WELLBEING TRANSPONDER SYSTEM

• US 20120044069A1
• Filed: 08/19/2010
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United States Cellular Corporation (Telephone & Data Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: United States Cellular Corporation (Telephone & Data Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Saxena, Narothum, Bhatia, Ravideep, Irizarry, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,461,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.12
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0443 Modular apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/747 in case of emergency, i.e. alerting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

The described system and method enable user health monitoring and alerting by providing an arm-mounted sensor wirelessly linked to a wrist-mounted transponder, although the wrist-mounted transponder may be omitted in favor of a user-carried cellular device. In either embodiment of the invention, a remote server is included to receive user health data and alerts, and to log received data and, when necessary, to alert health service providers. Health service providers may include physicians and emergency services providers.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring the health of a user during physical exertion, the system comprising:

a first user-borne data collection module for collecting values of one or more biological parameters from the user and for wirelessly transmitting a representation of the collected values of the one or more biological parameters;

a second user-borne data collection module for wirelessly receiving the transmitted representation of the collected values and for wirelessly transmitting at least a portion of the received information away from the user'"'"'s body; and

a mobile communication device apart from the user'"'"'s body and associated with the user for receiving the transmitted portion of the received information and for transforming the transmitted portion to a health status and conveying the health status to a remote recipient.

2. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the remote recipient comprises a physician associated with the user.

3. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the health status is indicative of an emergency condition, and wherein the remote recipient comprises an emergency service provider.

4. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the first user-borne data collection module comprises an arm-mounted data collection band.

5. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the second user-borne data collection module comprises a wrist-mounted transponder.

6. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the one or more biological parameters include at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of user heart rate, user respiration rate, user temperature, user blood pressure and user calories burned.

7. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the communications between the first user-borne data collection module and the second user-borne data collection module are executed via a short range wireless protocol.

8. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 7, wherein the short range wireless protocol is one of BLUETOOTH and ZIGBEE.

9. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the second user-borne data collection module is configured to convert the representation of the collected values to another form prior to wirelessly transmitting at least a portion of the received information away from the user'"'"'s body.

10. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device apart from the user'"'"'s body and associated with the user comprises a cell phone associated with the user.

11. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device associated with the user is configured to communicate with the remote recipient via an intermediate network linked to a server.

12. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 11, wherein communications between the mobile communication device associated with the user and the intermediate network are via a wireless network including at least one of CDMA, W-CDMA, GSM, LTE, WiFi and WiMax.

13. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 11, wherein the server is configured to analyze the received data to identify health conditions warranting notification to the remote entity.

14. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the user communication device is configured to allow the user to edit user data associated with the user and to enter physician and emergency service contact information.

15. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the user communication device is configured to generate and store historical user health data.

16. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, further comprising a networked computing device in communication with the server for entry of user health information and physician and emergency service contact information.

17. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 11, wherein the mobile communication device associated with the user is configured to determine a user geographic position and to communicate the user geographic position to the server.

18. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to convey the user geographic position to the remote entity.

19. The system for monitoring the health of a user according to claim 1, wherein the second user-borne data collection module collects data from multiple sensors attached to the user'"'"'s body.

20. A system for monitoring the health of a user comprising:

a user-borne data collection module for collecting values of one or more biological parameters from the user and for wirelessly transmitting a representation of the collected values of the one or more biological parameters; and

a mobile communication device apart from the user'"'"'s body and wirelessly linked to the user-borne data collection module for receiving the collected values and for transforming the collected values to convey a user health status to a remote recipient.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the mobile communication device comprises a cell phone associated with the user.