JP2020025797A - Biological sound data transmission device and transfer system - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a transmission device that can properly transmit biological sound information of a patient to a doctor while maintaining quality of telecommunication between the patient and the doctor in telemedicine.SOLUTION: A transmission device 10 includes: sound collection units 11, 12 for collecting biological sound; a telecommunication unit 13 for transferring the biological sound collected by the sound collection units 11, 12 to a receiver device 20 via a telecommunication line; a visible data generation unit 15 for generating visible data from all or part of the biological sound collected by the sound collection units 11, 12; and a data communication unit 16 for transmitting the visible data to the receiver device 20 via a data line.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a transmission device and a transmission system for transmitting body sounds such as voice and heart sounds through a network. More specifically, the present invention relates to a transmission device and the like capable of performing sound signal processing suitable for telemedicine.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, doctors or other medical workers (hereinafter collectively referred to as "doctors") use audio and video telephones over telephone lines such as telephone lines and data lines for patients located at remote locations. Telemedicine that provides medical services in real time is known. In telemedicine, audio and video are transmitted and received between the terminal owned by the patient and the terminal owned by the doctor, and a dialogue with the patient and a visual inspection using the image of the patient are generally performed. It is.

  Also, in order to realize auscultation in a telemedicine system, a digital stethoscope (microphone) is given to a patient in advance, and heart sound signals collected by the stethoscope are transmitted from a patient terminal to a doctor terminal via a data line. A system is known in which the heart sound signal is frequency-analyzed on the doctor's terminal side (Patent Document 1). According to this system, for example, a heart sound signal in a frequency band corresponding to the closing sound of the artificial valve can be transmitted, so that a doctor at a remote location can diagnose the operation state of the artificial valve. I have.

JP-A-4-42653 (JP-A-1992-42653)

  By the way, since a general communication line (including a voice line and a data line) focuses on transmission of human voice (that is, conversation), it is sufficient to set a transmittable frequency band to 300 to 3400 Hz. In some cases, frequency components below the band and above the band are removed by audio signal processing in order to make human voices easier to hear. Although there is no problem in the above frequency band for telephone calls, in telemedicine (especially auscultation), it is necessary to accurately transmit not only voice but also various body sounds of a patient such as heart sounds and respiratory sounds to a doctor. However, these body sounds may be lower or higher than the frequency band that can be transmitted on the telephone line, and if the body sounds are transmitted via such a telephone line, the doctor will be able to perform an accurate auscultation. There is a problem that can not be. Of the body sounds that can be heard with a general stethoscope, the frequencies of heart sounds and heart murmurs are 10 Hz to 500 Hz, and the frequencies of respiratory sounds are 50 to 1000 Hz. Although a low frequency component is included, such a frequency component of 100 Hz or less is removed through a telephone line.

  Specifically, FIG. 3 shows a spectrogram of a heart sound. FIG. 3 (a) is created from original sound, FIG. 3 (b) is created from sound via Skype (registered trademark) (data line), and FIG. It is created from the sound via the telephone line. As shown in FIG. 3A, the original sound contains a signal component of 100 Hz or less, but the signal component of 100 Hz or less is removed through a data line or a mobile phone line. In particular, it can be seen that the signal component near 200 Hz is also deteriorated in the mobile phone line. As is clear from such experimental results, when passing through a general communication line, a part of the signal component of the heart sound is deteriorated, so that the doctor on the receiving side cannot hear the heart sound accurately. In this regard, in the system of Patent Document 1, the two-dimensional graph is created by analyzing the frequency of the heart sound signal on the doctor's terminal side. However, when a general telephone line is used, FIG. It is presumed that only a graph in which a part of the original sound has deteriorated as shown in FIG.

  Also, for example, even when a body sound such as a heart sound can be transmitted using a communication line dedicated to low-frequency transmission, the sound quality is greatly deteriorated because such low-frequency is affected by peripheral devices and speakers of a personal computer. Will be done. For this reason, even if the body sound signal of the patient can be transmitted to the doctor terminal without deteriorating, the body sound may not be accurately transmitted to the doctor depending on the reproduction sound quality of the speaker of the doctor terminal. If it is a conversation between the patient and the doctor, it is sufficient to hear back. In the case of body sounds, the doctor asks whether there is a problem with the network, peripheral devices such as speakers, or whether there is no body sound in the first place. Is difficult to judge. In the case of telemedicine, multiple doctors may examine the body sound transmitted from a single patient, but if the quality of the body sound depends on the frequency band of the network or the speaker on the receiving side, multiple There is a possibility that discrepancies occur in the doctor's diagnosis results, leading to misdiagnosis.

