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Apparatus and method for the detection of the body position while sleeping

  • US 10,159,429 B2
  • Filed: 05/29/2012
  • Issued: 12/25/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2011
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A system for detection of a sleeping posture of a body on a bedding, the apparatus comprising:

  • a projector configured to project electromagnetic waves on at least a part of said bedding;

    a low-resolution detector configured to detect a reflection of the projected electromagnetic waves;

    a processor connected to the detector, said processor configured to compare a grid-based intensity distribution of the reflection of the electromagnetic waves that are detected by the detector to a plurality of stored intensity distributions of reflection patterns of electromagnetic waves to determine the sleeping posture of the body on the bedding, each of the plurality of stored reflection patterns representing a different intensity distribution of a reflection pattern due to a corresponding reference body posture of a plurality of reference body postures, wherein the processor is further configured to determine which of the plurality of reference body postures corresponds to the sleeping posture of the body on the bedding based on the comparison; and

    a plurality of microphones configured to provide inputs to said processor, said processor being configured to refine the sleeping posture determined from the comparison to determine a refined posture based on the inputs from said plurality of microphones; and

    wherein the processor is configured, based on the reflection detected by the detector and the inputs from said plurality of microphones, to distinguish between at least one of side and flat sleeping postures, to distinguish between left-side and right-side sleeping postures, and to detect sleep apnea events and correlate the sleep apnea events to the sleeping posture.

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