Apparatus and method for health care

• US 20070027395A1
• Filed: 07/06/2006
• Published: 02/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Shin, Kun-soo, Yeo, Hyung-sok, Kim, Youn-ho
• Granted Patent: US 8,874,195 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/509
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/145 Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissuemeasuring of blood pressure or blood flow A61B5/02; non-radiation detecting or locating of foreign bodies in blood A61B5/06
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/329 Load diagnosis, e.g. cardiac stress tests
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/352 Detecting R peaks, e.g. for synchronising diagnostic apparatus; Estimating R-R interval
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4866 Evaluating metabolism A61B5/083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4884 inducing physiological or psychological stress, e.g. applications for stress testing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

A health care apparatus and method thereof. The health care apparatus comprises: a sensing position determining unit determining a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed; a vital potential sensing unit sensing potential signals of the examinee corresponding to a determined result; and an analyzing unit analyzing the sensed result. Accordingly, the health care apparatus can determine body parts by itself and senses potential signals corresponding to the body parts to calculate reliable measurements without information of the body parts to which the health care apparatus is attached. Furthermore, the health care apparatus can be easily attached to the body compared to a conventional health care apparatus, and can calculate a health index reflecting the present behavior pattern of the examinee. The health care apparatus can also determine the health state of local body parts of the examinee and inform the examinee of the calculated health indexes on a real-time basis.

Claims

1. A health care apparatus comprising:

a sensing position determining unit determining a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed;

a vital potential sensing unit sensing potential signals of the examinee corresponding to a determined result; and

an analyzing unit analyzing the sensed result.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a health index calculating unit calculating a desired health index using a result from the analyzing unit, the health index being an index indicating a body state of the examinee.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensing position determining unit comprises:

an examining unit examining whether an acceleration of the body part meets a predetermined magnitude; and

a body part determining unit determining the body part in response to an examined result.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensing position determining unit comprises:

an examining unit examining whether a predetermined vital signal is sensed in the body part; and

a body part determining unit determining the body part in response to the examined result.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vital potential sensing unit senses the vital signals of the examinee corresponding to the determined result.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vital potential sensing unit comprises:

a vital signal sensing unit sensing the vital signals of the examinee in response to the determined result; and

a filtering unit filtering the sensed vital signals in response to the determined result and outputting the filtered vital signals as the potential signals.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the vital potential sensing unit further comprises a sensing mode determining unit determining sensing modes in response to the determined result, and

wherein the vital signal sensing unit and the filtering unit operate according to the determined sensing modes.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the vital potential sensing unit further comprises a matching unit in which information about the vital signals is matched to the determined result, and

wherein the vital signal sensing unit senses the vital signals expressed in the vital signal information matched to the determined result.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the vital potential sensing unit further comprises a matching unit in which information about the filtering is matched to the determined result, and the filtering unit filters the sensed vital signals according to the filtering information matched to the determined result.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vital potential sensing unit is formed of one or more sensing devices attached to the body of the examinee.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the one or more sensing devices are formed in a single body or separately connected to each other in a network.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the potential signal is a vital signal having a frequency band corresponding to the determined result among the vital signals that can be sensed from the examinee.

13. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the vital signal sensing unit senses electrocardiogram (ECG) signals or electromyogram (EMG) signals of the examinee in response to the determined result.

14. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising a user interface unit providing a user interface displaying at least one of the analyzed result and the calculated health index.

15. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a health state notifying unit that functions corresponding to the calculated health index to inform the examinee about a health state of the examinee.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the health state notifying unit informs the examinee about the health state of the examinee using a visual path, a hearing path, or a tactual path.

17. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the health index is one selected from the group consisting of a heart rate, a heart stress, a balance of the autonomous nervous system, an amount of consumed calories, a blood pressure and a core temperature.

18. A method for providing health care comprising:

determining a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed;

sensing potential signals of the examinee corresponding to a determined result; and

analyzing the sensed result.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein sensing potential signals comprises:

determining sensing modes according to the determined result;

sensing vital signals of the examinee according to the determined sensing modes; and

filtering the sensed vital signals according to the determined sensing modes, and

wherein the filtering result is the potential signal.

19. The method of 18, further comprising calculating a health index using a result of the analyzing, the health index being an index indicating a health state of the examinee.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising displaying at least the analyzed result or the calculated health index.

20. The method of 18, wherein sensing potential signals comprises:

sensing the vital signals of the examinee corresponding to the determined result; and

filtering the sensed vital signals according to the determined result, and

wherein the filtering result is the potential signal.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the sensing the vital signals comprises:

determining whether the determined body part is in the upper body of the examinee; and

sensing ECG signals of the examinee, when the determined body part is in the upper body of the examinee.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the determining whether the determined body part is in the upper body comprises:

sensing all of the vital signals that can be sensed from the body part;

filtering the sensed vital signal through a filter having a transmittance frequency band between about 5 Hz to 30 Hz;

detecting an R-peak value from the filtered vital signal;

calculating a time difference between a present time of the detected R-peak value and a time point of a previously-detected R-peak value; and

deciding that the body part is in the upper body when the calculated time difference is less than the value.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein sensing the vital signals comprises:

determining whether the determined body part is in the upper body of the examinee; and

sensing EMG signals of the examinee, when the determined body part is not in the upper body of the examinee.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the determining whether the determined body part is in the upper body comprises:

sensing all of the vital signals that can be sensed from the body part;

filtering the sensed vital signal through a filter having a transmittance frequency band between about 5 Hz to 30 Hz;

detecting an R-peak value from the filtered vital signal;

calculating a time difference between a present time of the detected R-peak value and a time point of a previously-detected R-peak value; and

deciding that the body part is not in the upper body when the calculated time difference is not less than the value.

27. A computer-readable medium storing a computer program performing a health care method comprising:

determining a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed;

sensing potential signals of the examinee corresponding to a determined result; and

analyzing the sensing result.