BREATHING ACTIVITY MONITORING AND ALARM DEVICE

• US 3,658,052 A
• Filed: 06/16/1970
• Issued: 04/25/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Albert R. Alter
• Original Assignee: Albert R. Alter
• Inventors: Alter, Albert R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Medbery, Aldrich F.
• Application Number:
  US05/046,610
• Time in Patent Office: 679 Days
• Field of Search: 119/51 128/2,206,205,145.5 340/409,248,279,213 330/19 328/1
• US Class Current: 600/534
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/113 occurring during breathing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 5/94 with alarm means

Abstract

An activity detecting means for detecting the movement of an animate object which includes a permanent magnet attached to the object. A pickup coil is provided around the area of movement of the object so that movements of the magnet induce a voltage in the coil. The output of the coil is delivered to circuit means which generates pulses when receiving the signal from the coil. An alarm means is operated by the pulses to provide an alarm signal which flashes off and on with each pulse received, but remains on when no pulse is received. Thus, the alarm means indicates the movement of the object by the flashing signal and indicates no movement by a continuous signal.

Claims

1. An activity detecting means providing a magnetic field comprising a first means for being secured with an animate body whose breathing activity is to be monitored, second means for detecting the movement of said magnetic field of said first means and delivering an output signal responsive to said movement and third means receiving and processing the output signal of said detecting means for providing a monitoring signal which goes off and on and is responsive to the breathing activity of the animate body and an alarm signal which remains on in the absence of such activity.

2. The means of claim 1 in which said first means is a permanent magnet and said second means includes a magnetic pickup coil for being fixed with a frame of reference with respect to which the movement of said animate body, at the location where said magnetic means is secured, is to be monitored.

3. The means of claim 2 in which said third means includes pulse forming means responsive to signal derived from said second means for producing output pulses, and alarm means actuated by the output pulses to turn the alarm signal off and on.

4. The means of claim 3 in which said third means includes means receiving and rectifying the output signal form said first means and delivering said rectified signal to said pulse forming means for producing said output pulses.

5. The means of claim 4 in which the alarm means includes means for providing a visual or audible signal and means actuated by the pulses from the means for providing output pulses for turning the visual or audible signal off and on.

6. The means of claim 5 in which the means for providing a visual or audible signal is connected to a source of current to provide said signal, and the means for turning said signal off and on is a switching means which is actuated by said pulses to turn the visual or audible signal off during the occurrence of each pulse.

7. The means of claim 6 in which said switching means includes a transistor connected in the circuit between the visual or audible means and the source of current and actuated by the pulses from the means for producing output pulses.