Attitude indicator and activity monitoring device
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A skin patch for preventing falls, comprising:
- an adhesive surface;
an accelerometer disposed within said skin patch at a preset orientation;
a marking on the skin patch for rapidly positioning the adhesive surface for fixation to skin, wherein after the fixation the accelerometer has a pre-established disposition with respect to a femur bone; and
a sensing circuit to monitor the accelerometer and to generate a signal when the accelerometer indicates a femur orientation associated with a high risk of falling;
wherein the femur orientation is selected to indicate a point in a mobility process prior to transferring a majority of upper body weight through the femur to a knee or a foot of the patient; and
wherein the selected femur orientation and the sensing circuit eliminate false positive signals with respect to allocation of personnel to respond to the high risk of falling.
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Abstract
An attitude indicator device for detecting, indicating, and/or logging the positional attitude of an individual in response to deviation from a set of one or more reference angles. By way of example and not of limitation, the device is mounted on the thigh of a patient and measurements are taken from an acceleration sensor within the device. The acceleration measurements are communicated to a receiver when the measurements deviate from acceptable thresholds, whereby the receiver indicates an alert condition. The device may be employed within numerous medical related applications, for example, to facilitate preventing patient egress and the prevention/detection of patient falls.
216 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A skin patch for preventing falls, comprising:
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an adhesive surface; an accelerometer disposed within said skin patch at a preset orientation; a marking on the skin patch for rapidly positioning the adhesive surface for fixation to skin, wherein after the fixation the accelerometer has a pre-established disposition with respect to a femur bone; and a sensing circuit to monitor the accelerometer and to generate a signal when the accelerometer indicates a femur orientation associated with a high risk of falling; wherein the femur orientation is selected to indicate a point in a mobility process prior to transferring a majority of upper body weight through the femur to a knee or a foot of the patient; and wherein the selected femur orientation and the sensing circuit eliminate false positive signals with respect to allocation of personnel to respond to the high risk of falling. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system comprising:
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a patch having an adhesive surface; a marking on the patch for positioning the patch relative to a femur; an accelerometer disposed within said patch at a preset orientation; a sensing circuit to monitor the accelerometer and to generate a pre-fall signal when the accelerometer indicates the femur is in a pre-fall position; a transmitter coupled to the sensing circuit to transmit said pre-fall signal as it is generated; a battery to power said sensing circuit and said transmitter; a receiver communicatively coupled with said transmitter, said receiver to receive said pre-fall signal and to generate an alarm in response thereto; wherein the pre-fall position of the femur is selected to indicate a point in a mobility process prior to transferring a majority of upper body weight through the femur to a knee or a foot of the patient; and wherein the selected pre-fall position and the sensing circuit eliminate false positive signals with respect to allocation of personnel to respond to the pre-fall signal. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification