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Hearing Bodily Functions (Super Sensative Micrphones):

I found out recently that the human body can produce minute audio. An eyeball moving, an eye blinking, gastric sounds, a full bladder, subvocalizations, heart beat, all these create sound, however minute. What kind of microphone can pick these sounds up, and, more importantly, does the microphone have to be in contact with the human body to hear these things (I know NASA is using microphones sensitive enough so that their crew can communicate commands via subvocalizations. These microphones are attached to the neck, I beleive)?

Reply to
Josh
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Your problem is likely going to be amplifying what you want, and not amplifying what you don't want. Most of those things are relatively quiet, and by the time you amplify them enough so you can hear them, external sounds will get quite loud.

In other words, if you turn up your hearing aid volume in order to hear the person next to you who is barely speaking, the frogs outside may be way too loud.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

I read somewhere (but have not tried) that a piezo disc taped to the body works well. This should be far more sensitive to internal sounds compared to external sounds (like a stethoscope). What you can pick up will then depend on your amplification, as Michael said.

-Daniel

Reply to
Daniel Watman

Eye Billy...you wont need any new-fangled, super sensitive microphone to hear most of MY bodily functions!!

-- Kim..."A Man Of True Frankenstinean Proportions"

Reply to
Kim Sleep

Do you know how much $ Piezo disks can go for?

Reply to
Josh

| Your problem is likely going to be amplifying what you want, and not | amplifying what you don't want. Most of those things are relatively | quiet, and by the time you amplify them enough so you can hear them, | external sounds will get quite loud.

Another problem is that the sounds generated by many of these things is less than 20 Hz, and your ear just can't hear much below that. I've heard it suggested that these noises are exactly why your ears can't really hear below 20 Hz -- that it's a `survival of the fittest' thing, that those who could hear below that basically had reduced hearing, because they kept hearing noises generated by their own bodies) and so they were less likely to pass on their genes ...

(Now, there may be harmonics at higher frequencies, and those may be a high enough frequency to hear, but then they're so weak that it's what Michael said.

--
Doug McLaren, dougmc@frenzy.com
You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish.
You can tune a filesystem, but you can't tuna fish.
-- from the tunefs(8) man page
Reply to
Doug McLaren

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