Respiration and movement monitoring system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for monitoring respiration and movements of an infant positioned adjacent to a supporting platform, comprising:
- a first sensor positioned between the infant and the support platform, the first sensor not having a physical attachment to the infant and including a distributed inductance and distributed capacitance device formed as a radially wound spiral flat conductor strip that produces a uniform electric field for sensing the respiration and movements of the infant the first sensor further having an impedance that is a function of a frequency, the impedance having a maximum value when the frequency equals a resonant frequency of the first sensor, the resonant frequency varying as a function of the respiration and movements of the infant;
an oscillator generating a signal having an operating frequency that substantially equals or is close to the resonant frequency of the first sensor;
a high-impedance element coupling the signal from the oscillator to the first sensor, the high-impedance element and the first sensor forming a voltage divider that produces from the signal a sensor voltage that is proportional to the impedance of the first sensor and is, therefore, responsive to the respiration and movements of the infant;
a detector extracting from the sensor voltage a first signal representative of the respiration and movements of the infant;
a controller receiving the first signal and including a band-pass filtering function to extract from the first signal a respiration-related signal and a band-stop filtering function to extract from the first signal a movement-related signal; and
a signal processor processing at least one of the respiration-related signal and the movement-related signal to generate an alarm signal.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A monitoring system (10) of this invention includes a first sensor (12) for detecting the respiration and/or movements of an infant (14), and an optional second sensor (18) for detecting the presence and/or movement of the infant or proximal objects (20) surrounding the infant. An optional accelerometric sensor (22) detects movements of a platform (16) supporting the infant and contributes supplementary movement data to the monitoring system. An optional audio sensor (24) detects sounds associated with the infant or proximal objects. None of the sensors are physically attached to the infant. A controller (26) conditions and processes the various sensor signals and generates alarms by interpreting the sensor signals. The controller optionally communicates with a remote control unit (30). In one embodiment the first sensor signal is filtered (112, 114) to extract respiration- and nonrespiration-related signals that are processed by a signal processor (116), which compares the extracted signals to thresholds, and if neither signal exceeds its threshold for a predetermined time, a low signal alarm is generated. In another embodiment, the signal processor determines whether a respiration decay period is less than a threshold value, and if not, generates a respiration decay alarm. In yet another embodiment, the signal processor compares the respiration-related signal pattern to a stored pattern, and if the patterns do not match, a respiration pattern alarm is generated. The signal processor further interprets various combinations of the sensor signals and makes aggregated decisions to generate specific warnings when critical situations occur.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. An apparatus for monitoring respiration and movements of an infant positioned adjacent to a supporting platform, comprising:
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a first sensor positioned between the infant and the support platform, the first sensor not having a physical attachment to the infant and including a distributed inductance and distributed capacitance device formed as a radially wound spiral flat conductor strip that produces a uniform electric field for sensing the respiration and movements of the infant the first sensor further having an impedance that is a function of a frequency, the impedance having a maximum value when the frequency equals a resonant frequency of the first sensor, the resonant frequency varying as a function of the respiration and movements of the infant; an oscillator generating a signal having an operating frequency that substantially equals or is close to the resonant frequency of the first sensor; a high-impedance element coupling the signal from the oscillator to the first sensor, the high-impedance element and the first sensor forming a voltage divider that produces from the signal a sensor voltage that is proportional to the impedance of the first sensor and is, therefore, responsive to the respiration and movements of the infant; a detector extracting from the sensor voltage a first signal representative of the respiration and movements of the infant; a controller receiving the first signal and including a band-pass filtering function to extract from the first signal a respiration-related signal and a band-stop filtering function to extract from the first signal a movement-related signal; and a signal processor processing at least one of the respiration-related signal and the movement-related signal to generate an alarm signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for monitoring respiration and movements of an infant positioned adjacent to a supporting platform, the method comprising:
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positioning a first sensor between the infant and the support platform, the first sensor not physically attached to the infant and including a distributed inductance and distributed capacitance device formed as a radially wound spiral flat conductor strip that produces a uniform electric field for sensing the respiration and movements of the infant, the first sensor further having an impedance that is a function of a frequency, the impedance having a maximum value when the frequency equals a resonant frequency of the first sensor, the resonant frequency varying as a function of the respiration and movements of the infant; generating a signal having an operating frequency that substantially equals or is close to the resonant frequency of the first sensor; coupling the signal to the first sensor with a high-impedance element, the high-impedance element and the first sensor forming a voltage divider that produces from the signal a sensor voltage that is proportional to the impedance of the first sensor and is, therefore, responsive to the respiration and movements of the infant; detecting the sensor voltage to produce a first signal representative of the respiration and movements of the infant; band-pass filtering the first signal to extract a respiration-related signal; band-stop filtering the first signal to extract a movement-related signal; and processing at least one of the respiration-related signal and the movement-related signal to generate an alarm signal. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification