Apparatus and method for monitoring the waveform of cyclic movement within the thorax of an individual
First Claim
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1. In apparatus for monitoring the waveform of cyclic movement within the thorax of an individual person or animal;
- wherein said apparatus comprises (a) a first antenna adapted to be positioned in the vicinity of a point on the chest of said individual, (b) a second antenna adapted to be positioned in the vicinity of of a point on the back of said individual, (c) first means coupled to one of said first and second antennas for transmitting a carrier signal having a frequency f0 from said one of said first and second antennas to the other of said first and second antennas through the thorax of said individual, whereby said other of said first and second antennas receives said transmitted carrier signal, (d) second means coupled to said other of said first and second antennas for transmitting a return signal through the thorax of said individual back to said one of said first and second antennas, whereby said one antenna receives a signal comprised of separate components derived respectively from said return signal transmitted from said other antenna and from back-scatter of said carrier signal transmitted from said one antenna, and (e) heterodyne down-converter means for subtracting said frequency f0 from said signal receive by one of said first and second antennas the improvement wherein;
said second means includes means for modulating said signal received by said other of said first and second antennas with a modulating frequency fm prior to transmitting said return signal through the thorax of said individual back to said one of said first and second antennas, whereby solely the return-signal derived component of said signal received by said one antenna includes said frequency f0 modulated by a frequency (fm ±
fD), where fD is a doppler frequency component which frequency-modulates fm in accordance with said cyclic movement within said thorax;
said heterodyne down-converter means including means for selectively deriving an output which has said frequency (fm ±
fD) and an amplitude both of which vary in accordance with said cyclic movement within said thorax, but which selectively-derived output excludes down-converted baseband frequencies, whereby the down-converted back-scatter component is substantially absent from said said selectively-derived output of said heterodyne down-converter means; and
detector means for detecting said output of said heterodyne down-converter means for deriving a waveform that defines a given attribute of said cyclic movement within said thorax as a function of time.
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Abstract
A carrier-frequency signal transmitted through the individual'"'"'s thorax from a first module to a second module, is modulated at the second module and retransmitted back through the individual'"'"'s thorax to the first module. An attribute (e.g., doppler frequency shift or amplitude variation) of solely the modulation component of the signal received by the first module is employed to monitor the waveform of cyclic movement (e.g., breathing rate) within the individual'"'"'s thorax.
28 Citations
15 Claims
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1. In apparatus for monitoring the waveform of cyclic movement within the thorax of an individual person or animal;
- wherein said apparatus comprises (a) a first antenna adapted to be positioned in the vicinity of a point on the chest of said individual, (b) a second antenna adapted to be positioned in the vicinity of of a point on the back of said individual, (c) first means coupled to one of said first and second antennas for transmitting a carrier signal having a frequency f0 from said one of said first and second antennas to the other of said first and second antennas through the thorax of said individual, whereby said other of said first and second antennas receives said transmitted carrier signal, (d) second means coupled to said other of said first and second antennas for transmitting a return signal through the thorax of said individual back to said one of said first and second antennas, whereby said one antenna receives a signal comprised of separate components derived respectively from said return signal transmitted from said other antenna and from back-scatter of said carrier signal transmitted from said one antenna, and (e) heterodyne down-converter means for subtracting said frequency f0 from said signal receive by one of said first and second antennas the improvement wherein;
said second means includes means for modulating said signal received by said other of said first and second antennas with a modulating frequency fm prior to transmitting said return signal through the thorax of said individual back to said one of said first and second antennas, whereby solely the return-signal derived component of said signal received by said one antenna includes said frequency f0 modulated by a frequency (fm ±
fD), where fD is a doppler frequency component which frequency-modulates fm in accordance with said cyclic movement within said thorax;said heterodyne down-converter means including means for selectively deriving an output which has said frequency (fm ±
fD) and an amplitude both of which vary in accordance with said cyclic movement within said thorax, but which selectively-derived output excludes down-converted baseband frequencies, whereby the down-converted back-scatter component is substantially absent from said said selectively-derived output of said heterodyne down-converter means; anddetector means for detecting said output of said heterodyne down-converter means for deriving a waveform that defines a given attribute of said cyclic movement within said thorax as a function of time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- wherein said apparatus comprises (a) a first antenna adapted to be positioned in the vicinity of a point on the chest of said individual, (b) a second antenna adapted to be positioned in the vicinity of of a point on the back of said individual, (c) first means coupled to one of said first and second antennas for transmitting a carrier signal having a frequency f0 from said one of said first and second antennas to the other of said first and second antennas through the thorax of said individual, whereby said other of said first and second antennas receives said transmitted carrier signal, (d) second means coupled to said other of said first and second antennas for transmitting a return signal through the thorax of said individual back to said one of said first and second antennas, whereby said one antenna receives a signal comprised of separate components derived respectively from said return signal transmitted from said other antenna and from back-scatter of said carrier signal transmitted from said one antenna, and (e) heterodyne down-converter means for subtracting said frequency f0 from said signal receive by one of said first and second antennas the improvement wherein;
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13. In a method for monitoring the waveform of an attribute of cyclic movement within the thorax of an individual person or animal in accordance with a carrier-frequency signal passing into and out of the thorax of said individual;
- the improvement comprising the steps of;
transmitting said carrier-frequency signal through the thorax of said individual in a first direction to a first receiver; modulating said received carrier-frequency signal at said first receiver with a modulating frequency to derive a modulated carrier-frequency signal; transmitting said modulated carrier-frequency signal back through the thorax of said individual in a second direction opposite to said first direction to a second receiver; and monitoring the waveform of solely said attribute of the modulation of the modulated carrier-frequency signal received at said second receiver. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
- the improvement comprising the steps of;
Specification