Surgery – Truss – Pad
Patent
1994-08-24
1996-05-14
Rimell, Sam
Surgery
Truss
Pad
128690, 128774, A61B 511
Patent
active
055158587
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to wrist-held monitoring devices, and more particularly to wrist-held monitoring devices that monitor movement and physiological condition.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A wrist-held device for the independent and on-line surveillance of movement and physical condition is not yet available. Traditionally, the surveillance of patient movement out of a region has been effected by using extra-personal sensors, e.g. by monitoring the use of a door. The problems include a long monitoring time, high installation costs as well as false alarms as a person under surveillance leaves the space without switching off the surveillance. There are also portable radio transmitters provided with a switch for indicating the posture of a person. A problem with such devices are false alarms as the user must remember to take off the device when lying down. Another problem is that some surveillance is only active when a person is on his or her feet.
Prior monitoring devices are capable of monitoring the heart, however such devices do not provide information about motoric activity and are not suitable for personal motion control or surveillance. The heart monitoring devices are also traditionally expensive and require frequent battery replacement. Such devices are also not suitable for applications with many users in a restricted area or when long-term surveillance is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a wrist-watch type of device, which the carrier wears constantly on his or her wrist and which monitors physiological condition independently and on-line as well as issues an alarm upon detecting an abnormal situation. The wrist-held device delivers an alarm, which carries an ID-code specifying the transmitting device, to a separate receiver or a plurality of receivers which can even cover an entire hospital or region. The receivers can be connected to various local alarms or to an emergency phone. The device may also offer the user an opportunity to set off a self-induced alarm with a press button.
Condition surveillance by means of motoric activity and physiological condition is a main function of the device. The device is capable of achieving a so-called functional time surveillance for the elderly, i.e., incidents where a person being monitored falls, loses consciousness or the ability to move will be identified and the device automatically produces an alarm. All active sensing and the processing of sensor messages take place in a wrist alarm unit with a simple and very low-current technique, the device being operable for very long periods on the same batteries.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will now be described in more detail with reference made to the accompanying drawings, in which
FIG. 1 shows a device of the invention, including a wrist-held detector and transmitter unit and a separate receiver unit;
FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the detector and transmitter unit;
FIG. 3 shows a general block diagram for a device of the invention;
FIG. 4 shows how fuzzy logic is applied to interpret the mutual dependency of the different sensors; and
FIG. 5 shows an example of a logical flow chart for signals and pulses associated with operation of the device.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to FIG. 2, a device of the invention includes a wrist-watch size detector and transmitter unit 1, whose bottom is fitted with silver-plated contact surfaces for a sensor 4 of temperature and/or electric conductivity of the skin. Alternatively or in addition, the sensor 4 may include a sensor which detects or indicates a heartbeat. When monitoring the heart operation, one heartbeat or pulse interval is sufficient during any watching period when no motion pulse is being counted by means described below, in order to reduce the current consumption. The device is also provided with an acceleration sensor 5, and a pulse detector 6 for the acceleration sensor, a counter 7A for counting the pulses from detector 6, a fuzzy logic circuit 7
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