Medical City · Device Lab 63 of 69
Stethoscope
A rotating head carries a membrane on one face and an open cup on the other. The user selects between two known responses by turning the head until it seats.
- 10 parts
- 2 configurations in the Device Lab
Configurations
The versions in the Device Lab.
Dual-head acoustic stethoscope
A rotating head carries a membrane on one face and an open cup on the other. The user selects between two known responses by turning the head until it seats.
Single-sided tunable stethoscope
One membrane on a flexible surround. The response is changed continuously by contact pressure rather than by selecting a face, so there is nothing to turn and nothing to leave between positions.
The parts
Part by part.
Diaphragm and its rim
The flat side. A thin stiff membrane held at its edge by a rim, resting against the body.
Bell side
The cupped side. An open cup with a rim, no membrane, held lightly against the body.
Chestpiece body and indexing
The head holds both sides and rotates between them. Its job is to make exactly one of them live at a time, and to make it obvious which.
Stem and the internal valve
The short tube from the head to the tubing, and the valve inside it that decides which face of the head is connected. It is the only moving part inside the instrument.
Acoustic tubing
The tubing is the path between the head and the ears, and it is the part most often blamed and least often examined. It carries pressure variation, not electricity and not light, and it does that only for as long as it stays sealed and stays supple.
Binaural tubes
The two metal tubes that carry sound from the flexible tubing into the ears. They are the most rigid part of the path and the part that decides what angle the tips meet the ear canal at.
Tension spring
The spring across the top of the headset decides how hard the tips are pressed into the ears. It is a comfort part and a performance part at the same time, and the two pull in opposite directions.
Eartips and seal
The tips are the only part that forms a seal, and a seal is the only thing standing between the listener and the room. They are also the cheapest part and the part users are least likely to think about.
The consulting room
The room is a component of this instrument in a way it is not for most devices. Nothing amplifies here, so the sound that arrives has only what the source gave it, and everything the room adds competes with it directly.
Tunable membrane
One membrane, on one face, doing both jobs. Instead of rotating the head to choose a response, the user changes the response by changing how hard they press.
Simulations
Where it appears in the simulations.
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