Beds – Invalid bed or surgical support – Sectional user supporting surface
Patent
1998-11-23
2000-08-22
Melius, Terry Lee
Beds
Invalid bed or surgical support
Sectional user supporting surface
5616, 5617, A47C 2008
Patent
active
06105187&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention is particularly concerned with beds of a kind having an adjustable configuration in the support of a person using the bed, and methods of motorized adjustment of such bed-configuration. Although motorized adjustment of bed-configuration is known from FR-A-2693640, the known bed and method requires the user to initiate the adjustment made. The result is that the user must select a bed-configuration for sleep that is comfortable and otherwise appropriate to whatever body orientations he/she might adopt during sleep. Unless sleep is to be interrupted, the configuration chosen is to be comfortable throughout the period of sleep whether the user is at any time sleeping, for example, on his/her side or back.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a bed end method by which the necessity for interrupting sleep to achieve optimum comfort can be avoided.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a bed having an adjustable configuration in its support of a person using the bed, in which sensing means responds to the user's body on the bed, and motor means adjusts the bed-configuration in dependence upon the response of the sensing means, characterised in that the sensing means responds to a condition that is dependent on the orientation of the user's body on the bed, and that the motor means adjusts the bed-configuration from one to another of predetermined configuration-states in dependence upon the response of the sensing means.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of motorized adjustment of the configuration of a bed in its support of a person using the bed, in which the user's body on the bed is sensed by sensing means and motorized adjustment of the bed-configuration is effected in dependence upon the response of the sensing means, characterised in that the sensing means senses a condition that is dependent on the orientation of the user's body on the bed, and that the motorized adjustment of the bed-configuration is from one to another of predetermined configuration-states appropriate to support of the user's body in respective orientations on the bed, in dependence upon the response of the sensing means.
With the bed and method of the present invention the difficulty of making a choice of a bed-configuration :for comfort throughout the period of sleep can be significantly reduced in that the bed-configuration is adjusted automatically in dependence upon the body-orientation adopted. Thus, with the invention it is possible to arrange that the configuration of the bed adjusts appropriately to the orientation in which the user is at any time sleeping so as to afford the sleeper optimum comfort throughout. More particularly, the user may pre-select the configuration-states that are to be effective for his/her respective body-orientations.
The bed according to the invention may include controlling means that comprises memory means for storing data defining the predetermined configuration-states and means for operating the motor means in accordance with the stored data to adjust the bed-configuration to one of the defined states, the particular one of the states to which the bed-configuration is adjusted in this respect being dependent upon the response of the sensing means. The controlling means may operate said motor means to vary the bed-configuration in accordance with selective actuation of a control device by the user, such control device may also be selectively actuable by the user to enter data dependent on a selected bed-configuration into the memory means to establish that bed-configuration as one of said predetermined configuration-states.
The sensing means may comprise a load sensor for providing an output that varies in dependence upon change in load imposed upon a predetermined location of the bed, as between said respective orientations of the user's body. Where the bed has a mattress that involves a recess for receiving a shoulder of the user, the load sensor may be located within the recess for responding
REFERENCES:
patent: 4890235 (1989-12-01), Reger et al.
patent: 5081447 (1992-01-01), Echols
patent: 5642302 (1997-06-01), Dumont et al.
patent: 5823192 (1998-10-01), Kalend et al.
Conley Fredrick
Melius Terry Lee
LandOfFree
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