Patter of tiny beat

Technology that could save the lives of unborn children has been developed at

. The small device, no larger than a mobile phone is able to monitor a baby's heart for signs of any potential defects or problems.

The new system has taken 15 years to develop and resulted in the researchers behind it — from the university's school of electrical and electronic engineering department and the school of human development — setting up a spin-out called Monica Healthcare.

Dr Barrie Hayes-Gill, who is in charge of the spin-out and also helped develop the core technology, said he believes the system could one day help around 70,000 babies a year in the UK alone.

Real challenge

The device works by monitoring the tiny electrical signals which are produced by an unborn baby's heart. It operates in much the same way as a conventional adult ECG, except that the signals that must be detected are around 5,000 times smaller, said Hayes-Gill.