iStethoscope is hugely configurable, allowing you to change every major setting in the program. Please provide your favourite settings as comments below, to help other users. There is already extensive support available on the iStethoscope Pro page so if you have a problem the solution may be there already. If you still have difficulties, then please read the help pages and comments first. If you can't find a solution, then leave a query below and I'll reply on this page within a day or 3. If you enjoy this application, please check out the popular science book: The Undercover Scientist

Help page for iStethoscope: http://www.peterjbentley.com/istethoscope.html

iStethoscope Free was released on App Store on July 30 2010. It is the firmware 4.0 compatible version of the popular original iStethoscope program. If you have an iPhone 4 please visit this page for tips on settings.

The videos below provide hints and tips on using the application:

Learning to use iStethoscope:

Placing the microphone:

Activation:

Emailing audio:

Changing filter settings:

Changing audio mode settings:

]]> Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:46:40 GMT Because the iPhone 4 has a different microphone and casing, it is necessary to modify the audio filter settings in order to hear the clearest heart sounds. My suggestion is:

Use Heartbeat pure mode and in the Audio Settings change to

Alpha value (default 150) = 125

Amplification (default 0.25) = 1

In General, scroll down and change Spectrogram scaling to

Heartbeat pure (default 0.5) = 0.3

As usual you can find the detailed help pages here and here. If you have your own suggestions for settings for the iPhone 4, leave a comment here. Otherwise if you have any problems, please leave your comments on the main support page as usual.]]> Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:48:15 GMT iStethoscope iphone app continues. This month I was contacted by yet more medical researchers asking about the possibility of collaboration, and Swiss magazine NZZ Folio published an article describing the app. This is what they said: ]]> Mon, 24 May 2010 05:26:05 GMT Nigel Swift who also works in the technical support group. I chatted to him afterwards and to my surprise he said that several of the themes in the painting derive from projects by my students. The mosaic comes from Udi Schlessinger's Moisaic World, the swarm from Tim Blackwell's Swam Music and the biological windows were inspired by some of our biological models such as Fugue, the immersive model of the immune system with Gordana Novakovic.

]]> Sun, 02 May 2010 12:01:06 GMT http://www.peterjbentley.com/

I was beginning to run out of space so it now shows my books through a slideshow of real photographs of the books. To see more detail you can click on a book and read information in a popup window. The website does rely on javascript, so if your browser is not able to load successfully, the old webpage is still available at http://www.peterjbentley.com/index2.html

I've also updated my UCL pages slightly, making the PhD theses of my students available for download for the first time. These can be seen under "Peter's students, Completed" at http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/p.bentley/

]]> Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:27:29 GMT The Book of Numbers (De Wereld Van Het Getal) published by Fontaine Uitgevers. It looks very nice, although I can't read (or pronounce) any of it. I've also recently received the US version of the audiobook, available from Brilliance Audio as conventional CDs and MP3 CDs. It's read by actor Phil Gigant very nicely. Always a little strange to hear your words read by someone with an unfamiliar voice and accent! Also this month I received the French version of The Undercover Scientist (La journée désastreuse de M. Murphy) published by Dunod, which is illustrated throughout with funny cartoons.

]]> Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:27:29 GMT You were recently nominated to present the British Science Association Lord Kelvin and Joseph Lister Award Lecture at the British Science Festival in September.

The committee was very impressed with the nomination and you were named as runner up in the Lord Kelvin (Physical Sciences and Mathematics) and Joseph Lister (Social Sciences) Award Lecture category. I hope that you will be happy with this and that we will see you nominated again in the future.

The request is from the publisher (Obunsha) of a test preparation workbook for students. I've granted them permission to use a specific passage from my book with certain questions. I won't say which passage, in case any Japanese readers find this entry! The book will be called Daigaku Nyushi Mondai Seikai available in June 2010.

Anyway, it's a pleasure to find that my books are being used for such diverse applications, and I'm honoured to be able to help the new generations of Japanese university applicants in this way.]]> Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:49:42 GMT I bought your book "Why Shit Happens" as I killed some time in Portland's lovely airport (if the very concept of a "lovely airport" isn't an oxymoron) last year, waiting for a flight back to sunny Scotland. I only just got round to reading it this past week or so and I found it highly enjoyable and amusing but more than that, very informative.

I must admit to being really rather ignorant about the world around me. I got through school with an understanding of trigonometry, a bunch of "important dates" from History lodged in my brain and the ability to order fresh bread in German, yet I couldn't have told you what a pulled muscle actually was, or how batteries work or the wonders of day's old milk.

Having become a first time father only last year there been a cold, quiet dread creeping up on me as times goes on and that fear is the word "why". I know it's coming. As soon as the boy starts talking the dreaded word won't be far behind, and as the font of all knowledge to my child I'll be expected to answer all the "why" questions with the requisite authority. Armed with the knowledge from your book, and the fine basic introduction it's given me to many varied aspects of nature and science, I now feel like I've at least got a fighting chance of giving the right answer and avoiding my back up answer of, "Umm, it's all magic."

Looking forward to any future work,

[name removed] (slightly less worried father)

]]> Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:45:36 GMT