  In addition, it is technically possible to extend the frequency band of the telephone line, but in that case, the amount of data communication increases, or the sound quality of the telephone conversation deteriorates due to the mixing of unnecessary environmental sounds during the conversation. There is a concern that the conversation between patients and doctors, which is the original purpose of the telephone line, may be adversely affected. In other words, if the frequency band of the communication line is widened, the body sound of the patient will be transmitted to the doctor, but there is a possibility that the conversation between the patient and doctor will not be established and an appropriate medical service may not be provided.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a system in telemedicine that can appropriately transmit the patient's body sound information to a doctor while maintaining the quality of communication between the patient and the doctor.

  The inventor of the present invention has diligently studied means for solving the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and as a result, a patient terminal and a doctor terminal have been connected to each other by a telephone line, and the patient terminal has been visually recognized from body sounds. By generating data and transmitting this visible data separately to the doctor's terminal via the data line, the patient's body sound information is accurately transmitted to the doctor as visible data while maintaining the communication quality between patients and doctors. I got the knowledge that I can do it. The inventor has conceived that it is possible to solve the problems of the prior art based on the above findings, and has completed the present invention. Specifically, the present invention has the following configuration.

  A first aspect of the present invention relates to a body sound data transmission device (a patient terminal). The transmission device according to the present invention includes sound collecting units 11 and 12, a communication unit 13, a visible data generation unit 15, and a data communication unit 16. The sound collection unit is a microphone for collecting body sounds. "Body sounds" include sounds emitted from living bodies such as human voices, heart sounds, and respiratory sounds. The communication unit 13 transmits the body sound collected by the sound collection unit to the receiving device (doctor terminal) through the communication line. The "communication line" includes a telephone line such as a circuit switching system and a data line such as a packet switching system. As a telephone line, an analog line, a digital line, an optical fiber, or the like can be used. An example of the “data line” is a communication network such as the Internet. For example, a telephone call using a telephone line is called a voice telephone, and a telephone using a data line is called an IP telephone. Note that, since this communication line focuses on ordinary conversation, for example, a voice telephone can be used as long as it can transmit a general frequency band of 300 to 3400 Hz. What is necessary is just to be able to transmit the general frequency band of -8000 Hz. The visible data generating unit generates visible data from all or a part of the body sounds collected by the sound collecting unit. An example of “visible data” is a two-dimensional or three-dimensional graph obtained by analyzing a body sound. The data communication unit transmits the visible data to a receiving device via a data line. If the above-mentioned telephone line is a telephone line, the visible data will be transmitted through a data line different from the telephone line for telephone calls, but if the above-mentioned telephone line is a data line, the visible data will be: The data can be transmitted to the receiving device on the same line as the call line.

  By providing the communication unit in the transmission device as in the above configuration, it is possible to have a normal conversation between the patient and the doctor in telemedicine. Further, by converting the body sound into visible data in the transmission device and transmitting the data to the reception device, the doctor can accurately grasp the body sound information of the patient. That is, as described above, when a patient's body sound is to be remotely transmitted as voice data, the body sound is degraded at least when [1] passes through a network and [2] is reproduced by a receiving device. Might be. Regarding [1], since the line network is a system for transmitting a specific frequency (for example, 300 to 3400 Hz), other frequency components are removed. Regarding [2], the frequency component of the body sound cannot be accurately reproduced depending on the output device such as the speaker on the receiving device side. In order to prevent sound quality deterioration occurring at least at these two locations, in the present invention, before putting the body sound on the network, the transmission device generates visible data from the body sound and transmits the visible data through the data line. I have to do that. As a result, the body sound information itself is accurately transmitted to the receiving device without being affected by the line network, the speaker, and the like.

  In the transmission device according to the present invention, it is preferable that the data communication unit 16 transmits the visible data in real time. For example, the difference between the timing at which the body sound (voice) reaches the receiving device via the communication line and the timing at which the visible data reaches the receiving device via the data line is preferably within about 0 to 5 seconds. , 0 to 2 seconds. In order to minimize these errors, the transmitting device may generate visible data from the body sound as soon as possible, and transmit the visible data to the receiving device via the data line. Alternatively, if it takes a certain amount of time to generate the visible data, a delay may be caused in the transmission of the body sound in the communication unit to reduce the error between the arrival timing of the body sound and the visible data.

