Laser Stethoscope for Use in Noisy Spacecraft Environments

Auscultation, or listening to internal sounds made by the body of a patient, is an important tool in medical diagnostics. Heart, lung, intestine, and circulatory function can be assessed through careful listening. There are numerous situations, however, where the faint sounds collected using an ordinary stethoscope are overwhelmed by ambient noise. Such is the case in spacecraft, where room is scarce and noise generating equipment is always nearby. Here, a stethoscope employing laser Doppler vibrometry is proposed. Through an innovative design employing adaptive filtering, the new-technology stethoscope will provide immunity to external noise while providing conventional auscultation sounds for easy interpretation by medical professionals. Phase I and Phase II development will result in a system that is lightweight, rugged, efficient, and compact, making it suitable for use in space. The system will provide enhanced medical care for astronauts in space, allowing auscultation sounds to be transmitted back to mission control medical personnel despite the high levels of ambient noise present in the spacecraft.

The innovative stethoscope system has numerous non-NASA applications. Any situation where medical care must be administered in a high-noise environment will provide an application for the system. These situations include accident scenes, during patient transport, on the battlefield, on the scene of industrial accidents, and at large public events. We expect to find customers in the military, fire departments, EMS, law enforcement, and in schools.

The system developed through Phase I and II is expected to transition to a large number of applications within NASA. The system will become standard equipment on manned space flights, including flights to the International Space Station and long duration flights to new destinations, where it will be utilized to provide both local and remote medical monitoring and diagnoses. The stethoscope will also find numerous applications within NASA for terrestrial applications. The system is well suited for use in administering emergency medical care in numerous noisy industrial settings, such as vehicle/payload assembly buildings, engine test facilities, and during aircraft or helicopter flights.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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