Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-15
2001-10-23
Wu, Daniel J. (Department: 2736)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S539230, C340S573300, C340S426110, C464S062100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06307481
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to means for detecting body movement, and, more particularly, relates to systems, and methods of operation thereof, for evaluating movement of a body relative to an environment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Methods for determining specific movements of a body that use a variety of devices, apparatus and systems are, generally speaking, known (the term “body” is defined broadly hereafter and includes both organic and inorganic objects).
In point of fact, many methods are known for sensing body movement, or non-movement (i.e., sensed dynamic accelerations, including cessation of movement), as well as, for sensing body movement over time, which is commonly used to determine comparative levels of activity of a monitored body (See, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,110,741, 4,292,630, 5,045,839, and 5,523,742). These methodologies, however, merely report various levels of body activity, and, simply stated, fail to recognize possible causes for any increased or decreased level of body activity.
In contrast, other methodologies have developed over time for the detection of falls (See also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,829,285, 5,477,211, 5,554,975, and 5,751,214). These methodologies are largely based upon the utilization of one or more mechanical switches (e.g., mercury switches) that determine when a body has attained a horizontal position. These methods however fail to discern “normal,” or acceptable, changes in levels of body activity. Stated another way, the foregoing fall detection methodologies provide no position change analysis and, therefore, cannot determine whether a change in position, once attained, is acceptable or unacceptable.
Various training methods have been conceived for sensing relative tilt of a body (See, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,300,921 and 5,430,435), and some such methodologies have employed two-axis accelerometers. The output of these devices, however, have reported only static acceleration of the body (i.e., the position of a body relative to earth within broad limits). It should be appreciated that static acceleration, or gravity, is not the same as a lack of dynamic acceleration (i.e., vibration, body movement, and the like), but is instead a gauge of position. While accelerometers that measure both static and dynamic acceleration are known, their primary use has heretofore been substantially confined to applications directed to measuring one or the other, but not both.
Thus, it may be seen that the various conventional detectors fall into one of two varieties, those that gauge movement of the body and those that gauge a body's position by various means, with neither type capable of evaluating body movement to determine whether the same is normal or abnormal; and if abnormal, whether such movement is so abnormal to be beyond tolerance, for instance, to be damaging, destructive, crippling, harmful, injurious, or otherwise alarming or, possibly, distressing to the body. None of the methodologies heretofore known have provided a suitable means to evaluate body movement over time and to determine whether such movement is tolerable. Further improvement could thus be utilized.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To address the above-introduced deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention introduces systems, as well as methods of operating such systems, for evaluating movement of a body relative to an environment. For the purposes hereof, the term “body” is defined broadly, meaning any organic or inorganic object whose movement or position may suitably be evaluated relative its environment in accordance with the principles hereof; and where the term “environment” is defined broadly as the conditions and the influences that determine the behavior of the physical system in which the body is located.
An advantageous embodiment of a system that evaluates movement of a body relative to an environment in accordance herewith includes both a sensor and a processor. In operation, the sensor is associated with the body and operates to repeatedly sense accelerative phenomena of the body. The processor, which is associated with the sensor, processes the sensed accelerative phenomena as a function of at least one accelerative event characteristic to determine whether the evaluated body movement is within environmental tolerance. The processor also preferably generates state indicia while processing the sensed accelerative phenomena, which represents the state of the body within the environment over time.
For the purposes hereof, the term “sensor” is defined broadly, meaning a device that senses one or more absolute values, changes in value, or some combination of the same, of at least the sensed accelerative phenomena. According to a preferred embodiment, described in detail hereafter, the sensor may be a plural-axis sensor that senses accelerative phenomena and generates an output signal to the processor indicative of measurements of both dynamic and static acceleration of the body in plural axes.
According to this embodiment, the processor receives and processes the output signal. The processor is preferably programmed to distinguish between normal and abnormal accelerative events, and, when an abnormal event is identified, to indicate whether the abnormal event is tolerable, or within tolerance. In further embodiments, the processor may be programmed to distinguish other physical characteristics, including temperature, pressure, force, sound, light, relative position, and the like.
It should be noted that the relevant environment may be statically or dynamically represented. The sophistication of any such representation may be as complex or as uncomplicated as needed by a given application (e.g., disability, injury, infirmity, relative position, or other organic assistance monitoring; cargo or other transport monitoring; military, paramilitary, or other tactical maneuver monitoring; etc.). It should further be noted that any representation may initially be set to, or reset to, a default, including, for instance, a physically empty space, or vacuum.
Regardless, the principles of the preferred exemplary embodiment discussed heretofore require at least one accelerative event characteristic to be represented to enable the processor to determine whether the evaluated body movement is within environmental tolerance, which is again advantageously based upon both dynamic and static acceleration measurements.
According to a related embodiment, the processor is further operable, in response to processing the sensed accelerative phenomena, to generate state indicia, which includes tolerance indicia, generated in response to determining whether the evaluated body movement is within environmental tolerance. Preferably, such tolerance indicia is compared with at least one threshold, likely associated with the accelerative event characteristic. In response to such comparison, the processor controls a suitable indicating means to initiate an alarm event; to communicate such tolerance indicia to a monitoring controller; to generate statistics; or the like.
According to a related preferred embodiment, the system may be associated with other components or sensing systems. For instance, in an assistance monitoring application, the sensor may repeatedly sense dynamic and static acceleration of the body in the plural axes and generate output signals indicative of the measurements. The processor continuously processes the output signals to distinguish between selected accelerative and non-selected accelerative events (described in detail hereafter) based upon both the dynamic and the static acceleration of the body, and generates state indicia, including tolerance indicia, that is communicated to a remote monitoring controller. The tolerance indicia is communicated to the monitoring controller for record keeping/statistical purposes, as well as to provide “live” monitoring of the individual subscriber.
Communication between the processor and the controller may be by a wireless network, a wired network, or some suitable combination of the same, and may inc
Halleck Michael E.
Lehrman Michael L.
Owens Alan R.
iLife Systems, Inc.
Nguyen Tai T.
Wu Daniel J.
LandOfFree
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