Patent ID: 7340289

Claim:
A biomagnetic field measuring apparatus comprising: means for shielding external magnetic fields: a bed for supporting a pregnant female; at least one SQUID magnetometer for detecting a biomagnetic field generated by the pregnant female; a cryostat for keeping the at least one SQUID magnetometer at a low temperature: a drive circuit for driving the at least one SQUID magnetometer; a processing unit for collecting output signals of the drive circuit and processing the output signals; and a display unit for displaying results of the processing, wherein the processing unit performs (1) a process for obtaining a waveform of a fetal heart by removing a magnetic field waveform generated by a heart of the pregnant female from a biomagnetic field waveform measured of the pregnant female, (2) a process for obtaining a first template waveform of the waveform of the fetal heart, (3) a process for obtaining a waveform of a cross correlation coefficient between the waveform of the fetal heart and the first template waveform, and (4) a process for detecting peaks from the waveform of the cross correlation coefficient, and wherein timings at which detected peaks occur are displayed on the display unit.