Method and Apparatus for Inductively Measuring the Bio-Impedance of a User's Body

• US 20080221474A1
• Filed: 05/16/2006
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2005
• 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: Pinter, Robert, Waffenschmidt, Eberhard, Brauers, Andreas, Reiter, Harald
• Granted Patent: US 8,423,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/547
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/053 Measuring electrical impedance or conductance of a portion of the body

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus (1) for inductively measuring the bio-impedance of a user'"'"'s body. Furthermore the invention relates to a bed (2) comprising said apparatus (1). In order to provide a method and apparatus for spatially resolved inductively measuring the bio-impedance of a user'"'"'s body without a complex circuitry, an apparatus (1) is suggested for inductively measuring the bio-impedance of a user'"'"'s body, whereas the apparatus (1) comprises a number of first inductors (4), said first inductors (4) being adapted to induce an alternating magnetic field in the user'"'"'s body and the apparatus (1) further comprises a number of second inductors (6), said second inductors (6) being adapted to measure a secondary magnetic field in the user'"'"'s body, characterized in that each of the number of first inductors (4) overlaps at least one of the number of second inductors (6) to form a number of measuring areas (12, 25).

Claims

1. An apparatus for inductively measuring the bio-impedance of a user'"'"'s body, the apparatus comprising:

a number of first inductors, said first inductors being adapted to induce an alternating magnetic field in the user'"'"'s body,

a number of second inductors, said second inductors being adapted to measure a secondary magnetic field in the user'"'"'s body,

wherein each of the number of first inductors overlaps at least one of the number of second inductors to form a number of measuring areas.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the number of first inductors and the number of second inductors are arranged in a way that they form a matrix of measuring areas.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the number of first inductors are arranged substantially in a first direction and the number of second inductors are arranged substantially in a second direction, whereas the second direction is substantially orthogonal to the first direction.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein a number of switches are assigned to the number of first and/or second inductors in a way that each of the number of first and/or second inductors can be controlled separately.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the number of first and/or second inductors are arranged in a way that at least one of the resulting measuring areas shows a substantially regular shape.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the number of first and/or second inductors are arranged in a way that at least one of the resulting measuring areas shows an irregular shape.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the density of the intersection points between the number of first and second inductors in a first measuring region is different from the density of those intersection points in a second measuring region.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises a number of first conductor elements, said first conductor elements being freely connectable to each other to form a first inductor and/or a number of second conductor elements, said second conductor elements being freely connectable to each other to form a second inductor.

9. A bed (2) comprising an apparatus (1) as claimed in claim 1, whereas a first and/or second inductor (4, 6) comprises a structured conductor element on a flexible substrate, said structured conductor element being preferably made of copper, and said flexible substrate being preferably attached to a bed sheet.

10. A bed comprising an apparatus as claimed in claim 1, whereas a first and/or second inductor comprises a flexible conductor element, said flexible conductor element being integrated into a bed sheet.

11. A method of inductively measuring the bio-impedance of a user'"'"'s body, the method comprising the steps of:

inducing an alternating magnetic field in the user'"'"'s body by means of a number of first inductors,

measuring a secondary magnetic field in the user'"'"'s body by means of a number of second inductors,

wherein each of the number of first inductors overlaps at least one of the number of second inductors to form a number of measuring areas.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein each of the number of first and/or second inductors is controlled separately.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, comprising:

operating at least one and preferably all first inductors in a time-sequential manner, and

during operation of preferably each first inductor, operating at least one and preferably all second inductors in a time-sequential manner.

14. An apparatus for inductively measuring the bioimpedance of a user'"'"'s body, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of first inductors that induce an alternating magnetic field in a user'"'"'s body;

a plurality of second inductors that measure a secondary magnetic field in a user'"'"'s body; and

one or more measurement areas formed by overlap of at least one of the first inductors and at least one of the second inductors;

wherein said one or more measurement areas can be modified in shape or size depending on the desired application of the apparatus.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus is formed as part of a bed.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the plurality of first inductors and the plurality of second inductors are arranged to form a matrix of measurement areas.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising means for sequentially measuring different measurement areas.