B 15 the unit for heart-beat for a marine mammal in underwater conditions
Vladimir Baranov (1), Marina Svetlovskaya (1), Alexandr Agafonov (1), Vsevolod Belkovich (1) (1) P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS, 117997 Nakhimovsky av. 36, Moscow, Russia baroglider@yandex.ru
The device is used for on-line control and subsequent analysis of heart beat of a marine mammal. The small size of the device allows to place it in the underwater suite and record the divers heart beat in conditions of his free movement. The device can also be used to record the heartbeat of marine mammals in dolphins water pools. Besides the discussed device may be applied in public health service as well. The unit includes a belt with electrodes and the EKG amplifier and generator which transforms each R- wave into a radio impulse and subsequently into the light and acoustic signals. Another device is used to determine the upper and lower heart beat boundaries. An extra light and acoustic signal shows up every time when the boundary is surpassed. The acoustic signal is registered in the memory of digital sound recorder. The data of instant heart beat measurements (with up to 36 hr volume) registered in the sound recorder can be passed over to a computer in a couple of minutes with further processing.
It was recorded of dolphins heart beat after physical exercises, and the dolphins heard beat during “vocalizations”. Our studies have shown that heart rate increases during vocalization more stronger than during exercise.