Design and implementation of an Android based digital fetoscope

摘要

Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among women and neonates in developing countries. To mitigate some of the risks, our research set out to develop an Android Based Digital Fetoscope, an application that would ease fetal heart monitoring and potentially reduce the number of neonatal deaths. We developed the data acquisition circuitry using a conventional pinard horn, the hardware interfaces and a custom software application resident on the Android platform. The application incorporates intuitive algorithms for data acquisition, analysis and display of the fetal heartbeat, graphically and numerically. The innovation has the potential to facilitate better health care outcomes for expectant mothers due to its affordability, ease of use and intrinsic analysis, thus reducing maternal and fetal mortality in developing countries. Further work is required to translate the prototype into a usable product.