Surgery – Sleep or relaxation inducing therapy – Sensory
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-03
2003-01-07
Kearney, Rosiland S. (Department: 3739)
Surgery
Sleep or relaxation inducing therapy
Sensory
C160S238000, C160S239000, C160S327000, C160S330000, C160S340000, C005S163000, C248S466000, C248S469000, C248S470000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06503188
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for promoting personal relaxation and reducing stress in an environmentally stressful setting, such as a health care or other setting.
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
The disclosures of my U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,676,633 and 5,681,259 and my pending applications are incorporated by reference thereto.
For example, my aforesaid U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,676,633 and 5,681,259 are directed to a method and apparatus for biophilically promoting patient relaxation, for reducing physical and/or psychological patient stress and for expediting patient recovery. More particularly, my patents describe and apparatuses used to expose persons to appropriately selected visual stimuli which promote induce relaxation and reduce stress, as well as promote patient recovery in intimate settings in hospital room environments and like settings.
My prior patents are also related to a method of relaxing a patient in a health care, hospital or convalescent setting, by providing a patient with a choice of selecting for viewing one or more high resolution spatially open, serene natural landscape scenes to which the patient is believed to have an innate positive (biophilic) affinity, upon a fabric frame display member mounted upon a flexible wall partition, such as a hospital curtain. In one embodiment, the spatially open, serene natural landscape scene is a savanna-type landscape or a like scene to which humans are believed to have a biophilic affinity.
A biophilic landscape picture is printed preferably on a flexible fabric by a high resolution sublimation printing process, wherein an image is first scanned into a computer and then transformed by state-of-the-art technology to the fabric, such as described in the “Background of the Invention” herein. The image may also be printed directly on all or a portion of a hospital curtain itself.
My prior patents also discuss that because of hospital safety protocol and safety codes (such as what is referred to as “National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
701
” codes), the fabric must either be inherently flame retardant or specially treated to meet protocol or code requirements. Moreover, in accord with hospital sanitary protocol, the fabric sheet pieces and inks thereon should be washable and durable to heated washing standards of 160 degrees F. so that any infectious organisms thereon are eradicated.
The patents also note that such printing produces substantially glare-free photorealistic images of sufficient size (e.g. four by five feet) to give the patient the perception of actually being in a natural (i.e., biophilic) setting. Printing the photorealistic image is accomplished on inherently fire retardant or treated fabric in a manner that upholds the post-printing fire retardancy of the fabric and that enables the fabric to be laundered and disinfected at the required high water and drying temperatures required by hospital sanitary codes and standards without substantially degrading the image quality of the picture. On a reverse side of the fabric one or more fastening means, such as strips of hook-and-loop-type fasteners, sold under the trade name of VELCRO®, are attached. Corresponding strips of hook-and-loop type fasteners are attached to a portion of a hospital room curtain which at least partly encloses a hospital patient's bed. Other conventional fasteners such as snaps, safety pins, clips, etc., may be substituted or additionally employed.
My prior patents also disclose that by attaching the fabric picture to the patient-facing side of the hospital curtain, the biophilic landscape picture can remain visible to the targeted patient in the bed even when the curtain is contracted. During visiting hours, when the curtain is normally partially expanded, the landscape picture can be left visible on a portion of the curtain.
My patents also discuss that the biophilic picture should be within the person's line of vision. In conjunction with exposure of the patient to the spatially open, serene natural landscape picture, the patient may be provided with soothing natural sounds appropriate to the landscape picture and/or mild aromatic odors reminiscent of natural aromas associated with the landscape picture.
In selecting a spatially open, serene natural landscape for the patient to view, it is important that the patient not be exposed to over-exciting or anxiety producing landscape scenes, (which may unconsciously raise the stress level of the patient and/or may affect the visual and auditory nerve balance mechanisms of the patient).
Therefore, selection of the biophilic visual image to be conveyed to the patient preferably encompasses selection of spatially open, serene landscape scenes which are substantially the same as, or similar to, the archetypal savanna-type landscape scenes, suggested by Ulrich, Wilson and other scientific authorities on biophilia.
My patents further note that the subjects of a biophilic scene, or other spatially open, serene, natural landscapes must be carefully chosen and the natural scenes should be selected in relation to the most recent relevant environmental psychology research (such as defined by Ulrich). Although pre-dating both the 1984 seminal work by Wilson and the subsequent 1993 publication of Ulrich, an example of environmental psychology methodology research on differential human perceptions of varying outdoor scenes is the 1974 work of Shafer and Richards entitled “A Comparison of Viewer Reactions to Outdoor Scenes and Photographs of These Scenes”, (Shafer et al., 1974, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service Research Paper No. NE-302, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S.D.A., Upper Darby, Pa.)
In the Shafer and Richards study, eight different types of outdoor scenes were shown to viewers in three different modes: (i) on-site viewing of the actual scenes; (ii) viewing color transparencies of the scenes; and (iii) viewing color photographic prints of the scenes. Viewer responses to each scene were compared statistically and geographically to determine which outdoor scenes had more positive effects on the viewers.
My patents discuss that upon selection of the picture to be displayed to the patient, it should be conveniently displayed, such as on the hospital curtain, as noted before. However, other embodiments of the present invention include other visual display means not previously described in this application. One such other kind of embodiment is a wall or ceiling mountable, roll-up-able and roll-down-able screen depicting a spatially open, serene natural landscape scene (preferably a biophilic savanna-type scene).
Unlike the generalized nature photography described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,428 of Fischer, which describes providing a nature scene in a hospital wall-mounted picture frame, and the Fischer “Visual Therapy” publication, the present invention applies the latest research findings and theory in the behavioral and natural sciences to the selection and installation of appropriate nature photography scenes in hospital rooms and other convalescent settings. It does so in a manner that creates a simulated natural environment to promote the hospitalized patient's recovery.
The selection of healing and recovery-promoting natural landscape scenes requires knowledge of the latest research findings concerning the health effects of viewing biophilic nature scenes, since not all natural landscape scenes have a therapeutic affect. In fact, uninformed, improper or inappropriate picture selection has been shown to have deleterious effects on patients, disturbing them rather than promoting their healing.
My patents also note that what is essential in the selection process is that the visual stimuli not merely tend to “involve, distract and occupy the attention of the viewer” but that such elicited patient responses promote the patient's healing and recovery. The present invention reflects an understanding of how to stimulate such viewer-based recovery responses because it is based on a firm foundation of the latest research fi
Healing Environments International, Inc.
Kearney Rosiland S.
Walker Alfred M.
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