Supplementary material for "CardioSounds: A portable system to sonify ECG rhythm disturbances in real-time"

CardioSounds is a portable system that allows users to measure and sonify their electrocardiogram signal in real-time. The ECG signal is acquired using the hardware platform BITalino and subsequently analyzed and sonified using a Raspberry Pi. Users can control basic features from the system (start recording, stop recording) using their smartphone.
The system is meant to be used for diagnostic and monitoring of cardiac pathologies, providing users with the possibility to monitor a signal without occupying their visual attention. In this paper, we introduce a novel method: Anticipatory Mapping to sonify rhythm disturbances such as Atrial Fibrillation, Atrial flutter and Ventricular Fibrillation. Anticipatory mapping enhances perception of rhythmic details without disrupting the direct perception of the actual heart beat rhythm.

We test the method on selected pathological data involving three of the most known rhythm disturbances. A preliminary perception test to assess aesthetics of the sonifications and its possible use in medical scenarios shows that the anticipatory mapping method is regarded as informative when it comes to discern between healthy and pathological states, however there is no agreement about a preferred sonification type.

CardioSounds是一款便携式系统，它允许用户实时测量并声音化其心电图信号。该ECG信号通过BITalino硬件平台采集，随后利用Raspberry Pi进行后续分析及声音化处理。用户可以通过智能手机控制系统的基本功能（如开始录音、停止录音）。该系统旨在用于心脏病理的诊断与监测，为用户提供了一种无需占用其视觉注意力的信号监测方式。在本研究中，我们提出了一种创新方法：预期映射法，用于声音化诸如心房颤动、心房扑动和心室颤动等节律紊乱。预期映射法增强了用户对节律细节的感知，同时不会干扰对实际心跳节律的直接感知。
在本研究中，我们对涉及三种最知名节律紊乱的病理数据进行测试。一项初步的感知测试旨在评估声音化的美学及其在医疗场景中的潜在应用，结果显示，在区分健康状态与病理状态方面，预期映射法被认为是一种信息丰富的工具，然而，对于首选的声音化类型并未达成一致。