Acoustic Analysis and Infrasonic Measurement of a Fetal Phonocardiography Phantom

Kristóf Müller1, Janka Hatvani2, Miklos Koller3, Dr. Marton Aron Goda4
1Pázmány Péter Catholic University - Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics, 2Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem, 3Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics, Pazmany Peter Catholic University, 4Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion, Technion–IIT


Abstract

Monitoring fetal cardiac activity is a widespread method for assessing fetal well-being. With the rise of smart devices and after the COVID-19 pandemic the at-home monitoring became increasingly popular. However, evaluation and development of fetal heart monitoring systems are hindered by the lack of inexpensive, reproducible, and non-human test platforms. In this work, we present the design and validation of a low-cost abdominal phantom intended to mimic the acoustic and infrasonic properties of a pregnant abdomen, with a focus on fetal phonocardiography. The phantom was constructed from multi-layer silicone rubber–oil mixtures with differing stiffness to represent soft tissue and skin, and incorporated an internal low-frequency speaker as a controllable sound source. Its dynamic behavior was characterized using an optical laser-based vibration measurement, piezoelectric, and multiple microphone types over the 5–100 Hz frequency range which are relevant to fetal heart sounds. A linearized fundamental-frequency analysis was employed to estimate frequency responses and isolate the transfer function of the phantom. Results show pronounced high-frequency attenuation and a resonance around 22 Hz. These findings indicate that the proposed phantom provides a promising baseline for validating fetal heart monitoring instruments, although further refinement and characterization are required to fully understand its behavior and to enable realistic reproduction of fetal heart signals.