System and Method of Extraction, Identification, Marking and Display of Heart Valve Signals

Abstract

A sensor device and a method using the sensor device includes a portable device (110) configured to capture composite vibration objects from at least one sensor (102b) and further configured to communicate data to a wireless node (105) in some embodiments. The sensor device further includes at least one or more processors (103, 105, or 106) operatively coupled to the portable device and configured to separate and identify separated vibration sources and further configured to identify a plurality of individual heart vibration events (302, 303, 304, 305) from the composite vibration objects where the one or more processors is further configured to mark individual heart events from the plurality of individual heart vibration events. In some embodiments, the one or more processors marks and presents individual heart events from the plurality of individual heart vibration events.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A sensor array device, comprising:
 a portable device configured to capture composite vibration objects from at least one sensor and further configured to communicate with a wireless node;   an electrode for sensing an electrocardiogram signal;   
       at least one or more processors operatively coupled to the portable device and configured to separate and identify separated vibration sources and further configured to identify a plurality of individual heart vibration events from the composite vibration objects; and
 wherein the at least one or more processors is further configured to mark individual heart events from the plurality of individual heart vibration events with respect to each other or with respect to the electrocardiogram signal. 
 
     
     
         2 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor is configurable for measuring a lower frequency range vibration signal and a higher frequency range vibration signal. 
     
     
         3 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one or more processors is operatively coupled to the at least one sensor, the at least one or more processors further being configured for separating the plurality of individual heart vibration events from the composite vibration objects. 
     
     
         4 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one or more processors is further configured to transmit the composite vibration signals or the plurality of individual heart vibration events to a remote device. 
     
     
         5 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one or more processors is further configured to mark and present individual valve events from the plurality of individual heart vibration events with respect to a QRS of an electrocardiogram signal. 
     
     
         6 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor comprises a sensor configured for placement near a pulmonary location, or a sensor configured for placement near an aortic location, or a sensor configured for placement near a tricuspid location or for placement near a mitral location. 
     
     
         7 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one or more processors is configured to separate the plurality of individual heart vibration events from the composite vibration objects from multichannel signals using source separation approaches selected among one or more of Determined Models, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis ICA, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Bin-wise Clustering and Permutation posterior probability Alignment, Undetermined Models, Sparseness condition, Dictionary learning, Convolutive models, K-SVD, Matching Pursuit. 
     
     
         8 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors is configured to separate the plurality of individual heart vibration events from the composite vibration objects from multichannel signals by decomposing the multichannel signals into sparse activation patterns that appear sparsely across a time chart using a sparse coding module, clustering the sparse activation patterns, and recomposing a plurality of source streams by applying an activation mask to the sparse activation patterns assigned to a cluster using basis elements where time locations of activation patterns are clustered together and assigned to the same source. 
     
     
         9 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the sensor array device is portable and captures synchronized sensor data to a memory and wherein the operatively coupled processor is configurable in the process of separating the plurality of individual heart vibration events from the composite vibration objects into separate vibration sources and further identifying the individual heart vibration events among at least one of a mitral valve closing, mitral valve opening, a tricuspid valve closing, a tricuspid valve opening, an aortic valve closing, an aortic valve opening, a ventricle event, an atrium event, a heart wall vibration event, or a pulmonary valve closing, or a pulmonary valve opening or a breathing event. 
     
     
         10 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , further comprising a wireless connection for transmission of sensor data or processed sensor data to a remote computing device or a cloud computing device. 
     
     
         11 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors generates signals enabling the presentation of the individual heart vibration events on a visual display extracted from body sounds from the composite vibration objects to aid in diagnosing one or more among pulmonary disease, respiratory disease, coronary artery disease, heart murmurs, valve abnormalities, heart failure, heart rhythm abnormalities or arrhythmias, vascular disease, congenital heart disease, apnea, cardiac resynchronization and risk factor modification. 
     
     
         12 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the composite vibration signal capture is performed via vibration sensing sensors. 
     
     
         13 . The sensor array device of  claim 12 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to present the individual heart events with respect to a QRS of the electrocardiogram enabling diagnosticians to correlate detected vibrations or signaling with specific biological events selected among heart valve openings and closings, valve abnormalities, murmurs, breathing events, heart wall motion events, ventricle events, atrium events, heart rhythm abnormalities or arrhythmias, apnea signals, biological signaling emanating from the brain, intrauterine, pre-natal contractions, or fetal signals using the sensor array device. 
     
     
         14 . The sensor array device of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configure to separate sources from the composite signals by source estimation using at least one among machine learning, auditory scene analysis, or sparse coding, or source separation. 
     
     
         15 . A method of measuring cardiac time intervals using a sensor array device, comprising:
 capturing an electrocardiogram signal synchronized with composite vibration objects using at least one sensor and wherein an electrode is used for sensing the electrocardiogram signal;   communicating with a wireless node using one or more transceivers coupled to the at least one vibration sensor;   separating and identifying separate vibration sources and further identifying a plurality of individual heart vibration events from the composite vibration objects using at least one or more processors operatively coupled to the sensor array device; and   marking individual heart events from the plurality of individual heart events with respect to each other or with respect to the electrocardiogram signal using the at least one or more processors.   
     
     
         16 . The method of measuring cardiac time intervals of  claim 15 , wherein the one or more processors transmit the composite vibration signals or the plurality of individual heart vibration events to a remote device. 
     
     
         17 . The method of measuring cardiac time intervals of  claim 15 , further comprising presenting the individual heart vibration events on a visual display extracted from body sounds from the composite vibration objects to aid in diagnosing one or more among pulmonary disease, respiratory disease, coronary artery disease, heart murmurs, valve abnormalities, heart failure, heart rhythm abnormalities or arrhythmias, apnea, vascular disease, congenital heart disease, cardiac resynchronization and risk factor modification. 
     
     
         18 . A sensor device, comprising:
 a portable device configured to capture composite vibration objects from at least one sensor and further configured to communicate data to a wireless node;   at least one or more processors operatively coupled to the portable device and configured to separate and identify separated vibration sources and further configured to identify a plurality of individual heart vibration events from the composite vibration objects;   wherein the at least one or more processors is further configured to mark individual heart events from the plurality of individual heart vibration events.   
     
     
         19 . The sensor device of  claim 18 , wherein the sensor device is a sensor array device and the portable device has at least two vibration sensing sensors. 
     
     
         20 . The sensor device of  claim 18 , wherein the sensor device further comprises one or more electrodes for sensing an electrocardiogram signal and wherein the at least one or more processors is configured to mark the individual heart events from the plurality of individual heart vibration events with respect to each other or to the electrocardiogram.