Usually, when we think about listening to someone’s heart, we imagine a doctor pressing a stethoscope to a patient’s chest. But we all carry around microphones every day in the form of smartphones – couldn’t we use these to listen, too?
Echoes is an app which captures the sound of your heart. Designed to be intuitive and easy to use, its clean lines and colour palette making the experience meditative rather than medicalised.
We know that a person’s heartbeat can give important information about their cardiac health.
So, we designed Echoes to gather data and find out whether phones’ inbuilt microphones are up to the task of at-home heart recording.
Echoes allows you to capture your heart sounds from your phone’s in-built microphone.
It is a tool that not only will help researchers understand the potential of mobile technologies to detect good-quality heart sounds but also will let you learn about your heart in a beautiful and playful way.
You can play the recordings of your heart back, watch visualisations of your unique beat and rhythm, and access a library of different heart sounds. Explore and contemplate your heart’s unique rhythm, the one of your loved ones, and its potential variation through time.
Help us reach our goal of
+10,000
recorded sounds
+1,000
quality heart beats
Tips on how to record
Make sure you remove your phone case before recording, and place your microphone directly on your skin. The microphone is usually on the bottom of the phone. It is important that you record in a quiet environment, as the phone will pick up any sound.
Hit record, and you should see the recording bar live. After a moment you will be able to hear your heartbeat. If the sound is too loud or too quiet, use the slider to adjust the microphone sensitivity. Don’t worry if the sound is a little metallic, in order to hear your heart Echoes needs to push your microphone to its limit!
People of all ages and backgrounds are joining together to help our project. Support the team, help scientific research and experience your heart in a different way.
All the recordings are sent to the Kings College London and the Maastricht research team, along with anonymised anthropometrics and cardiac health indicators. The database of recordings will be analysed by them in order to see how well the technology performs.
Your comments
Anonymous
'I have been monitoring my blood pressure and heart rate on a fortnightly basis, so that, in the unfortunate event that a heart condition or other illness affects me, I have a clear base line of what my 'healthy' readings are.'
Anonymous
'I usually don’t bother to look at them or listen back, but would definitely do so if I were concerned about a change in my condition. It’s good to have them on file, so that if needed, there’s a body of evidence to show if any change is sudden or was gradual.'
Anonymous
'I am certain that this App has tremendous potential.'
Anonymous
'Fun to do with kids!'
Anonymous
'I would send this a card.'
Anonymous
'Can we record a cat or a pregnant women?'
Anonymous
'The app is exciting as it allows people to engage with the wonder of their heart while also contributing to real scientific research that has the potential to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac conditions.'
Anonymous
'By using the app we hope that parents, carers and children feel they can learn about their heart, and have fun exploring with recording the sounds of their heart and feeling connected to those they choose to share them with.'
Contact us at echoes@kcl.ac.uk
A research project led by King's College London and the University of Maastricht.
App and website designed by Cellule Studio 2020.
Funded by the
Wellcome Trust and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 (g.a. 764738).
Supported by the British Heart Foundation and Evelina Children's Heart Organisation.