NONINVASIVE PHYSIOLOGICAL MONITORS

MINIATURIZATION TECHNOLOGY SHOULD BE APPLIED TO DEVELOP A DIGITAL DEVICE FOR RECORDING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF AIRCRAFT FLYOVERS IN REMOTE AREAS WHICH ARE OVERFLOWN BY AIRCRAFT OPERATING IN MTRS AND IN MOAS. APPLICATION SPECIFIC INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (ASICS) WOULD INCORPORATE A MICROPROCESSOR INTO A CHIP TO ALLOW SOPHISTICATED SOFTWARE ALGORITHMS TO CONTINUOUSLY MONITOR AND CALCULATE DISTRIBUTION STATISTICS FOR AMBIENT NOISE LEVELS; TO DISCRIMINATE AIRCRAFT FLYOVERS FROM NATURALLY OCCURRING SOUNDS; TO TIMESTAMP AND LOG TIMES OF OCCURRENCE OF FLYOVERS; AND TO EITHER PASSIVELY ACCEPT HUMAN RESPONSE INFORMATION OR ADMINISTER A BRIEF QUESTIONNAIRE UPON DETECTION OF AIRCRAFT. THE DEVICE WOULD BE LIGHT AND SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT INTO A POCKET, BE SEWN INTO A HAT, OR POSSIBLY WORN AS A WRIST WATCH. THE LOW POWER CONSUMPTION OF ASIC DEVICES PERMITS FIELD OPERATION FOR EXTENDED PERIODS. THE DEVICE WOULD CONTAIN A MINIATURE MICROPHONE, AN A/D CONVERSION CIRCUIT TO PERMIT DIGITAL REPRESENTATION OF THE ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT, A MICROPROCESSOR CAPABLE OF EXECUTING LOW FREQUENCY FAST FOURIER TRANSFORMS OR DIGITAL PROCESSING IN REAL OR NEAR-REAL TIME TO PROVIDE THE REQUIRED SIGNAL PROCESSING, 512 KBYTES OR MORE OF LOW POWER MEMORY, RS-232 DATA COMMUNICATION FOR THE TRANSFER OF DATA FOR ANALYSIS, AND A DISPLAY FOR INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH THE WEARER OF THE DEVICE.