Automatic system for monitoring person requiring care and his/her caretaker

• US 20020169583A1
• Filed: 03/15/2001
• Published: 11/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Trajkovic, Miroslav, Gutta, Srinivas, Cohen-Solal, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 6,968,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/188
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/06 Children, e.g. for attention deficit diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0013 Medical image data A61B1/00011, A61B6/56, A61B8/56 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/113 occurring during breathing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/167 Personality evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0423 detecting deviation from an expected pattern of behaviour or schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0476 Cameras to detect unsafe condition, e.g. video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A monitoring system for an infant, child, invalid, or other person requiring care uses computer vision and hearing, and inputs of other modalities, to analyze the status of a caretaker and/or cared-for person and its environment. The conditions are classified as normal or alarm conditions and an informative alarm signal is generated which may include records of the vision audio and other inputs. The system also has the ability to solicit responses from the occupants to stimulate a classifiable input to reduce ambiguity in its state signal.

Claims

1. A device for monitoring a first person requiring supervision, comprising:

a controller programmed to receive at least one monitor signal from an environment monitor located in a monitored zone;

said controller being programmed to classify at least one alarm condition threatening to said first person responsively to said environment monitor to produce class data; and

said controller being programmed to generate an alarm signal responsively to said class data, said alarm signal including at least a portion of said monitor signal at least one of immediately prior to or immediately after an incidence of said alarm condition.

2. A device as in claim 1, wherein said at least one monitor signal includes at least one of a still image, video, and audio data.

3. A device as in claim 1, wherein said controller is programmed to recognize faces and said alarm condition is responsive to one of a recognition of a face or a failure to recognize a face.

4. A device as in claim 3, wherein said controller is programmed to solicit an action by an occupant, said monitor signal being responsive to said action by said occupant.

5. A device as in claim 1, wherein said controller is programmed to solicit an action by an occupant, said monitor signal being responsive to said action by said occupant.

6. A device as in claim 1, wherein said controller is programmed to recognize a speaker'"'"'s voice, said alarm signal being responsive to one of a recognition of said speaker'"'"'s voice and a failure to recognize said speaker'"'"'s voice.

7. A device as in claim 1, wherein said at least one monitor signal includes a detector configured to detect a lapse in breathing by said person.

8. A device as in claim 1, wherein said alarm signal includes at least a portion of said monitor signal immediately prior to and immediately after an incidence of said alarm condition.

9. A device as in claim 1 wherein said alarm signal includes at least one of an audio signal, text data signal, and a video signal.

10. A monitoring system for monitoring the environment of a person requiring supervision, comprising:

a controller connected to receive at least one signal from at least one sensor;

said at least one sensor generating first and second signals responsive to a first state of a caretaker of said person and a second state of said person, respectively;

said controller being programmed to generate a first alarm signal when said first state is outside a first specified range and to generate a second alarm signal when said second state is outside a second specified range.

11. A monitoring system as in claim 10, wherein said first alarm signal includes a sample of at least one of said first and second signals.

12. A monitoring system as in claim 10, wherein said controller is programmed to generate a message to solicit an action by said caretaker signal when said first state is outside said first specified range.

14. A method as in claim 13, wherein said step of transmitting includes transmitting an electromagnetic signal including at least one of audio, video, and text data.

15. A method as in claim 13, wherein said person is an infant and said step of detecting includes detecting a lapse of breathing of said infant.

16. A method as in claim 13, wherein said step of detecting includes detecting at least one of an audio signal and video signal and classifying a predefined pattern in said at least one of an audio signal and a video signal.

17. A method as in claim 13, wherein said step of detecting includes detecting behavior of a person other than said child and in said child'"'"'s environment.

18. A method as in claim 13, wherein said step of detecting includes at least one of recognizing a face of said person or another, classifying a body habitus of said person, classifying a physiognomy of said person, detecting a speed of movement of said person or another, detecting a number of persons in an occupied zone, and recognizing a voice signature, said steps of recognizing, classifying, and detecting being automatic machine processes.

19. A method as in claim 13, wherein said step of detecting includes detecting a failure of at least one of a movement of said person or another to move, speak, or generate any other detectable activities.

13. A method of monitoring a person requiring supervision, comprising the steps of:

generating a first signal indicative of a status of a person or said person'"'"'s environment;

detecting an event requiring the attention of a remote supervisor;

transmitting at least a portion of said first signal to said remote supervisor responsively to a result of said step of detecting.