Wearable life support apparatus and method

• US 6,569,094 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2001
• Issued: 05/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Takuji, Doi, Miwako, Ouchi, Kazushige
• Primary Examiner(s): Hindenburg, Max F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ASTORINO, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US09/803,916
• Publication Number:
  US 20020028988A1
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• Field of Search: 702/188, 702/19, 434/118, 482/8-9, 600/300-301, 128/903, 128/904, 128/920-925, 705/2-4, 709/248-250, 709/228
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0013 Medical image data A61B1/00011, A61B6/56, A61B8/56 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02007 Evaluating blood vessel condition, e.g. elasticity, compliance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0245 by using sensing means generating electric signals, i.e. ECG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0533 Measuring galvanic skin response
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/369 Electroencephalography [EEG] devices for psychotechnics A61B5/16
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/389 Electromyography [EMG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/749 Voice-controlled interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/903 Radio telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

A wearable life support apparatus worn by a user is disclosed. A physiological information acquirement unit acquires the user'"'"'s physiological information. An action information acquirement unit acquires the user'"'"'s action information. A status recognition unit recognizes the user'"'"'s status in accordance with the action information. A physiological information decision unit decides whether the physiological information is normal in accordance with the user'"'"'s status. A presentation unit presents the decision result of the physiological information decision unit to the user.

Claims

1. A wearable life support apparatus, comprising:

a physiological information acquirement unit configured to acquire physiological information of a user;

an action information acquirement unit configured to acquire action information of the user;

a status recognition unit configured to store the user'"'"'s schedule and a table representing a correspondence between each action information and each behavior of the user, and to recognize the user'"'"'s status corresponding to the acquired action information by referring to the user'"'"'s schedule and the table;

a physiological information decision unit configured to decide whether the acquired physiological information is normal in accordance with the user'"'"'s status; and

a presentation unit configured to present a decision result of said physiological information decision unit;

wherein data transmission between said action information acquirement unit and said status recognition unit, said physiological information acquirement unit and said physiological information decision unit, and said physiological information decision unit and said presentation unit, are executed by wireless communication.

2. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said physiological information acquirement unit includes at least one of a pulse wave sensor, an electroencephalogram electrode, a cardiac electrode, a myoelectric electrode, a body temperature sensor, and a GSR electrode.

3. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said action information acquirement unit includes an acceleration sensor.

4. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said presentation unit includes at least one of a display, a cellular-phone, and a speaker.

5. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an input unit configured to input supplemental information based on the user'"'"'s status of said status recognition unit and the decision result of said physiological information decision unit.

6. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said status recognition unit decides whether at least one of the physiological information and the action information changes while the physiological information and the action information are continually acquired.

7. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 6, wherein,

when the at least one of the physiological information and the action information changes, said status recognition unit retrieves a behavior corresponding to the action information from the table, and compares the behavior with the user'"'"'s schedule.

8. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 7, wherein,

if the behavior does not match with the user'"'"'s schedule,

said presentation unit presents a non-coincidence message between the behavior and the schedule to the user.

9. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 8, wherein,

when said input unit inputs supplemental information representing a reason for the non-coincidence from the user,

said status recognition unit corrects the schedule by referring to the supplemental information.

10. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein said physiological information decision unit checks whether the physiological information is normal based on the behavior corresponding to the action information.

11. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 10, wherein,

if the physiological information is not normal,

said presentation unit presents advice to recover the normal physiological information.

12. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said input unit previously sets the user'"'"'s case history, the user'"'"'s characteristic, and a dialogue model.

13. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 1,

further comprising a corpus memory, which is an accumulation of data, configured to correspondingly store the physiological information, the action information, the status, and the decision result.

14. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 13,

wherein said physiological information decision unit retrieves the physiological information corresponding to a present status from said corpus memory, and compares present physiological information with the retrieved physiological information.

15. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 14, wherein,

if the physiological information corresponding to the present status is not stored in said corpus memory,

said corpus memory stores the present physiological information in correspondence with the present status.

16. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 14, wherein,

if said physiological information decision unit decides that the present physiological information is not normal based on the comparison result,

said corpus memory stores the present physiological information and the decision result.

17. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 13,

wherein said corpus memory stores a physiological information corpus, an average value corpus, a one day trend corpus, and a one year trend corpus,

wherein the physiological information corpus includes the physiological information and the behavior of each time and date,

wherein the average value corpus includes an average value of the physiological information of each behavior,

wherein the one day trend corpus includes physiological history data and the behavior of one day for each kind of the physiological information, and

wherein the one year trend corpus includes physiological history data and the behavior of one year for each kind of the physiological information.

18. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said presentation unit presents a comment of health condition of one day based on the physiological information corpus and the average value corpus to the user.

19. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 18,

wherein said presentation unit presents a trend graph of the physiological information and behavior history of one day based on the one day trend corpus and the one year trend corpus.

20. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 13,

wherein said corpus memory further stores personal environment information related to the status,

wherein the personal environment information is exchanged from a local sensor information corpus through a network, and

wherein the local sensor information corpus collects local sensor information from an environment information corpus of particular area and a physiological information corpus of particular company through the network.

21. The wearable life support apparatus according to claim 20,

wherein said physiological information decision unit retrieves the personal environment information corresponding to the status from said corpus memory, and decides whether the physiological information is normal in accordance with the personal environment information.

22. A method for supporting a user'"'"'s life using a wearable type device, comprising:

acquiring physiological information of the user through the wearable type device;

acquiring action information of the user through the wearable type device;

storing the user'"'"'s schedule and a table representing a correspondence between each action information and each behavior of the user;

recognizing the user'"'"'s status corresponding to the action information by referring to the user'"'"'s schedule and the table;

deciding whether the physiological information is normal in accordance with the user'"'"'s status; and

presenting a decision result through the wearable type device;

wherein data transmission performed for recognizing the user'"'"'s status, deciding whether the physiological information is normal, and presenting a decision result through the wearable device are executed by wireless communication.

23. A computer-readable memory containing computer-readable instructions to support a user'"'"'s life using a wearable type device, comprising:

an instruction unit to acquire physiological information of the user through the wearable type device;

an instruction unit to acquire action information of the user through the wearable type device;

an instruction unit to store the user'"'"'s schedule and a table representing a correspondence between each action information and each behavior of the user;

an instruction unit to recognize the user'"'"'s status corresponding to the action information by referring to the user'"'"'s schedule and the table;

an instruction unit to decide whether the physiological information is normal in accordance with the user'"'"'s status; and

an instruction unit to present a decision result through the wearable type device;

wherein data transmission between said instruction unit to acquire action information of the user and said instruction unit to recognize the user'"'"'s status, said instruction unit to acquire physiological information of the user and said instruction unit to decide whether the physiological information is normal, and said instruction unit to acquire physiological information of the user and said instruction unit to present a decision result are executed by wireless communication.