The stethoscope, that dates back to Laënnec, is a medical examination device for auskultation of body-sounds. The classic stethoscope consists of a sound-funnel, tube and earpiece.
Today there are acoustic and electronic stethoscipes.
Electronic stethoscopes work with amplifiers, acoustic ones use physical phenomena. There are acoustic stethoscopes with one or double tubes.
There are innovative forms being developed, that consist only of the stethoscope head, that transmits compressed data via bluetooth directly to a computer or headphones.
Acoustic stethoscope:
(Picture: Messe Duesseldorf/Constanze Tillmann)
