Chestpiece, method and auscultation system

A method for sound analysis utilizing a chestpiece for auscultation, the chestpiece comprising:

• a body;
• a first sound capture device in connection with the body, the first sound capture device comprising a contact surface for contact with a patient body and at least one microphone, the first sound capture device being configured to capture internal body sounds in contact with the patient body via the contact surface and to convert the internal body sounds into an internal body sound signal;
• and
• a second sound capture module in connection with the body, the second sound capture module being configured to capture ambient sounds from an ambient space of the chestpiece and to convert the ambient sounds into an ambient sound signal;
• the method comprising:
• obtaining the ambient sound signal from the second sound capture module;
• carrying out audio feature extraction on the ambient sound signal to obtain extracted audio features from the ambient sound signal;
• generating audio feature data of the ambient sound signal based on the extracted audio features;
• and
• obtaining a sound characteristic output by processing the audio feature data of the ambient sound signal.

An auscultation system for auscultation and sound analysis, the auscultation system comprising:

• a chestpiece for auscultation, the chestpiece comprising:
• a body;
• a first sound capture device in connection with the body, the first sound capture device comprising a contact surface for contact with a patient body and at least one microphone, the first sound capture device being configured to capture internal body sounds in contact with the patient body via the contact surface and to convert the internal body sounds into an internal body sound signal;
• a second sound capture module in connection with the body, the second sound capture module comprising a microphone array comprising three or more ambient microphones arranged spaced apart from each other and configured to capture ambient sounds from an ambient space of the chestpiece and to convert the ambient sounds into ambient sound signals;
• and
• a processing unit for operating the chestpiece;
• an ambient sound processing module comprising at least one processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform processing of the ambient sound signals, the processing comprising:
• obtaining the ambient sound signals from the second sound capture module,
• carrying out audio feature extraction on the ambient sound signals to obtain extracted audio features from the ambient sound signals,
• generating audio feature data of the ambient sound signals based on the extracted audio features, and
• obtaining a sound characteristic output by processing the audio feature data of the ambient sound signals;
• and
• an output unit configured to provide the sound characteristic output as an ambient sound analysis output.