Patient monitoring device with multiple sensors
First Claim
1. A measurement method for a measurement device configured to determine the attenuation of light in at least one subject, the method comprising:
- connecting the measurement device operably to a plurality of sensors, each sensor comprising at least one emitter element for emitting radiation and a sensor-specific detector element for receiving the radiation, whereby the measurement device is operably connected to a plurality of sensor-specific detector elements, generating a repeating drive pulse sequence containing drive pulses for the emitter elements of the plurality of sensors;
supplying the drive pulses of the drive pulse sequence to corresponding emitter elements;
employing a parallel connection of the plurality of sensor-specific detector elements to produce a sequence of reception pulses at a terminal pair common to the sensor-specific detector elements; and
receiving the sequence of reception pulses at the measurement device.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to a patient measurement device, especially to a pulse oximeter, provided with multiple sensors. In order to reduce the hardware required by a measurement performed through the multiple sensors, a repeating drive pulse sequence is generated, which contains drive pulses for the emitter elements of the plurality of sensors. Furthermore, each drive pulse of the sequence is supplied to a corresponding emitter element and sensor-specific detectors connected in parallel are employed to produce an electric reception signal received at the measurement device.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A measurement method for a measurement device configured to determine the attenuation of light in at least one subject, the method comprising:
-
connecting the measurement device operably to a plurality of sensors, each sensor comprising at least one emitter element for emitting radiation and a sensor-specific detector element for receiving the radiation, whereby the measurement device is operably connected to a plurality of sensor-specific detector elements, generating a repeating drive pulse sequence containing drive pulses for the emitter elements of the plurality of sensors;
supplying the drive pulses of the drive pulse sequence to corresponding emitter elements;
employing a parallel connection of the plurality of sensor-specific detector elements to produce a sequence of reception pulses at a terminal pair common to the sensor-specific detector elements; and
receiving the sequence of reception pulses at the measurement device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A measurement arrangement for a measurement device configured to determine the attenuation of light in at least one subject, the measurement arrangement comprising:
-
a plurality of sensors, each sensor comprising at least one emitter element for emitting radiation and a sensor-specific detector element for receiving the radiation, wherein the sensor-specific detector elements are connected in parallel for producing a sequence of reception pulses at a terminal pair common to the sensor-specific detector elements;
drive pulse generator unit configured to generate a repeating drive pulse sequence containing drive pulses for the emitter elements of the plurality of sensors;
a switching unit operably connected to the drive pulse generator unit and to the plurality of sensors, thereby to connect the drive pulses of the drive pulse sequence to corresponding emitter elements; and
a connector unit configured to connect the terminal pair operably to the measurement device, thereby to receive the sequence of reception pulses at the measurement device. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A measurement arrangement for a measurement device configured to determine the attenuation of light in at least one subject, the measurement arrangement comprising:
-
a plurality of sensors, each sensor comprising at least one emitter element for emitting radiation and a sensor-specific detector element for receiving the radiation, wherein the sensor-specific detector elements are connected in parallel for producing a sequence of reception pulses at a terminal pair common to the sensor-specific detector elements;
drive pulse generator means for generating a repeating drive pulse sequence containing drive pulses for the emitter elements of the plurality of sensors;
switching means operably connected to the drive pulse generator means and to the plurality of sensors for connecting the drive pulses of the drive pulse sequence to corresponding emitter elements; and
connector means for connecting (1) the switching means to the emitter elements and (2) the terminal pair to the measurement device for receiving the sequence of reception pulses at the measurement device.
-
-
23. A computer program product for controlling a measurement device configured to determine the attenuation of light in at least one subject, the measurement device comprising a plurality of sensors, each sensor comprising at least one emitter element for emitting radiation and a sensor-specific detector element for receiving the radiation, the computer program product comprising:
-
a first program code portion configured to control the measurement device to generate a repeating drive pulse sequence containing drive pulses for the emitter elements of the plurality of sensors;
a second program code portion configured to connect the drive pulses to respective emitter elements in a predetermined order; and
a third program code portion configured to associate an electric reception signal with corresponding emitter elements of the plurality of sensors, one emitter element at a time according to the predetermined order.
-
Specification