METHOD FOR MEASURING HUMAN VITAL SIGNS AND PORTABLE TERMINAL ADOPTING THE SAME

• US 20140046199A1
• Filed: 08/05/2013
• Published: 02/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: WANG, Lei
• Application Number:
  US13/958,839
• Publication Number:
  US 20140046199A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/483
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/08 Sensors provided with means for identification, e.g. barcodes or memory chips
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0026 characterised by the transmission medium
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature

Abstract

A method for measuring human vital signs and a portable terminal adopting the same provides accurate measurements without increasing the thickness of power usage of the portable terminal. The portable terminal includes: a surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor module disposed on a predetermined position of a portable terminal main body to detect characteristic parameter of human body; a signal transceiving module used to perform communication with the SAW sensor module, to receive an echo signal of the SAW sensor module; and a data processing module used to process the echo signal from the SAW sensor module to obtain the human vital signs. The SAW sensor module includes a sensing unit that does not require receiving power from a power supply for operation when implemented as a passive element.

Claims

1. A portable terminal comprising:

a surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor module configured for detecting one or more characteristic parameters of human body utilizing acoustic waves and outputting an echo signal based on the detected one or more characteristic parameters;

a main body transceiver that performs communication with the SAW sensor module, and receives the echo signal output by the SAW sensor module; and

a data processor configured for receiving and processing the echo signal output from the SAW sensor module to obtain human vital signs,

wherein the obtained vital signs are provided to at least one of user or a remote recipient.

2. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein, the main body transceiver transmits a query signal to the SAW sensor module to perform matching verification.

3. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein, the SAW sensor module is arranged on or in an accessory of the portable terminal.

4. The portable terminal of claim 3, wherein, the accessory includes one or more of a stylus pen, an earphone and a data transmission cable of the portable terminal.

5. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein, the one or more characteristic parameters includes at least one of temperature and pressure.

6. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein, further comprising a notification module used to provide a measurement result to a user of the portable terminal via at least one of audio or visual notification.

7. The portable terminal of claim 12, wherein the notification modules notifies the user or a designee via email or a text message.

8. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein, the SAW sensor module comprises:

a sensing unit having a passive SAW sensor element that operates without receiving power from a power supply to detect the characteristic parameter;

a data modulation unit that modulates the one or more characteristic parameters as the echo signal;

a SAW sensor module transceiver that receives signals from the portable terminal main body and transmits the echo signal to the portable terminal.

9. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein, the SAW sensor module further comprising a main body recognition unit for correlating matching recognizing of a main body tag code included in a query signal from the main body transceiver.

10. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein, the data processing module further comprising an accessory recognition unit for performing a matching verification of a user on accessory identification tag (ID-tag) included in the received echo signal.

11. The portable terminal of claim 10, wherein, the accessory recognition unit performs the matching verification through an application executed by a processor of the data processing module, wherein, the application includes a recognition code corresponding to the ID-tag of the SAW sensor module.

12. The portable terminal of claim 10, wherein, the data processing module performs operation using at least one of an amplitude, a phase, a frequency and a time delay of the echo signal.

13. A method for operating a portable terminal comprising a surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor module, comprising:

detecting by a sensor of the SAW sensor module one or more characteristic parameters of a human body and modulating the one or more detected characteristic parameters of the human body as an echo signal;

transmitting the echo signal to a main body of the portable terminal; and

demodulating through the main body of the portable terminal the echo signal to obtain at least one human vital sign.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein, the SAW sensor module is arranged on or in an accessory of the portable terminal.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein, the accessory includes at least one of a stylus pen, an earphone and a data transmission cable of the portable terminal.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein, the detected one or more characteristic parameters includes at least one of temperature and pressure of a living body.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein, the modulating the one or more detected characteristic parameters of the human body detected by the SAW sensor module comprises:

performing corresponding matching recognition of a user on a query signal from the portable terminal main body;

detecting the one or more characteristic parameters if the recognition result matches with a main ID tag stored; and

modulating the one or more characteristic parameters and including the modulated characteristic parameter into the echo signal.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein, the demodulating the echo signal by the SAW sensor module comprises:

performing matching verification on accessory ID tag included in the echo signal;

demodulating the echo signal when the verification result matches with a stored accessory ID-tag, and utilizing at least one of an amplitude, a phase, a frequency and a time delay of the echo signal to obtain human vital signs.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein, the matching verification is performed through an application executed by the data processor, wherein, the executed application includes a recognition code corresponding to the ID-tag of the SAW sensor module.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

notifying a user by providing a measurement result of the at least one human vital sign by at least one of audio or visual notification.

21. A portable terminal including a stylus pen, comprising:

a sensor module located in the stylus pen and configured to detect one or more characteristic parameters of human body and output an echo signal based on the detected one or more characteristic parameters;

a main body transceiver configured to perform communication with the sensor module that receive the echo signal of the sensor module; and

a data processing module configured to process the echo signal received from the sensor module in order to obtain human vital sign.