Suppression of Clothing-Induced Acoustic Attenuation in Robotic Auscultation
For patients who are often embarrassed and uncomfortable when exposing their breasts and having them touched by physicians of different genders during auscultation, we are developing a robotic system that performs auscultation over clothing. As the technical issue, the sound obtained through the clo...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/2260 |
| _version_ | 1827755486778228736 |
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| author | Ryosuke Tsumura Akihiro Umezawa Yuko Morishima Hiroyasu Iwata Kiyoshi Yoshinaka |
| author_facet | Ryosuke Tsumura Akihiro Umezawa Yuko Morishima Hiroyasu Iwata Kiyoshi Yoshinaka |
| author_sort | Ryosuke Tsumura |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | For patients who are often embarrassed and uncomfortable when exposing their breasts and having them touched by physicians of different genders during auscultation, we are developing a robotic system that performs auscultation over clothing. As the technical issue, the sound obtained through the clothing is often attenuated. This study aims to investigate clothing-induced acoustic attenuation and develop a suppression method for it. Because the attenuation is due to the loss of energy as sound propagates through a medium with viscosity, we hypothesized that the attenuation is improved by compressing clothing and shortening the sound propagation distance. Then, the amplitude spectrum of the heart sound was obtained over clothes of different thicknesses and materials in a phantom study and human trial at varying contact forces with a developed passive-actuated end-effector. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of the attenuation suppression method by applying an optimum contact force, which varied according to the clothing condition. In the phantom experiments, the attenuation rate was improved maximumly by 48% when applying the optimal contact force (1 N). In human trials, the attenuation rate was under the acceptable attenuation (40%) when applying the optimal contact force in all combinations in each subject. The proposed method promises the potential of robotic auscultation toward eliminating gender bias. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:10:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9363e8eb5164450aa893a4a41b8f7706 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:10:02Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-9363e8eb5164450aa893a4a41b8f77062023-11-16T23:12:27ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-02-01234226010.3390/s23042260Suppression of Clothing-Induced Acoustic Attenuation in Robotic AuscultationRyosuke Tsumura0Akihiro Umezawa1Yuko Morishima2Hiroyasu Iwata3Kiyoshi Yoshinaka4Health and Medical Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba 305-8564, JapanDepartment of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 162-0042, JapanFaculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8577, JapanDepartment of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 162-0042, JapanHealth and Medical Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba 305-8564, JapanFor patients who are often embarrassed and uncomfortable when exposing their breasts and having them touched by physicians of different genders during auscultation, we are developing a robotic system that performs auscultation over clothing. As the technical issue, the sound obtained through the clothing is often attenuated. This study aims to investigate clothing-induced acoustic attenuation and develop a suppression method for it. Because the attenuation is due to the loss of energy as sound propagates through a medium with viscosity, we hypothesized that the attenuation is improved by compressing clothing and shortening the sound propagation distance. Then, the amplitude spectrum of the heart sound was obtained over clothes of different thicknesses and materials in a phantom study and human trial at varying contact forces with a developed passive-actuated end-effector. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of the attenuation suppression method by applying an optimum contact force, which varied according to the clothing condition. In the phantom experiments, the attenuation rate was improved maximumly by 48% when applying the optimal contact force (1 N). In human trials, the attenuation rate was under the acceptable attenuation (40%) when applying the optimal contact force in all combinations in each subject. The proposed method promises the potential of robotic auscultation toward eliminating gender bias.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/2260auscultationacoustic attenuationmedical robotgender bias |
| spellingShingle | Ryosuke Tsumura Akihiro Umezawa Yuko Morishima Hiroyasu Iwata Kiyoshi Yoshinaka Suppression of Clothing-Induced Acoustic Attenuation in Robotic Auscultation Sensors auscultation acoustic attenuation medical robot gender bias |
| title | Suppression of Clothing-Induced Acoustic Attenuation in Robotic Auscultation |
| title_full | Suppression of Clothing-Induced Acoustic Attenuation in Robotic Auscultation |
| title_fullStr | Suppression of Clothing-Induced Acoustic Attenuation in Robotic Auscultation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Suppression of Clothing-Induced Acoustic Attenuation in Robotic Auscultation |
| title_short | Suppression of Clothing-Induced Acoustic Attenuation in Robotic Auscultation |
| title_sort | suppression of clothing induced acoustic attenuation in robotic auscultation |
| topic | auscultation acoustic attenuation medical robot gender bias |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/2260 |
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