Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-28
2001-03-27
Lee, Benjamin C. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S539230, C340S689000, C340S506000, C600S513000, C600S595000, C600S310000, C455S100000, C455S521000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06208251
ABSTRACT:
The invention concerns a system for monitoring and assisting isolated persons, particularly in a domestic environment, that is to say in their home, but also in professional and industrial environments and in the course of leisure activities. It also concerns a device for implementing this system.
As regards the domestic environment, recent demographic studies carried out among the populations of the industrialized nations show a significant increase in the number of elderly persons and, consequently, in the number of infirm, poorly or handicapped persons, many of them living alone.
Moreover, whereas hospitalization of these persons for the slightest accident was for many years the norm, the current trend—with the objective of both optimizing the comfort of the patients and of reducing hospital costs—is as far as possible to encourage these persons to remain at home and to provide them either with a home visiting medical service or a monitoring service.
The problem posed by these persons remaining at home alone lies in the risks of illness, falls and other medical problems likely to affect these persons, and in their consequences if the said persons do not receive any help in good time.
Although periodic visits from friends, nurses and others afford some measure of security, and although the presence of the telephone makes it possible, if need be, to alert the competent authorities, some situations are without solution, especially in cases where the person has fainted or fallen, preventing him or her from using the telephone and, as a result, making it impossible to seek help.
In order to overcome this difficulty, systems of monitoring, assistance and/or surveillance have been proposed in which the person who is on their own permanently carries around a small unit which, when it is activated by the said person, initiates the emission of a signal in the direction of a centralized device, which is in turn able to initiate the triggering of an alarm at a monitoring centre, emergency centre and/or neighbours, and it does this by way of the switched telephone network. Such systems have been described, for example, in EP-A-0 522 660 and U.S. Pat. No. 3 914 692.
The proposed system thus unquestionably represents a step forward. However, it is not able to cover all the situations confronted by persons who are on their own, especially when these persons fall, causing loss of consciousness, or a state in which they are no longer capable of activating the unit they are carrying.
The same problems arise, especially in the industrial environment, and more particularly in hostile atmospheres, where the inhalation of toxic substances or exposure to potential hazards can lead to the person collapsing directly or as a result of fainting, and where remaining in such an atmosphere may prove damaging.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to make available a system for monitoring and assisting isolated persons which takes these risks into account.
This system comprises:
a unit decentralized at the location for monitoring and assisting the said persons, equipped with a receiver and intended to transmit an alarm signal, for example by way of the switched telephone network, to one or more defined locations, in particular a monitoring centre, an emergency centre, neighbours or family;
and a portable unit intended to be carried by the said persons and incorporating an emitter which is intended to emit one or more signals in the direction of the decentralized unit, the said signals being intended to initiate the transmission of the alarm signal from the decentralized unit.
It is characterized in that the portable unit additionally incorporates means for detecting that the person carrying the device has fallen, these means being able to initiate the emission, by the emitter incorporated therein, of the said signals which are intended in turn to initiate the transmission of an alarm, these means for detecting a fall consisting of gravimetric means, such as in particular a mercury ball detector, or consisting of accelerometric means, such as a piezoelectric accelerometer.
In this way, it is possible to overcome the risk of persons being left in difficult or even critical situations, recent epidemiological studies showing that the number of these persons is relatively high and that the consequnces in terms of treatment are also critical.
In the context of the use of accelerometric detection means, the portable unit is advantageously equipped with three accelerometers, situated in three different directions, in such a way as to detect falls in the vertical plane, falls in the lateral plane and backward falls.
According to another characteristic of the invention, the portable unit is also equipped with a member which can be activated by the person carrying it and which is also intended to initiate, in a known manner, the transmission of an alarm by the decentralized unit. This member in most cases consists of a press-button, but it can of course consist of any other type of member performing an equivalent function. This member can, for example, be incorporated in a chain on which the portable unit is hung and which, when it is pulled off, initiates the transmission of the alarm.
According to another characteristic of the invention, the portable unit is equipped with a cutaneous impedance switch. In this way, the system is in the alert state only when the portable unit is in fact being worn by the user, the skin closing the alert circuit incorporated within the said portable unit.
According to another characteristic of the invention, the portable unit incorporates a circuit for recovery and storage of the electrocardiogram of the person in question. For this purpose, the portable unit is provided with a chain which is placed around the neck of the person in question, the said chain being equipped at its end, that is to say at the end opposite the area of attachment of the portable unit, and thus, when it is in place behind the neck, with contact electrodes which are able to take a first information item within the context of the recovery of the electrocardiogram. Moreover, the casing constituting the portable unit itself includes an electrode, situated on its rear face, so as to be situated level with the manubrium of the sternum of the individual, so as to permit, in association with the electrode for the neck, the acquisition of the data necessary for creating an electrocardiogram, the latter being stored in an integrated memory within the said casing. In this way, it is possible, in the event of the person fainting, or in the event of a fall being detected, to very quickly detect the cause of the faint or the fall, and, where appropriate, to provide suitable treatment as soon as possible.
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Cadet Pierre-Henri
Poyeton Laurent
Vigneron Marc
Lee Benjamin C.
Wall Marjama & Bilinski
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