CARDIOSCOPE: ECG SONIFICATION AND AUDITORY AUGMENTATION OF HEART SOUNDS TO SUPPORT CARDIAC DIAGNOSTIC AND MONITORING

CardioScope is a sonification/auditory augmentation tool intended to support cardiac diagnosis and monitoring. It allows users to record and visualize synchronized Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Phonocardiogram (PCG) signals, to sonify the electrical activity of the heart or to augment the sound produced by its mechanical behaviour. As first step towards a realtime-interactive auditory augmentation, we here propose an auditory augmentation method using amplitude modulation that allows users to accentuate specific segments of the heart sound in order to make pathological signals from the heart sound more salient. We present a set of sound examples illustrating the proposed method, and discuss results of a preliminary qualitative test with two physicians who are doing their residency in cardiology.