Physiological acoustic monitoring system

Abstract

A physiological acoustic monitoring system receives physiological data from an acoustic sensor, down-samples the data to generate raw audio of breathing sounds and compresses the raw audio. The acoustic monitoring system has an acoustic sensor signal responsive to tracheal sounds in a person. An A/D converter is responsive to the sensor signal so as to generate breathing sound data. A decimation filter and mixer down-samples the breathing sound data to raw audio data. A coder/compressor generates compressed audio data from the raw audio data. A decoder/decompressor decodes and decompresses the compressed audio data into decompressed audio data. The decompressed audio data is utilized to generate respiration-related parameters in real-time. The compressed audio data is stored and retrieved so as to generate respiration-related parameters in non-real-time. The real-time and non-real-time parameters are compared to verify matching results across multiple monitors.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A system for noninvasively monitoring a respiratory distress, said system comprising:
 a sensor configured to detect a physiological sound signal from a user; and   one or more hardware processors configured to:
 convert the detected sound signal from an analog signal to a digital signal; 
 determine one or more sound signatures corresponding to a respiratory distress in the digital signal; and 
 generate an alarm based on the determined one or more sound signatures. 
   
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more sound signatures correspond to coughing. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more sound signatures correspond to wheezing. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more sound signatures correspond to gasping. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more sound signatures correspond to choking. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the sensor is configured to be worn by the user. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the determination comprises identifying signal deviations of relatively high amplitude. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the determination comprises identifying a sharp slope in the detected sound signal. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the determination comprises comparing the sound signal with one or more stored sound signatures. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to generate digital tags corresponding to the determined sounds signatures. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to transmit the digital tags over a network in lieu of some or all of the sound signal. 
     
     
         13 . A method of noninvasively monitoring a respiratory distress, the method comprising:
 detecting, by a sensor, a physiological sound signal from a user;   converting the detected sound signal from an analog signal to a digital signal;   determine one or more sound signatures corresponding to a respiratory distress in the digital signal; and   generating an alarm based on the determined one or more sound signatures.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the one or more sound signatures correspond to wheezing. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the one or more sound signatures correspond to choking. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the sensor is configured to be worn by the user. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the determination comprises identifying signal deviations of relatively high amplitude. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the determination comprises identifying a sharp slope in the detected sound signal. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the determination comprises comparing the sound signal with one or more stored sound signatures. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising generating digital tags corresponding to the determined sounds signatures and transmitting the digital tags over a network in lieu of some or all of the sound signal.