Last month the creator of the website whooshers.com got in touch asking whether the
iStethoscope app could help sufferers of objective pulsatile tinnitus. This is the condition of
hearing a whooshing, rhythmic pulsing sound that is synchronous with the heartbeat that
can be detected by doctors - sometimes - with a stethoscope. I'm not sure if any sufferers
have had any success in finding or recording their whooshing sounds with the app, but they got excited about the
opportunity anyway.
I'd been working in SIngapore for a couple of weeks talking to A*STAR about research, but
while I was gone the publicity surrounding my iphone app iStethoscope Pro
continues. In addition to continuing interest from medical companies (watch this space for
details), there has been new interest in turning some of my books into TV shows.
Discussions now beginning on that...
I've lost track of the number of magazines and newspaper articles on
the iStethoscope... and to my surprise I have even been nominated for the Index 2011 Design Award, Denmark, as well as UCL's
Public Communication Award. I don't suppose I'll win either, but always flattering to be
considered! Finally I managed to find another TV piece filmed last month (also starring my
PhD student Arturo Araujo). Enjoy!
This is the official support page for my latest iphone app iMeetPeople. I created the
app to help me with my bad memory - I frequently have meetings with people, and I frequently
forget who I am meeting. I'm already finding it useful - I hope you do too!
Most events in your Calendar relate to people. You meet them at work, or chat in the evening
over a drink. You might have dinner with new friends, or go out for a game of football. Whatever
the event, iMeetPeople can help you remember who will be there, their likes and dislikes, even
where they are sitting!
It's been a busy week. The article in the UK Guardian newspaper was published last Tuesday,
and it began a whirlwind of media attention. I woke up to a request for an interview with BBC
World Service. Even as I entered the studio I was receiving calls from radio stations across
the UK. In addition to chatting on all these shows, a film crew from the BBC showed up at
midday and filmed a piece for the 6 'o' clock news (later repeated a few times on BBC
News24). I did yet another interview in Millbank for BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight and
was then taken by car to CNN's studios where I was interviewed yet again.
The following day a car took me to Shepherds Bush and I appeared on the BBC Breakfast
Show, and chatted on BBC London's breakfast show. Later I chatted on yet more radio shows
across the UK, in addition to interviews from more newspapers and magazines from around
the world. The story was also in the Telegraph, The Daily Mail, and the Metro newspapers in
UK, the Sydney Morning Herald and several others in Australia, and many, many others
around the world. I was also called by NBC and Fox News in USA asking for permission to
use photos and videos for items they were running on the app.
I've also received calls from companies and interested people worldwide, and there has
been more than one offer of a licensing deal, some quite surprising.
The result of this unexpected (and greatly appreciated) attention is that my little app
made it to number 1 in the whole AppStore in the UK, and became the 2nd highest grossing
app! It's now starting to slip back down to normal medical app sales levels; as it does so I am
able to see exactly how many sales are needed to reach each position in the rankings. I may
do another post on this sometime!
Many of my recent appearances are online, here are some of them:
Today the Guardian newspaper in UK published an article on my iphone app iStethoscope
Pro. It continues the extraordinary interest shown in this app, which never ceases to surprise
me. Something else which surprised me was the photo... why they chose the one with me screwing
up my eyes in the sunshine I don't know!
The article can be found online here, and I include a copy of it below.
Some exciting news about my iphone app iStethoscope Pro today. There has been
more media interest (watch this space for details), and more interest from cardiologists, this
time in Greece. The app was also featured on Apple's AppStore as a "hot app." But, perhaps
the most exciting news is that research by cardiologists who made use of the app to gather
heart audio has just been published in the Journal of Medical Devices. The article even has
the app name in its title! For those who prefer a full citation, here it is, with a link to the
abstract:
This is the official support page for iStethoscope Free, the new free version of the
highly popular iStethoscope Pro program. It has all the same audio capabilities and settings
as the Pro version; the difference is that it has adverts and it does not have the spectrogram
display.
Please note that this app is intended to be used for entertainment purposes and as a
demonstration of the technology. It is not intended to be used for the diagnosis of disease
or other conditions, or the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease and should
not be used as a medical device. We are working to develop fully certified iPhone apps that
may be used as medical devices in the future.
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
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:
I've now got an iPhone 4 and tested my app iStethoscope Pro with the new device. The good
news is that it works fine and the microphone may be more sensitive, so it may be even
easier to hear your heartbeat with the new device. The bad news is that the frequency
response of the iPhone 4 microphone appears to be slightly different to that of the iPhone
3G, so there is less detail at the very low frequencies and more noise at higher frequencies.
Do please note that the location of the microphone is different in the iPhone 4 - it is on the
bottom left, not on the bottom right!
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.
The publicity for my 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:
I was somewhat surprised to see the download figures for my iphone app iStethoscope Pro
for last month - the download figures for Swiss users, as well as Belgian, French and German were
astonishingly high. It turns out that without anyone telling me, there had been significant publicity in
Swiss newspapers and online news forums on the app. It seems to have originated with the article in
the British paper The Independent which was then picked up by Swiss papers such as
Tages Anzeiger. As ever, the attention is unexpected and appreciated!
