Hand cleanliness

• US 7,936,275 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2006
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Biovigil Hygiene Technologies LLC (BioVigil Healthcare Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Biovigil LLC
• Inventors: Bolling, Steven F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg; George A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yacob; Sisay
• Application Number:
  US11/415,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20070015552A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,828 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1, 340/632, 340/522, 340/539.16, 340/573.4, 340/603, 340/633, 340/521, 340/539.1, 422/83, 422/90, 422/50, 422/88, 455/575, 455/575.1, 455/575.6, 338/34
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/245 Reminder of hygiene compliance policies, e.g. of washing hands
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 23/00 Alarms responsive to unspecified undesired or abnormal conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

Among other things, from a wireless device, a command is transmitted to wearable monitors within range of the wireless device to update their states to a non disinfected state of the hands of users of the wearable monitors.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a wearable device that includes;

a sensor to detect a level of a disinfecting material on a user'"'"'s hand;

an indicator to indicate a cleanliness state of the user'"'"'s hand based on detecting whether the user'"'"'s hand bears the disinfecting material at a level that indicates cleanliness, and

a wireless communication element to transmit, to an external device, information about the cleanliness state of the user'"'"'s hand.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 also including an element that maintains a device state that corresponds to a cleanliness state of the user'"'"'s hand including a disinfected state and a non-disinfected state.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 also including an element to switch the device state from disinfected to non-disinfected regardless of the actual cleanliness state of the user'"'"'s hand.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the indicator is at least one of a visual display, a sounding device, a lamp, or a vibrator.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 also including storage for data indicative of the cleanliness state of the user'"'"'s hand.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising

an alcohol vapor sensing device,

wherein the indicator includes a display to show information associated with a use or user of the sensing device to determine cleanliness of a user'"'"'s hand based on whether a measurement of alcohol on the user'"'"'s hand indicates disinfection.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 in which the display comprises a device in which pixels can be switched from one state to another state using power and then retain their states after the power is removed to prevent a user from thwarting the impact of the display.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 also including storage to hold information about the cleanliness of the user'"'"'s hand and a processor to cause presentation of the information on the display.

27. The apparatus of claim 1 where the wearable device includes photovoltaic cells.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the sensor comprises an alcohol vapor sensing device.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 comprising a display to show information associated with a use or user of the sensor to determine cleanliness of a user'"'"'s hand based on whether a measurement of alcohol on the user'"'"'s hand indicates disinfection.

30. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising storage to hold information about the cleanliness of the user'"'"'s hand and a processor to cause presentation of the information on a display.

6. A method comprising

monitoring cleanliness states of hands of people in a facility by:

wirelessly communicating, from monitoring devices worn by the people to aggregating stations located around the facility, information about the cleanliness state of the hands of the people, the information regarding about the cleanliness state of the hands of the people based at least in part on detecting disinfecting material using the monitoring devices worn by the people; and

passing the information regarding about the cleanliness state of the hands of the people from the aggregating stations to a central computer facility.

7. The method of claim 6 comprising:

at a wearable device, receiving a command to switch states from disinfected to not disinfected, and

in response to the command, changing an indicator that is perceivable by people in the vicinity of the user of the wearable device from an indication of disinfected to an indication of not disinfected, regardless of the actual cleanliness state of the user'"'"'s hand.

8. The method of claim 6 comprising, from a wireless device, selectively transmitting a command to monitoring devices worn by the people within range of the wireless device to update their states to a non disinfected state of the hand of users of the monitoring devices worn by the people.

9. The method of claim 6 comprising

based on successive measurements of a resistance of an element that is sensitive to alcohol vapor, determining if the element is in a condition that degrades its sensitivity to alcohol vapor, and

if so, heating the element to restore its sensitivity to alcohol vapor.

10. The method of claim 9 in which the condition comprises the presence of water.

11. The method of claim 9 in which the determining is based on whether a drift of the measurements is different in character from an expected drift.

12. The method of claim 9 in which the element is heated until the condition has dissipated.

13. The method of claim 9 also including using the element in a test of a level of alcohol vapor emanating from a user'"'"'s finger.

17. The method of claim 6 comprising:

in response to a measurement of alcohol on a hand of a user, audibly signaling from a device in the vicinity of the user to other people in the vicinity of the user, the cleanliness state of the user'"'"'s hand based on whether the measurement of alcohol on the user'"'"'s hand indicates disinfection.

18. The method of claim 17 in which the signaling is different depending whether the cleanliness state is disinfected or not disinfected.

19. The method of claim 17 in which the signaling includes a distasteful sound.

20. The method of claim 17 in which the signaling includes a brief noise repeated at intervals.

21. The method of claim 20 in which the volume of the noise is increased and/or the intervals are decreased over time.

22. The method of claim 6 comprising

managing hand cleanliness of people within a facility by electronically causing wearable devices worn by selected people to switch simultaneously to states representing non disinfection of their hands regardless of actual states of disinfection of the hands of the people.

23. The method of claim 22 in which the selectivity is based on the locations of the people within the facility.

24. The method of claim 22 in which the selectivity is based on characteristics of the people or their conduct.

25. The method of claim 6 also including reporting the cleanliness states of people and groups of people in the facility over time.

26. The method of claim 6 also including monitoring the locations of the people electronically.