hello -- Chris Janney developed a system in the 80s I saw worn and performed with in Boston by Stan Strickland, jazz saxophonist which was dusted off and used again a few years ago in a performance with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Press Release is here: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1998/may13/artheart.html A quote from the PR: "The bioengineering device, developed by Transkinetics, Inc., captures the electrical impulses to the heart and surrounding muscles via wireless telemetry. Placed on the performer's chest and amplified through filters and a sound system designed by Mr. Janney, the machine provides a percussive track layered over music based on jazz scat and Indian tabla rhythms and Mr. Janney's recitation of medical texts." --- but a bit of web searching will let you know that Transkinetics is no longer around. A bit more research and you will find that the electronic spectrum that the systems used were allocated in some areas (where hospitals were sited and using the systems) in the late 1990s to the needs of the HDTV broadcasting industry. Also, apparently Duracell stopped making the specific batteries needed to power the receivers. But this doesn't directly address your question regarding how 'to get a live feed of a heartbeat', but I would suspect that there are different solutions. How much do you know about the field of auscultation? There are advanced technology stethoscopes with amplification devices built into them, etc. There is a huge amount of information on Phillips medical research website on cardiac and monitoring systems for example: http://www.medical.philips.com/ During CellBytes 2000 in Arizona there was a performance experiment with amplifying the heartbeat -- Gene Cooper provided the technical support (and the heart) for this experiment. There is a bit written about it here http://isa.hc.asu.edu/cellbytes/scott/presence.html. A stethoscope and contact mike were used in that situation. Perhaps it's at the amplication end, the sound filtering that you need to focus your attention if you haven't done that already? Good luck Scott At 22:49 09/09/01 -0400, you wrote: >Does anybody know a good way to get a live feed of a heartbeat? I am doing a >dance performance during which I would like my heartbeat to be amplified as >accompaniment to the dance. The device would preferably be very compact and >definately cordless. I have already tried putting a small contact mic into a >stethoscope taped to my chest, but the results were not satisfactory. The >heartbeat was very faint and other sounds (like my stomache gurgling) were >very amplified. > >Any suggestions would be very helpful. Thank you. >Jennifer Arnone
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