Systems for and Methods of Assessing Urinary Flow Rate Via Sound Analysis
First Claim
1. A method of assessing urinary flow rates, comprising:
- a. capturing the sounds of urination into a receptacle, said urination sounds having a strength and duration;
b. saving said sounds as an audio file; and
c. analyzing the audio file to determine strength and duration of urination.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems for and methods of assessing urinary flow rate via sound analysis. Embodiments of the uroflow measurement systems include a computer and a telephone or a digital recording mechanism to capture the sound of one or more urination events, which are stored as audio files in a database The uroflow measurement systems may include sound analysis software for analyzing the strength and duration of each urination event and may include a web-based uroflow software application for viewing the results via the Internet or other network In one embodiment, the sound analysis software performs the steps of reading in the raw data of a selected audio file, generating a plot of the audio signal amplitude vs. time, generating a plot of smoothed data for the purpose of presenting an outline of the flow, generating a main flow plot, which is a plot of the largest continuous flow that has a strength that is greater than a predetermined minimum, and generating a set of numerical values that correspond to the strength and duration of urination.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method of assessing urinary flow rates, comprising:
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a. capturing the sounds of urination into a receptacle, said urination sounds having a strength and duration; b. saving said sounds as an audio file; and c. analyzing the audio file to determine strength and duration of urination. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system for assessing urinary flow rates using the sounds of urination in a receptacle, the system comprising:
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a. a database having stored therein an audio file including information representing the sounds of urination in a receptacle; b. a software program for analyzing said audio file to determine strength and duration of the urination, said software program including; i. a first module that generates a plot of amplitude versus time of the urination using said audio file; and ii. a second module that generates a set of numerical values that correspond to the strength and duration of the urination using said plot. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A device for assessing urinary flow rates, the device comprising:
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a. a computing resource for executing software instructions, said computing resource having a first memory for storing database files; b. a database for storing a file including information representing the sounds of urination in a receptacle, said file stored in said first memory; and c. a software program, executable by said computing resource, for analyzing said file to estimate strength and duration of the urination, said software program including; i. a first module that generates a plot of amplitude versus time of the sounds of the urination using said file; and ii. a second module that generates a set of numerical values that correspond to the strength and duration of the urination using said plot. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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25. A website operating on a server computing system, the website comprising:
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a. a database operable on the server computing system for storing a file including information representing the sounds of urination in a receptacle; b. a software routine executable on the server computer system for determining strength and duration of urination in a receptacle, said routine including; i. a first module that generates a plot of amplitude versus time of the sounds of the urination using said file; and ii. a second module that generates a set of numerical values that correspond to the strength and duration of the urination using said plot; and c. one or more web pages in which at least one of the following are displayed;
said plot and said set of numerical values. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A website for use in assessing urinary flow rates, the website comprising the features of:
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a. receiving an audio file including information representing the sounds of urination in a receptacle; b. determining strength and duration of urination; and c. displaying the results of said determining strength and duration of urination, - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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Specification