ACOUSTICAL PATIENT MONITORING USING A SOUND CLASSIFIER AND A MICROPHONE
First Claim
1. A patient monitoring system, including:
- one or more microphones that detect acoustic events generated by a patient, and generate signals comprising information describing the acoustic events;
a processor that timestamps the acoustic event signals; and
a classifier that classifies each acoustic event signal into one of a plurality of acoustic event classes.
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Accused Products
Abstract
When monitoring a patient, acoustic events (e.g., coughs, snores, impact sounds, verbalizations, etc.) relevant to the patient'"'"'s status are detected by a microphone array (12) and timestamped. Detected event signals generated by the microphone array (12) are filtered to identify signatures such as zero crossings, corner frequencies, amplitude, pitch, etc., for classification purposes. The filtered signals are digitized and classified into one of a plurality of acoustic event classes (e.g., snore, cough, wheeze, breath, etc.) and/or subclasses. The classified events are displayed to a user (e.g., graphically, textually, etc.) with their timestamps to indicate chronology. A user can review the acoustic events, select one or more events, and listen to a recording of the selected event (s). Additionally, specified acoustic events can trigger an alarm to alert a nurse or the like that the patient requires immediate attention.
132 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A patient monitoring system, including:
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one or more microphones that detect acoustic events generated by a patient, and generate signals comprising information describing the acoustic events; a processor that timestamps the acoustic event signals; and a classifier that classifies each acoustic event signal into one of a plurality of acoustic event classes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of monitoring a patient, including:
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detecting an acoustic event generated by the patient; timestamping an acoustic event signal that includes information related to the acoustic event; classifying the acoustic event into one of a plurality of acoustic event classes as a function of the identified signatures; and storing a classified acoustic event with the timestamp. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An apparatus for monitoring a patient, including:
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means for detecting an acoustic event generated by the patient; means for timestamping an acoustic event signal that includes information related to the acoustic event; means for filtering the acoustic event signal to identify signatures associated with the acoustic event signal; means for digitizing the acoustic event signal; means for classifying the acoustic event into one of a plurality of acoustic event classes as a function of the identified signatures; means for storing a classified acoustic event with the timestamp; and means for displaying the classified acoustic events with respective timestamps for review and playback.
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Specification