Optical Stethoscope Could Visualize Your Heartbeat

The stethoscope is not only a medical staple more than 200 years old — it's also an iconic tool that immediately conjures images of doctor's offices in our minds. But now, designers have re-imagined the stethoscope for the 21st century by adding an LED screen that visualizes our body's natural rhythms.

Designers Seobin Oh and JoonHee Kim created an optical stethoscope concept shaped like its traditional counterpart, but gives doctors deeper insight, as reported on Yanko Design. As the video shows above, the concept stethoscope's LED screen displays numerical information and a waveform of the heart rate, allowing doctors to add a visual layer to their recordings.