Cardiovascular diseases are with 40% the most frequent death reason followed by cancer. Many patients realize that they are suffering from heart-circulation diseases in a late state when there is no chance to overcome the disease anymore. An example is atrial fibrillation, which leads to tiredness and lack of activation which mostly is not assumed to be caused by heart disease but by other less dangerous reasons.
Therefore, the idea came up to check the heart functionality every day in the morning and evening when people brush their teeth and stand in front of the mirror in the bathroom. A small box beside the mirror observes the client and measures her or his heart activity by acquiring vibration signals picked up from the human body with a small-size Laser Doppler Vibrometer (vibrocardiogram). If there are no hints for a malfunction of the heart, no message is sent to a health center from where the patient would get help if this is required.
The main advantage of this approach is that the patient does not realize that data are picked up, since in contrast to the well-established electrocardiogram the vibrocardiogram is picked up contactless. Another aspect is that the patient will behave as if no measurement would take place. So she or he is not anxious, stressed, or nervous knowing that data are picked up. To realize this setting, besides the small-size laser Doppler vibrometer a detection system is required to decide whether a person is in front of the system or not. Furthermore, a pan-tilt unit has to track the optimal position for measurement. Since the patient might wear a bathing gown, the best position for measurement might not be a region on the thorax closest to the heart but the neck or throat which is not covered by the gown.
Last but not least, the price has to be affordable for mass consumption. The new device has despite the advantage of contactless measurement to compete in its price with today's available systems for the measurement of the electrocardiogram. This is a quite ambitious challenge for a laser Doppler vibrometer!
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