Patent ID: 7909772

Claim:
A method for estimating a location of pulmonary and aortic components of second heart sounds of a patient over an interval, the method comprising the steps of: producing an electronic representation of heart sounds of the patient over the interval; identifying at least one second heart sound in the interval using said electronic representation; for each identified second heart sound: calculating a frequency weighted energy (FWE); normalizing said FWE; identifying peaks in said FWE; determining a maximum peak from said identified peaks; and retaining said maximum peak and peaks having an amplitude within a predetermined amount of an amplitude of said maximum peak; wherein if two or more peaks are retained, two largest peaks are selected, a first peak as a candidate value for the aortic component and a second peak as a candidate value for the pulmonary component, wherein said first peak is prior to said second peak and wherein if only a single peak is retained, said single peak is selected as a candidate value for the aortic component; and generating an estimated value for a location of the aortic component and the pulmonary component from said candidate values; wherein said FWE calculating step comprises generating a Non Linear Energy Operator (NLEO) function for each identified second heart sound; and wherein in said peak identifying step, a maximum peak value is identified and any identified peaks having a value less than a predetermined amount of said maximum peak value are discarded.