  In the transmitting device according to the present invention, the visible data may be a two-dimensional graph representing the volume of each frequency of the body sound. For example, in the diagnosis of abnormal heart sounds, it is necessary to grasp whether or not a sound of a specific frequency is generated. Therefore, by generating the above-described two-dimensional graph in the transmitting device and providing the same to the receiving device, Diagnosis of abnormal heart sounds can be made more accurately.

  In the transmission device according to the present invention, the visible data may be a spectrogram representing a temporal change of a sound volume for each frequency. Since such a spectrogram has a sufficient amount of information useful for telemedicine, a patient's condition can be accurately diagnosed by creating this spectrogram with the transmitting device and providing the spectrogram to the receiving device. .

  In the transmitting device according to the present invention, it is preferable that the sound collecting unit includes a sound microphone 11 for acquiring sound and a body sound microphone 12 for directly contacting a living body to obtain a body sound from the living body. In this case, it is preferable that the visible data generation unit creates visible data from the body sound collected by the body sound microphone 12. By separately providing the voice microphone 11 and the body sound microphone 12 in this manner, it is possible to create visible data that accurately represents the patient's body sound while maintaining the communication quality.

  A second aspect of the present invention relates to a body sound data transmission system. The body sound data transmission system according to the present invention can be applied to a telemedicine system. A system according to the present invention includes a transmitting device and a receiving device. The transmitting device relates to the first embodiment described above. The receiving device receives the body sound from the transmitting device through the communication line, and receives the visible data from the transmitting device through the data line. A plurality of receiving devices may be provided for one transmitting device. That is, audio and visible data transmitted from one transmitting device may be received by a plurality of receiving devices. As a result, a plurality of doctors at remote locations can share information on the body sound of one patient in real time with each receiving device.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, in telemedicine, while maintaining the communication quality between a patient and a doctor, the patient's body sound information can be appropriately transmitted to a doctor.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the telemedicine system. FIG. 2 shows an example of visible data. FIG. 3 shows the prior art, and points out the problem that the original sound is degraded when passing through a telephone line.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, but also includes those which are appropriately modified by those skilled in the art from the following embodiments.

  FIG. 1 shows an example in which the body sound data transmission system according to the present invention is applied to a remote medical system 100. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the transmitting device functions as the patient terminal 10 and the receiving device functions as the doctor terminal 20. The patient terminal 10 is carried by the patient, and the doctor terminal 20 is carried by the doctor. The patient terminal 10 and the doctor terminal 20 are connected to each other through a line network, and the patient and the doctor can use these terminals 10 and 20 to exchange video calls and exchange image data. These terminals 10 and 20 may be dedicated terminal devices, mobile information terminals such as smartphones, tablet computers, and laptop computers, and stationary terminals such as desktop computers. Can also be used. "Body sounds" include sounds emitted from living bodies such as human voices, heart sounds, and respiratory sounds.

  The patient terminal 10 and the doctor terminal 20 each have a function for making a call via a call line. The communication line may be, for example, a telephone line of a circuit switching system or a data line of a packet switching system. Examples of telephone lines are analog lines, digital lines, and optical fiber lines. An example of the data line is a communication network such as the Internet. Since this communication line focuses on ordinary conversation, for example, a voice telephone can be used as long as it can transmit a general frequency band of 300 to 3400 Hz. What is necessary is just to be able to transmit the general frequency band of 8000 Hz.

  More specifically, the patient terminal 10 includes an audio microphone 11, a biological sound microphone 12, a communication unit 13, and a speaker 14. The doctor terminal 20 has a microphone 21, a communication unit 22, and a speaker 23. The communication unit 13 of the patient terminal 10 transmits at least the voice collected by the voice microphone 11 to the doctor terminal 20 via the communication line. Further, the communication unit 13 may transmit a body sound such as a heart sound or a breathing sound collected by the body sound microphone 12 to the doctor terminal 20 via the communication line together with the voice. In addition, the communication unit 13 outputs voice received from the doctor terminal 20 via the communication line from the speaker 14. Similarly, the communication unit 22 of the doctor's terminal 20 transmits the sound collected by the microphone 21 to the patient's terminal 10 via the communication line, and transmits the sound received via the communication line from the speaker 23. Output.

