The Heart Beats, But Who Is Listening? Extracting Heart Rate from Cardiovascular Sounds Recorded from the Ear

During his PhD studies, Bjarke Lundgaard researched cardiovascular sounds recorded using so-called body-coupled microphones mounted in the ears. A body-coupled microphone is a miniature microphone encased in a rubber dome and highly specialised for recording sounds originating from the body, typically speech. 

Bjarke Lundgaard studied the origin of the cardiovascular sounds and developed methods to extract heart rate and heart rate variability from these sounds.

The new research findings contribute to the understanding of the origin of cardiovascular sounds recorded from  the ear and paves the way for at-home cardiovascular health monitoring using in-ear microphones, which may prove crucial for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease.

The PhD study was completed at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Monday, 24 August at 13:00
Place: Building 5510, room 104, in INCUBA, Lille Auditorium, Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, Åbogade 15, 8200 Aarhus N
Title of PhD thesis: Cardiovascular Sounds Recorded from the Ear: Phenomena and Methods
Contact information: Bjarke Lundgaard, e-mail: blg@ece.au.dk, tel.: +45 30637803
Members of the assessment committee:
Professor David Simpson, Biomedical Signal Processing, University of Southampton, UK
Professor Johannes Jan Struijk, Dept. Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark
Associate Professor Peter Johansen (chair), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark
Main supervisor: Professor Preben Kidmose, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.

The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Technical Sciences/GSTS, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, 8000 Aarhus C.