Systems for and methods of assessing urinary flow rate via sound analysis
First Claim
1. A method of assessing urinary flow rates, comprising:
- a. providing a receptacle having a preexisting volume of water used for flushing;
b. placing a telephone near, but not coupled to, said receptacle;
c. capturing with said telephone, at a first location, the sounds of urination into said preexisting volume of water and transmitting said sounds of urination, substantially at the same time said sounds are captured, to a second location remote from said first location using said telephone and a telecommunications network to which said telephone is connected, said urination sounds having a strength and duration;
d. saving said sounds into a storage medium as an audio file; and
e. analyzing the audio file to determine strength and duration of urination.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems for and methods of assessing urinary flow rate via sound analysis. Embodiments of the uroflow measurement systems include a computer and a telephone or a digital recording mechanism to capture the sound of one or more urination events, which are stored as audio files in a database The uroflow measurement systems may include sound analysis software for analyzing the strength and duration of each urination event and may include a web-based uroflow software application for viewing the results via the Internet or other network In one embodiment, the sound analysis software performs the steps of reading in the raw data of a selected audio file, generating a plot of the audio signal amplitude vs. time, generating a plot of smoothed data for the purpose of presenting an outline of the flow, generating a main flow plot, which is a plot of the largest continuous flow that has a strength that is greater than a predetermined minimum, and generating a set of numerical values that correspond to the strength and duration of urination.
43 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of assessing urinary flow rates, comprising:
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a. providing a receptacle having a preexisting volume of water used for flushing; b. placing a telephone near, but not coupled to, said receptacle; c. capturing with said telephone, at a first location, the sounds of urination into said preexisting volume of water and transmitting said sounds of urination, substantially at the same time said sounds are captured, to a second location remote from said first location using said telephone and a telecommunications network to which said telephone is connected, said urination sounds having a strength and duration; d. saving said sounds into a storage medium as an audio file; and e. analyzing the audio file to determine strength and duration of urination. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for assessing urinary flow using the sound of urination, the system comprising:
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a. a receptacle having a preexisting volume of water; b. a database stored on a storage medium, having stored therein an audio file including information representing the sounds of urination into said preexisting volume of water; c. a software program installed on a computer-readable medium where said software program can be executed for analyzing said audio file to determine strength and duration of urination, said software program including; i. a first module that generates a plot of amplitude versus time of the urination using said audio file; ii. a second module that generates a set of numerical values that correspond to the strength and duration of the urination using said plot; and d. a telephone positioned near, but not coupled to, said receptacle for capturing the sounds of urination into said preexisting volume of water and providing a signal representing said sounds, said telephone connected so that said signal is provided to said database. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification