Development of a Signal Simulation Module for Testing of Phonocardiography Based Prenatal Monitoring Systems

Prenatal monitoring enables early diagnosis of congenital anomalies and genetic disorders in the uterus. Several systems and techniques have been either developed or under development for this purpose. Every system under its developmental stage needs testing and validation of its performance. In this paper, a Signal Simulation Module (SSM) for simulation of maternal abdominal conditions has been developed. The developed module replicates the pregnant women´s abdomen by generating various signals similar to actual signals using Matlab¿. A comparison between signals from developed module and actual abdominal signals shows that presented system closely simulates acoustical conditions of the mother´s abdomen. The developed module can be used for testing and calibration of prenatal monitoring systems during its different developing stages.