REMOTE SLEEP QUALITY DETECTING SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20100131028A1
• Filed: 10/05/2009
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yuan Ze University
• Original Assignee: Yuan Ze University
• Inventors: HSU, YEH-LIANG, Cheng, Chih-Ming
• Granted Patent: US 8,353,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/42
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0004 characterised by the type of physiological signal transmitted
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7203 for noise prevention, reduction or removal
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7225 Details of analog processing, e.g. isolation amplifier, gain or sensitivity adjustment, filtering, baseline or drift compensation A61B5/30, A61B5/316 take precedence; transformers for specific applications H01F38/00; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36031 using physiological parameters for adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37247 User interfaces, e.g. input or presentation means
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A remote sleep quality detecting system and its method provide a portable detecting device for detecting an examinee'"'"'s physical activity while the examinee is sleeping, analyzing a detected activity signal by a signal processing module to generate a statistical value, and comparing a result of the computed statistical value with a sleep state index to obtain sleep quality information, and then storing the activity signal and the sleep quality information in a storage unit. The system and method also provide a remote monitoring device including a sleep information reading module for providing a user interface, connecting the portable detecting device via the Internet and receiving the sleep quality information produced by the portable detecting device after a command from the portable detecting device is received, such that the examinee'"'"'s sleep quality information can be examined from a remote location for a long term without disturbing the examinee'"'"'s sleep.

Claims

1. A remote sleep quality detecting system, comprising:

a portable detecting device, comprising;

at least one signal detector for continuously detecting a physical activity of an examinee while the examinee is sleeping, and for generating an activity signal;

a signal processing module for receiving the activity signal, and for analyzing and computing the activity signal, the signal processing module comprising;

an analysis module for analyzing changes of the activity signal, and generating a statistical value according to the classification and statistics of the variation of the activity signal; and

a computation module for receiving and computing the statistical value, and comparing a computed result with at least one sleep state index to produce sleep quality information;

a storage unit for storing the activity signal and the sleep quality information received by the signal processing module; and

a network transmission unit for transmitting the sleep quality information via a network; and

a remote monitoring device for monitoring the sleep quality information of the examinee from a remote location via the network, and comprising;

a sleep quality reading module for providing a user interface to receive a connection instruction to connect the portable detecting device, reading and displaying the sleep quality information at the user interface,

whereby the sleep quality information of the examinee can be observed from a remote location by a distributed network structure, and the sleep quality of the examinee can be analyzed further according to the sleep quality information.

2. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 1, wherein the signal processing module further comprises:

a signal pre-processing module for digitizing and filtering the activity signal, and sampling the activity signal; and

a memory unit for storing a variation threshold, at least one computation equation and a sleep state index, wherein the analysis module classifies the activity signal according to the variation threshold, and the computation module computes the statistical value according to the computation equation.

3. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 1, wherein the sleep quality reading module further comprises:

a browse module for accessing an application server system to provide the user interface.

4. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 1, wherein the signal detector is a body activity detection pad provided for detecting body activity while the examinee is sleeping, and the activity signal is a body activity signal.

5. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 4, wherein the body activity detection pad detects an upper arm movement, a body activity or a leg movement of the examinee, and the body activity signal is an upper arm activity signal, a body activity signal or a leg activity signal.

6. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 1, wherein the signal detector is a microphone provided for detecting snore produced by the examinee while the examinee is sleeping, and the activity signal is a snore signal.

7. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 6, further comprising:

a sound recording device, coupled to the signal processing module for recording snore produced by the examinee, and storing the snore in the storage unit; and

an electrical stimulator, coupled to the signal processing module for transmitting a current to stimulate the examinee to breathe normally.

8. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 1, wherein the analysis module analyzes variations of the slope of the activity signal'"'"'s waveform.

9. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 1, further comprising:

an alarm receiving unit for receiving an alarm notice transmitted from the network transmission unit through the portable detecting device, such that an abnormal occurrence of the activity signal during the examinee'"'"'s sleep is known.

10. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 9, wherein the alarm receiving unit is a mobile communication device or an email.

11. The remote sleep quality detecting system of claim 1, wherein the sleep quality information read by the sleep quality reading module is the current sleep quality information or history sleep quality information.

12. A remote sleep quality detecting method, comprising the steps of:

providing a signal detector for continuously detecting a physical activity of an examinee while the examinee is sleeping, and generating an activity signal;

analyzing changes of the activity signal variation with time, and producing a statistical value according to the variation classification and statistics of the activity signal;

computing the statistical value, and comparing the computed result with at least one sleep state index to produce sleep quality information;

recording the sleep quality information in a storage unit; and

providing a remote monitoring device, and displaying the sleep quality information read via a network at a user interface,

whereby the sleep quality information of the examinee can be observed at a remote location for a long term, and the sleep quality of the examinee can be analyzed further according to the sleep quality information.

13. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 12, further comprising a procedure before the step of analyzing the activity signal, and the procedure comprising the steps of:

digitizing and filtering the activity signal; and

sampling the activity signal.

14. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

recording the activity signal in the storage unit; and

providing a memory unit for storing a variation threshold, at least one computation equation and the sleep state index, classifying the activity signal according to the classification of the variation threshold, and computing the statistical value according to the computation equation.

15. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 14, wherein the computation equation is a weighted computation equation according to the level of significance of the activity signal decreasing with time after the detection takes place.

16. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 12, further comprising a procedure during the step of detecting a physical activity by the signal detector while the examinee is sleeping, and the procedure comprising the steps of:

the signal detector detecting body activity while the examinee is sleeping; and

generating a body activity signal.

17. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 16, wherein the signal detector is a body activity detection pad, and the body activity signal is an upper arm activity signal, a body activity signal or a leg activity signal.

18. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 12, further comprising a procedure during the step of detecting a physical activity by the signal detector while the examinee is sleeping, and the procedure comprising the steps of:

the signal detector detecting snore while the examinee is sleeping; and

generating a snore signal, wherein the signal detector is a microphone.

19. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 18, further comprising a procedure after the step of detecting the snore by the signal detector while the examinee is sleeping, and the procedure comprising the steps of:

providing a sound recording device for recording snore produced by the examinee, and storing the snore in the storage unit; and

providing an electrical stimulator for transmitting a current to stimulate the examinee, and drive the examinee to breathe normally.

20. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 12, further comprising a procedure during the step of reading the sleep quality information by the sleep quality reading module, consisting of:

accessing an application server system from a browse unit for providing the user interface.

21. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 12, further comprising the step of providing an alarm receiving unit for receiving an alarm notice when an occurrence of an abnormal activity signal is detected.

22. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 21, wherein the alarm receiving unit is a mobile communication device or email.