  The voice microphone 11 of the patient terminal 10 and the microphone 21 of the doctor terminal 20 are mainly for collecting human voice (200 to 4000 Hz), and include a general moving coil type and a ribbon type. A dynamic microphone (electrodynamic microphone) or a condenser microphone (electrostatic microphone) can be used. On the other hand, the body sound microphone 12 of the patient terminal 10 is for mainly acquiring the body sound by directly contacting the living body. As the body sound microphone 12, a so-called digital stethoscope can be used. As the body sound microphone 12, a dynamic microphone or a condenser microphone can be used similarly to the sound microphone 11, but it is necessary to precisely collect the body sound in a lower frequency band lower than the sound microphone 11. Therefore, it is particularly preferable to use a piezoelectric microphone. A piezoelectric microphone converts sound vibration applied to a piezoelectric element into a voltage, and basically includes a piezoelectric element and a plurality of electrodes sandwiching the piezoelectric element. The body sound collected by the body sound microphone 12 is not particularly limited, but is preferably a body sound other than voice, and typical examples thereof are heart sounds and breath sounds. Therefore, the body sound microphone 12 only needs to have a performance capable of collecting the frequency of the heart sound (10 Hz to 500 Hz) and the frequency of the respiratory sound (50 to 1000 Hz). Further, as the speakers 14 and 21 of the patient terminal 10 and the doctor terminal 20, general speakers suitable for reproducing the frequency band of human voice may be used.

  The communication units 13 and 22 of the patient terminal 10 and the doctor terminal 20 transmit and receive voice signals via a wired or wireless communication line. For example, when the telephone line is an analog line, the telephone units 13 and 22 perform a process of putting sounds collected by various microphones as a predetermined analog signal on the telephone line. Further, when the communication line is a digital line or an optical fiber line, the communication units 13 and 22 perform signal processing for converting the sound collected by various microphones into a predetermined digital signal and putting it on the communication line. In the case where the telephone line is a data line such as the Internet (so-called IP telephone), the telephone units 13 and 22 convert voices collected by various microphones into digitized packet signals and transmit them through the telephone line. Is performed.

  Further, the patient terminal 10 has a function of generating visible data from body sounds collected by the body sound microphone 12 and transmitting the visible data to the doctor terminal 20 via a data line. An example of the data line here is a communication network such as the Internet.

  More specifically, the patient terminal 10 includes a visible data generation unit 15, a data communication unit 16, a display unit 17, and a filter unit 18. As the visible data generation unit 15 and the filter unit 18, a spectrum analyzer or a processor for image processing such as a CPU or GPU can be used. The data communication unit 16 can use a known communication device of a CDMA system, a wireless LAN system, or a wired LAN system. The display unit 17 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic EL display (OELD). The display unit 17 displays, for example, the visible data generated by the visible data generation unit 15.

  The visible data generation unit 15 analyzes the body sound in real time and generates visible data (visible image) useful for a diagnosis by a doctor. For example, FIG. 3 shows an example of visible data. FIG. 3A is a two-dimensional graph showing a temporal change of the volume of the body sound. For example, the vertical axis shows the volume and the horizontal axis shows the time (the vertical axis and the horizontal axis can be switched). ). Since the heart rate and the rhythm of the pulse can be grasped from this graph, for example, arrhythmia can be diagnosed. FIG. 3B is a two-dimensional graph showing the sound volume for each frequency of the body sound. For example, the vertical axis shows the volume and the horizontal axis shows the frequency (the vertical axis and the horizontal axis can be switched). . Since the volume of each frequency band can be grasped from this graph, for example, the presence or absence of abnormal heart sounds can be diagnosed. FIG. 3C is a spectrogram (three-dimensional graph) showing the temporal change of the sound volume for each frequency of the body sound. For example, the vertical axis indicates the frequency, the horizontal axis indicates the time, and the color tone or The volume is represented by brightness (the vertical axis and the horizontal axis can be switched). Although FIG. 3C is shown in black and white, a frequency band with a high volume is actually displayed in red, and a frequency band with a low volume is shown in blue. According to the spectrogram shown in FIG. 3C, the rhythm of the pulse and the volume of each frequency component can be grasped, so that the presence or absence of arrhythmia and abnormal heart sounds can be diagnosed at the same time. In the example shown in FIG. 3, since the spectrogram of FIG. 3C has the largest amount of information, the visible data generator 15 performs frequency analysis of the body sound to generate this spectrogram. preferable.

