Mat for pressure measurement and a body information acquisition device

• US 7,658,112 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2008
• Issued: 02/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Tanita Corporation (Tanita)
• Original Assignee: Tanita Corporation (Tanita)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Yuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Allen; Andre J
• Application Number:
  US12/038,324
• Publication Number:
  US 20090056465A1
• Time in Patent Office: 713 Days
• Field of Search: 737/31, 571/3, 571/0
• US Class Current: 73/731
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/168 Fluid filled sensor housings
• 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 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/113 occurring during breathing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4812 Detecting sleep stages or cycles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6887 mounted on external non-worn devices, e.g. non-medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6892 Mats

Abstract

When the distribution of the pressure applied to a mat is measured, a plurality of detection units is established in the air mat and the sensor for measuring the pressure applied to the air mat is needed to be provided for each detection unit. The mat for pressure measurement 2 is arranged the first medium accommodation object 21b on the right side and the second medium accommodation object 22b on the left side. The first connecting pipeline 21a is connected to the first medium accommodation object 21b and the second connecting pipeline 22a is connected to the second medium accommodation object 22b, respectively. Since the internal diameter K4 of the second connecting 22a is set smaller than the internal diameter K2 of the first connecting pipeline 21a and the pipeline length of the second connecting pipeline 22a is set longer than that of the first connecting pipeline 21a in the mat for pressure measurement 2, the pressure loss coefficient of the second connecting pipeline 22a has a greater value than that of the first connecting pipeline 21a.

Claims

1. A body information acquisition device which acquires a subject'"'"'s body information comprising:

a mat for pressure measurement comprising;

a plurality of medium accommodation objects which inside is filled with a pressure transmission medium; and

a connecting pipeline provided in the respective medium accommodation objects which lead the pressure inputted into the medium accommodation objects to one detection means to detect the pressure change in one pressure detection unit for the pressure transmission medium and each connecting pipeline has a different size of internal diameter and a different pressure loss coefficient reciprocally;

a detection means to detect the pressure change in the pressure detection unit;

a measurement means to measure the distribution and the strength of the pressure on the mat for pressure measurement based on the pressure change detected by the detection means; and

a body position calculation means to calculate the position or the motion of the subject'"'"'s body on the mat for pressure measurement based on the measurement result by the measurement means.

2. The body information acquisition device according to claim 1, wherein the connecting pipeline in the mat for pressure measurement with a small internal diameter has a long pipeline length compared to the connecting pipeline with a large internal diameter.

3. The body information acquisition device to claim 1, wherein the connecting pipeline in the mat for pressure measurement with a small internal diameter has a converging part with a small open aperture ratio or a large number of converging parts compared to the connecting pipeline with a large internal diameter.

4. The body information acquisition device according to claim 1, wherein the medium accommodation objects in the mat for pressure measurement with a large pressure loss coefficient of the connecting pipeline which leads the inputted pressure to the pressure detection unit is formed with a thick wall compared to the medium accommodation objects with a small pressure loss coefficient of the connecting pipeline which leads the inputted pressure to the pressure detection unit.

5. The body information acquisition device according to claim 1, wherein the respective medium accommodation objects in the mat for pressure measurement comprise pipelines and the respective medium accommodation objects having a large pressure loss coefficient of the connecting pipeline which lead the inputted pressure to the pressure detection unit is provided with a small internal diameter compared to the medium accommodation objects having a small pressure loss coefficient of the connecting pipeline which leads the inputted pressure to the pressure detection unit.