Pulse wave detecting apparatus

• US 6,623,435 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2001
• Issued: 09/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Instruments Incorporated (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Instruments Incorporated (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Tsubata, Keisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): PELHAM, JOSEPH MOORE
• Application Number:
  US09/878,100
• Publication Number:
  US 20020004636A1
• Time in Patent Office: 837 Days
• Field of Search: 600/500-503
• US Class Current: 600/502
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/02 Measuring pulse or heart rate

Abstract

There is provided a pulse wave detecting apparatus capable of clearly discriminating pulsations from noise having a small storage amount and also a small computation amount. In the pulse wave detecting apparatus, while an oscillator unit transmits ultrasonic waves toward an object under examination and a receiver receives reflection waves reflected from the object under examination, a detecting unit converts the reflection waves from the pulse waves. A pulsation detecting unit predicts timing of a next pulsation from an interval of previously acquired pulsation and pulse, detects a peak of a pulse wave which is larger than a predetermined value within the zone Z located before/after the predicted timing of the pulsation. Then, this pulsation detecting unit specifies such a peak having a timing which is located at the nearest timing with respect to the predicted timing among each of these peaks.

Claims

1. A pulse wave detecting apparatus comprising:

pulse wave detecting means for detecting a pulse wave;

pulsation predicting means for predicting timing of a pulsation based upon the pulse wave detected by said pulse wave detecting means;

range determining means for determining predetermined widths located before/after the timing of said pulsation predicted by said pulsation predicting means;

pulsation subject extracting means for extracting a subject for pulsation from the pulse wave detected by said pulse wave detecting means in said predetermined widths determined by said range determining means; and

pulsation specifying means for specifying a pulse from among said subjects extracted by said pulsation subject extracting means.

2. A pulse wave detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

said pulsation predicting means predicts the timing of the next pulsation based upon an interval of previously acquired pulsations, or a pulse rate.

3. A pulse wave detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

said pulsation specifying means determines a pulse based upon both the timing predicted by said pulsation predicting means and the timing of said pulsation subject extracted by said pulsation subject extracting means.

4. A pulse wave detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein:

said pulsation specifying means determines a pulse based upon both the timing predicted by said pulsation predicting means and the timing of said pulsation subject extracted by said pulsation subject extracting means.

5. A pulse wave detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein:

said range determining means subdivides the predetermined widths located before/after the predicted timing of the pulsation into a plurality of zones containing both a first zone located earlier than the predicted timing of the pulsation and a second zone subsequent to said first zone which contains the predicted timing of the pulsation, and determines the predetermined widths; and

said pulsation specifying means immediately specifies a pulsation subject which is first detected in said second zone as the pulsation.

6. A pulse wave detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein:

said range determining means subdivides the predetermined widths located before/after the predicted timing of the pulsation into a plurality of zones containing both a first zone located earlier than the predicted timing of the pulsation and a second zone subsequent to said first zone which contains the predicted timing of the pulsation, and determines the predetermined widths; and

said pulsation specifying means immediately specifies a pulsation subject which is first detected in said second zone as the pulsation.

7. A pulse wave detecting apparatus comprising:

a pulse wave detector to detect a pulse wave;

a pulsation predicting circuit to predict timing of a pulsation based upon the pulse wave detected by the pulse wave detector;

a range determining circuit to determine predetermined widths located before/after the timing of the pulsation predicted by the pulsation predicting circuit;

a pulsation subject extracting circuit to extract a subject for pulsation from the pulse wave detected by the pulse wave detector in said predetermined widths determined by the range determining circuit; and

a pulsation specifying circuit to specify a pulse from among the subjects extracted by the pulsation subject extracting circuit.