshold selection method applied in de-noising heart sound of the digital stethoscope record." Zeng, Dehuai (ed.) 2nd International Conference of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICEEE 2011). Macau, China 01 - 02 Dec 2011 Berlin, Germany. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-26001-8_31
Using digital stethoscopes in remote patient assessment via wireless networks: the user’s perspective
Gururajan, Raj, Tsai, Heng-Sheng and Chen, Haoyu. 2011. "Using digital stethoscopes in remote patient assessment via wireless networks: the user’s perspective." International Journal of Advanced Networking and Applications. 3 (3), pp. 1140-1146.
Wireless sensor home automation networks based upon Sun SPOT
Wang, Gengkun, Xiang, Wei, Chen, Haoyu and Wen, Peng. 2011. "Wireless sensor home automation networks based upon Sun SPOT." ICSSC 2011: IET International Conference on Smart and Sustainable City (IET ICSSC2011). Shanghai, China 06 - 08 Jul 2011 NJ. United States. https://doi.org/10.1049/cp.2011.0295