MEDICAL APPLICATION FOR NO-MOTION SENSOR

• US 20080016961A1
• Filed: 07/24/2006
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Girard, David N., Dwyer, Michael D., Thornberry, John W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,437,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/504.02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 13/00 Indicating or recording presence, absence, or direction, of movement electric switches H01H; counting moving objects G06M7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/0888 for indicating angular acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/0891 with indication of predetermined acceleration values G01P15/135 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/18 in two or more dimensions

Abstract

A sensor unit to detect a stillness event, the sensor unit including a gyroscope attached to a monitored person, a micro-controller communicatively coupled to the gyroscope, and a memory communicatively coupled to receive and to store the angular velocity data with a correlated time. The gyroscope senses an angular velocity of the monitored person and outputs angular velocity data based on the sensed angular velocity. The micro-controller receives the angular velocity data and recognizes a quiescence-pattern data in the angular velocity data.

Claims

1. A sensor unit to detect a stillness event, the sensor unit comprising:

a gyroscope attached to a monitored person, the gyroscope adapted to sense an angular velocity of the monitored person and to output angular velocity data based on the sensed angular velocity;

a micro-controller communicatively coupled to the gyroscope, the micro-controller adapted to receive the angular velocity data and to recognize a quiescence-pattern data in the angular velocity data; and

a memory communicatively coupled to receive and to store the angular velocity data with a correlated time.

2. The sensor unit of claim 1, wherein a stillness-event signal is generated if the angular velocity data follows the quiescence-pattern data.

3. The sensor unit of claim 1, the sensor unit further comprising:

an accelerometer attached to the monitored person, the accelerometer adapted to sense a linear acceleration of the monitored person and to output linear acceleration data based on the sensed linear acceleration, wherein the micro-controller is communicatively coupled to the accelerometer to receive the linear acceleration data and to recognize the quiescence-pattern data in the sensed angular velocity data and linear acceleration data, and wherein the memory is communicatively coupled to the accelerometer to receive and to store the linear acceleration data with a correlated time.

4. The sensor unit of claim 3, wherein a stillness-event signal is generated if the micro-controller recognizes the quiescence-pattern data.

5. The sensor unit of claim 4, wherein the quiescence-pattern data comprises zero-value linear acceleration data for a duration greater than a selected duration, zero-value angular velocity data for a duration greater than a selected duration, zero-value linear acceleration data and zero-value angular velocity data for a duration greater than a selected duration, zero-value angular acceleration data for a duration greater than a selected duration, and zero-value linear acceleration data and zero-value angular acceleration data for a duration greater than a selected duration.

6. The sensor unit of claim 4, the sensor unit further comprising:

a radio frequency transmitter; and

an antenna communicatively coupled to the radio frequency transmitter, wherein the antenna further communicatively coupled to an external monitor system.

7. The sensor unit of claim 1, the micro-controller adapted to generate a stillness-event signal upon recognition of the quiescence-pattern data.

8. The sensor unit of claim 7, the sensor unit further comprising:

a radio frequency transmitter; and

an antenna communicatively coupled to the radio frequency transmitter, the antenna further communicatively coupled to an external monitor system.

9. A method to sense a stillness event, the method comprising:

sequentially sensing acceleration/velocity data;

storing the acceleration/velocity data with a correlated time; and

determining if the sequentially sensed acceleration/velocity data matches quiescence-pattern data.

10. The method of claim 9, the method further comprising:

generating a stillness-event signal based on a determination that the sequentially sensed acceleration/velocity data matches quiescence-pattern data.

11. The method of claim 10 the method further comprising:

transmitting the stillness-event signal.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein sequentially sensing acceleration/velocity data comprises:

sensing angular velocity data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein sequentially sensing acceleration/velocity data further comprises:

sensing linear acceleration data.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein sequentially sensing acceleration/velocity data comprises:

sensing linear acceleration data.

15. A program product comprising program instructions, embodied on a storage medium, that are operable to cause a programmable processor to:

sequentially sense acceleration/velocity data;

store the acceleration/velocity data with a correlated time; and

determine if the sequentially sensed acceleration/velocity data matches quiescence-pattern data.

16. The program product of claim 15, further comprising instructions operable to cause the programmable processor to:

generate a stillness-event signal based on a determination that the sequentially sensed acceleration/velocity data matching the quiescence-pattern data.

17. The program product of claim 16, further comprising instructions operable to cause the programmable processor to:

transmit the stillness-event signal based on a generation of the stillness-event signal.

18. The program product of claim 15, wherein instructions operable to cause the programmable processor to sequentially sense acceleration/velocity data comprises instructions operable to cause the programmable processor to:

sense angular velocity data.

19. The program product of claim 18, wherein instructions operable to cause the programmable processor to sequentially sense acceleration/velocity data comprises instructions operable to cause the programmable processor to:

sense linear acceleration data.