  Further, the patient terminal 10 may filter the body sound collected by the body sound microphone 12 by the filter unit 18 and create visible data from the filtered body sound. The filter unit 18 may remove, for example, a frequency component that is equal to or greater than a certain threshold or less than the threshold value, or may remove a volume component that is equal to or greater than a certain threshold value or less than the threshold value. For example, when a patient collects his or her heart sound using the body sound microphone 12 while talking between the patient and a doctor, the body sound microphone 12 includes not only the sound component derived from the heart sound but also the heart sound. In some cases, a sound component derived from the voice of a patient or a doctor is input. In such a case, the heart sound and the voice are mixed, and the visible data generation unit 15 may not be able to create a graph of the heart sound accurately. Therefore, the filter unit 18 controls the frequency band other than the target so that only the target frequency band and the sound component of the volume out of the sounds collected by the body sound microphone 12 are input to the visible data generation unit 15. It is preferable to remove the sound component of the volume. The sound component to be removed by the filter unit 18 can be arbitrarily set according to the contents of the examination, and can be appropriately changed.

  The data communication unit 16 of the patient terminal 10 transmits the visible data generated by the visible data generation unit 15 to the doctor terminal 20 via a data line. The data communication unit 16 may transmit the visible data generated in real time by the visible data generation unit 15 without delay.

  The doctor terminal 20 includes a data communication unit 24 and a display unit 25. As the data communication unit 24, a known communication device of a CDMA system, a wireless LAN system, or a wired LAN system can be used. The display unit 25 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic EL display (OELD). The data communication unit 24 receives the visible data from the patient terminal 10 via the data line, and the display unit 25 can display the visible data. Thereby, the doctor can talk with the patient while watching the visible data of the body sound displayed on the display unit 25, and can verbally convey a medical examination result based on the visible data.

  If a telephone line and a data line are used, a videophone call can be made between the patient terminal 10 and the doctor terminal 20. That is, the patient terminal 10 and the doctor terminal 20 may include the cameras 19 and 26, respectively. The video data captured by the cameras 19 and 26 is transmitted and received between the patient terminal 10 and the doctor terminal 20 via the data lines by the data communication units 16 and 24. The video data exchanged via the data line is displayed on the display units 17 and 25. By simultaneously transmitting and receiving audio and video data in this way, telemedicine using a videophone between a patient and a doctor becomes possible.

  In the example shown in FIG. 1, the communication line and the data line are separately illustrated. However, in the case of an IP telephone, for example, the data line can be used as the communication line. In this case, the communication units 13 and 22 and the data communication units 16 and 24 can be configured by the same hardware.

  In the patient terminal 10, it is preferable that the audio signal transmitted via the communication unit 13 and the visible data transmitted via the data communication unit 16 are synchronized with each other. Therefore, if there is a difference between the transmission timing of the audio signal and the transmission timing of the visible data, it is preferable to perform the synchronization processing in the communication unit 13 or the data communication unit 16. For example, when it takes time to generate the visible data of the body sound and delays the transmission of the visible data, the voice signal is intentionally delayed in the communication unit 13 so that the transmission timing of the visible data and the voice signal is adjusted. Good. Conversely, when a delay occurs in the transmission of the audio signal, the transmission timing of the visible data and the audio signal can be matched by delaying the visible data in the data communication unit 16. As described above, it is also possible to perform the delay processing in the communication unit 13 or the data communication unit 16.

  As described above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to the drawings in order to express the contents of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but includes modifications and improvements obvious to those skilled in the art based on the matters described in the present specification.

  The present invention relates to a body sound data transmission system and the like. Therefore, the present invention can be suitably used in the medical industry.

10: Patient terminal (transmitting device) 11: Voice microphone (sound collecting unit)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 ... Microphone for body sounds (sound collection part) 13 ... Communication part 14 ... Speaker 15 ... Visible data generation part 16 ... Data communication part 17 ... Display part 18 ... Filter part 19 ... Camera 20 ... Doctor terminal (reception device) 21 ... Microphone 22... Talk unit 23... Speaker 24... Data communication unit 25.
100 ... telemedicine system (body sound data transmission system)

Claims (6)

Sound collecting units (11, 12) for collecting body sounds,
A communication unit (13) for transmitting the body sound collected by the sound collection unit to a receiving device through a communication line;
A visible data generator (15) for generating visible data from all or a part of the body sounds collected by the sound collector;
A data communication unit (16) for transmitting the visible data to a receiving device via a data line. The transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the data communication unit (16) transmits the visible data in real time. The transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the visible data is a two-dimensional graph representing a volume of each body sound for each frequency. The transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the visible data is a spectrogram representing a temporal change of a sound volume for each frequency. The sound collecting unit (11, 12) includes a sound microphone (11) for acquiring sound and a body sound microphone (12) for contacting the living body directly to obtain a body sound from the living body. The transmission device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. A transmitting device according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
A body sound data transmission system, comprising: one or a plurality of reception devices capable of receiving the body sound from the transmission device through the communication line and receiving the visible data from the transmission device through the data line.