Human monitoring apparatus

• US 5,724,990 A
• Filed: 12/29/1995
• Issued: 03/10/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ogino, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): HINDENBURG, MAX F
• Application Number:
  US08/581,116
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• Field of Search: 128/721, 128/722, 128/774, 128/782, 340/573, 340/575, 5/658
• US Class Current: 600/587
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1102 Ballistocardiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/113 occurring during breathing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4809 Sleep detection, i.e. determining whether a subject is asleep or not
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6887 mounted on external non-worn devices, e.g. non-medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6891 Furniture
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6892 Mats
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7239 using differentiation including higher order derivatives

Abstract

The body movement of a person in a bed or a seat is detected by a piezo-electric element without contacting to the body, and absence or presence in the bed or the seat and rough body movement are judged by detecting the fine body movement propagated by the functioning of heart and breathing of the body, and in case the presence in bed is judged the time measurement operation is started by the timer, and by judging the absence and rough body movement the time measurement is reset. It is judged that the body on the bed or the seat has fallen asleep when the measurement time of the timer exceeds a predetermined set time.

Claims

1. A body movement monitoring apparatus comprising:

body movement detecting means which includes at least one piezo-electric element disposed on a surface supporting a body and that detects a rough body movement of the body on the surface, the rough body movement being a movement whereby the position of the body on the surface is substantially altered, and a fine movement of the body on the surface, the fine body movement being movement associated with one of heartbeat and respiration, the body movement detecting means producing a signal that is proportional to an amount of the movement of the body;

absence judging means for judging that there is no fine body movement and no rough body movement indicative of an absence of the body on the surface responsive to the signal of the body movement detecting means being below a first value;

presence judging means for judging a presence of the body on the surface by detecting the fine body movement, which is accomplished by determining that the signal of the body movement detecting means is above the first set value and below a second value; and

body movement judging means for judging that the body has produced the rough body movement responsive to the signal of the body movement detecting means being above the second value.

2. A body movement monitoring apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the body movement detecting means includes, a filter which filters a certain specific frequency component of a piezo-electric signal output by the piezo-electric element, an amplifier which amplifies a filter signal output by the filter, a rectifier which rectifies an amplifier signal output by the amplifier and a smoothing device which smoothes a rectifier signal output by the rectifier.

3. A body movement monitoring apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the piezo-electric element is defined by a tape comprising a high-molecular piezo-electric material, such as polyvinylidene fluoride, bonded with a flexible electrode film on both surfaces thereof.

4. A human monitoring apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the piezo-electric element is contained in a sheet shaped bag, and a stretching-and-shrinkingly movable stretch-shrink parts are provided on the end parts of the bag, and in addition, engaging and disengaging parts, which enable engaging-and-disengaging of end tip parts of said stretch=shrink parts each other, are provided on respective ones of said end parts.

5. A human monitoring apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein display means for displaying the signal level of the body movement detecting means, and first setting means capable of changing the first set value and the second set value manually in response to the signal level displayed by the display means are provided.

6. A human monitoring apparatus in accordance with claim 1, having first memory means for sampling and storing the signal level of the body movement detecting means at a predetermined period, when the presence in bed is judged by the presence judging means, first operating means for operating a minimum value and a maximum value of the content stored in the first memory means, and second setting means for refreshing the minimum value as the first set value and the maximum value as the second set value.

7. A human monitoring apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the piezo-electric element is disposed on a toilet seat or a bath tub.

8. A body movement monitoring apparatus comprising:

body movement detecting means which includes at least one piezo-electric element disposed on a surface supporting a body and that detects a rough body movement of the body on the surface, the rough body movement being movement whereby the position of the body on the surface is substantially altered, and a fine movement of the body on the surface, the fine body movement being movement associated with one of heartbeat and respiration, the body movement detecting means producing a signal that is proportional to an amount of the movement of the body;

absence judging means for judging that there is no fine body movement and no rough body movement indicative of an absence of the body on the surface responsive to the signal of the body movement detecting means being below a first value;

presence judging means for judging a presence of the body on the surface by detecting the fine body movement, which is accomplished by determining that the signal of the body movement detecting means is above the first set value and below a second value;

body movement judging means for judging that the body has produced the rough body movement responsive to the signal of the body movement detecting means being above the second value;

a timer for resetting a time measurement responsive to the absence of the rough body movement is being detected and for starting the time measurement responsive to the presence of rough body movement being detected; and

sleep judging means for judging that the body is asleep responsive to a measured time of the timer exceeding a predetermined time.

9. A body movement monitoring apparatus comprising:

a piezo-electric element disposed on a surface supporting a body and that detects a rough body movement of the body on the surface, the rough body movement being a movement whereby the position of the body on the surface is substantially altered, and a fine movement of the body on the surface, the fine body movement being movement associated with one of heartbeat and respiration, the piezo-electric element producing a signal that is proportional to an amount of the movement of the body; and

a processing unit receiving the signal from the piezo-electric element and determining (1) that there is no fine body movement and no rough body movement, which indicates an absence of the body on the surface, responsive to the signal of the piezo-electric element being below a first value, (2) a presence of the body on the surface by detecting the fine body movement, which is accomplished by determining that the signal of the piezo-electric element is above the first set value and below a second value, and (3) that the body has produced the rough body movement responsive to the signal of the piezo-electric element being above the second value.

10. A body movement monitoring apparatus in accordance with claim 9, wherein the body movement detecting means includes, a filter which filters a certain specific frequency component of a piezo-electric signal output by the piezo-electric element, an amplifier which amplifies a filter signal output by the filter, a rectifier which rectifies an amplifier signal output by the amplifier and a smoothing device which smoothes a rectifier signal output by the rectifier.

11. A body movement monitoring apparatus in accordance with claim 9, wherein the piezo-electric element is defined by a tape comprising a high-molecular piezo-electric material, such as polyvinylidene fluoride, bonded with a flexible electrode film on both surfaces thereof.

12. A body movement monitoring apparatus comprising:

a piezo-electric element disposed on a surface supporting a body and that detects a rough body movement of the body on the surface, the rough body movement being a movement whereby the position of the body on the surface is substantially altered, and a fine movement of the body on the surface, the fine body movement being movement associated with one of heartbeat and respiration, the piezo-electric element producing a signal that is proportional to an amount of the movement of the body;

a processing unit receiving the signal produced by the piezo-electric element and determining (1) that there is no fine body movement and no rough body movement, which indicates of an absence of the body on the surface responsive to the signal of the piezo-electric element being below a first value, (2) a presence of the body on the surface by detecting the fine body movement, which is accomplished by determining that the signal of the piezo-electric element is above the first set value and below a second value, and (3) that the body has produced the rough body movement responsive to the signal of the piezo-electric element being above the second value; and

a timer for resetting a time measurement responsive to the absence of the rough body movement is being detected and for starting the time measurement responsive to the presence of rough body movement being detected, wherein the processing unit also judges that the body is asleep responsive to a measured time of the timer exceeding a predetermined time.