FreedomScope wireless stethoscope pitter patters over Bluetooth

While we're still on the fence with the name -- we can't decide if the urge to call it the FrenchScope is a good or bad thing -- there's no hating on the tech, a simple as it might be. The FreedomScope is just like a normal stethoscope, minus the bothersome tube part. Freed from tethers by a little bit of Bluetooth magic, the FreedomScope allows first responders to diagnose folks in viral, biological, chemical or nuclear emergencies that require hazard suits or other separation on the part of the health care personnel. The auscultator, if you will.

[dlehmer @ Aug 7th 2008 12:06AM]

first

[engadgetier @ Aug 7th 2008 12:10AM]

congratulations, your the only one up at 12 in the middle of the night. other than me, but thats my job ;)

[takashisenke @ Aug 7th 2008 12:25AM]

It's 9:30 here.

[Delta @ Aug 7th 2008 12:12AM]

The Doctor needs one of these!

[MateFrio @ Aug 7th 2008 12:20AM]

As a professional safe cracker this is great.

[ShadowKain @ Aug 7th 2008 1:53PM]

A safe cracker who spends their days reading engadget? Keep dreaming, let me know when you break into you Bob The Builder Toolbox

[Josh Warner @ Aug 7th 2008 12:40AM]

As a health-professional-in-training, this really has a specific use and none other. Absolutely nobody that can use a standard scope will use one of these; the digital conversion / inevitable compression will kill the faint sounds that are diagnostic and why we purchase expensive stethoscopes in the first place.

However, for its intended use (hasmat teams, first responders, etc) this could really be valuable. Is it going to diagnose a specific cardiac disorder? No, but it will let them tell quickly if a person is alive without having to find a possibly very weak pulse.

That having been said, we have had the technology to do this for what - 10 or more years? The fact that nobody had bothered to put it together before this point tells me that the demand is as limited as I suspected.

[SmartSid @ Aug 7th 2008 4:01AM]

Wonder what makes you feel that it will kill faint sounds etc... That has to do with the sensitivity of the listening device. The bluetooth wireless technology in itself will not distort the signal.
(Else, bluetooth stereo headphones would've never sold in the first place... )

In fact, this technology can be pretty useful -- doctors can now also record cardiac data in digital form directly out of a stethoscope without the need for other bulky instruments... This innovation may open up a new wave of medical instruments... :-)

(As to why this comes so late if technology used existed 10 years before... It could have a lot to do with hardware, and costs. For example: almost every laptop sold today has bluetooth compatibility, etc... )

[neofolklore @ Aug 7th 2008 7:46AM]

bluetooth isn't fast enough to stream uncompressed wav, i just thought about it.



but it does make some good wireless headphones, this will work fine.

unless as the other guy put it: you have a heart murmer.

[ShadowKain @ Aug 7th 2008 8:59AM]

I guess that NAGGING stehoscope around your neck is just too friggen heavy right? : /

[Nate DiDonato @ Aug 9th 2008 2:07AM]

This actually has more practicality than that if you think about it.

This would be great for physical therapy monitoring if the patient were say, swimming.

Also, a friend of mine had a heart condition where she had to wear these nasty heart monitors with wires to a pack on her hip for over a month for diagnosis. They'd get tangled in her clothes all the time and come off, then her phone would start ringing and someone from the monitoring office had to tell her to reattach a pad.