Apparatus and method for health care

• US 8,874,195 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2006
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Youn-ho, Shin, Kun-soo, Yeo, Hyung-sok
• Primary Examiner(s): Bertram, Eric D.
• Application Number:
  US11/480,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20070027395A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,036 Days
• Field of Search: 600/509, 600/546, 600/595
• US Class Current: 600/509
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/145 Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissuemeasuring of blood pressure or blood flow A61B5/02; non-radiation detecting or locating of foreign bodies in blood A61B5/06
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/329 Load diagnosis, e.g. cardiac stress tests
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/352 Detecting R peaks, e.g. for synchronising diagnostic apparatus; Estimating R-R interval
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4866 Evaluating metabolism A61B5/083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4884 inducing physiological or psychological stress, e.g. applications for stress testing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

A health care apparatus and method thereof. The health care apparatus comprises: a sensing position determining unit determining a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed; a vital potential sensing unit sensing potential signals of the examinee corresponding to a determined result; and an analyzing unit analyzing the sensed result. Accordingly, the health care apparatus can determine body parts by itself and senses potential signals corresponding to the body parts to calculate reliable measurements without information of the body parts to which the health care apparatus is attached. Furthermore, the health care apparatus can be easily attached to the body compared to a conventional health care apparatus, and can calculate a health index reflecting the present behavior pattern of the examinee. The health care apparatus can also determine the health state of local body parts of the examinee and inform the examinee of the calculated health indexes on a real-time basis.

Claims

1. A health care apparatus comprising:

a sensing position determining unit to determine a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed;

a vital potential sensing unit configured to sense different potential signals of the examinee based on the determined body part; and

an analyzing unit to analyze the potential signals,

wherein the sensing position determining unit comprises;

an examining unit to examine whether an acceleration of the body part meets a predetermined magnitude; and

a body part determining unit to determine the body part in response to an examined result.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a health index calculating unit to calculate a desired health index using a result from the analyzing unit, the health index being an index indicating a body state of the examinee.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising a user interface unit providing a user interface displaying at least one of the analyzed result and the calculated health index.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a health state notifying unit that functions corresponding to the calculated health index to inform the examinee about a health state of the examinee.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the health state notifying unit informs the examinee about the health state of the examinee using a visual path, a hearing path, or a tactual path.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the health index is one selected from the group consisting of a heart rate, a heart stress, a balance of the autonomous nervous system, an amount of consumed calories, a blood pressure and a core temperature.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensing position determining unit comprises:

an examining unit to examine whether a predetermined vital signal is sensed in the body part; and

a body part determining unit to determine the body part in response to the examined result.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vital potential sensing unit senses the vital signals of the examinee based on the determined body part.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vital potential sensing unit comprises:

a vital signal sensing unit to sense the vital signals of the examinee in response to the determined body part; and

a filtering unit to filter the sensed vital signals in response to the determined body part and to output the filtered vital signals as the potential signals.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the vital signal sensing unit senses electrocardiogram (ECG) signals or electromyogram (EMG) signals of the examinee in response to the determined body part.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vital potential sensing unit is formed of one or more sensing devices attached to the body of the examinee.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more sensing devices are formed in a single body or separately connected to each other in a network.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the potential signal is a vital signal having a frequency band corresponding to the determined body part among the vital signals that can be sensed from the examinee.

14. An apparatus comprising;

a sensing position determining unit to determine a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed;

a vital potential sensing unit to sense potential signals of the examinee corresponding to the determined body part; and

an analyzing unit to analyze the sensed potential signals, wherein the vital potential sensing unit comprises;

a vital signal sensing unit to sense the vital signals of the examinee in response to the determined body part; and

a filtering unit to filter the sensed vital signals in response to the determined body part and to output the filtered vital signals as the potential signals,

wherein the vital potential sensing unit further comprises a sensing mode determining unit to determine sensing modes in response to the determined body part, and

wherein the vital signal sensing unit and the filtering unit operate according to the determined sensing modes.

15. An apparatus comprising,

a sensing position determining unit to determine a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed;

a vital potential sensing unit to sense potential signals of the examinee corresponding to the determined body part; and

an analyzing unit to analyze the sensed potential signals, wherein the vital potential sensing unit comprises;

a vital signal sensing unit to sense the vital signals of the examinee in response to the determined body part; and

a filtering unit to filter the sensed vital signals in response to the determined body part and to output the filtered vital signals as the potential signals,

wherein the vital potential sensing unit further comprises a matching unit in which information about the vital signals is matched to the determined body part, and

wherein the vital signal sensing unit senses the vital signals expressed in the vital signal information matched to the determined body part.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a sensing position determining unit to determine a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee are sensed;

a vital potential sensing unit to sense potential signals of the examinee corresponding to the determined body part; and

an analyzing unit to analyze the sensed potential signals,

wherein the vital potential sensing unit comprises;

a vital signal sensing unit to sense the vital signals of the examinee in response to the determined body part; and

a filtering unit to filter the sensed vital signals in response to the determined body part and to output the filtered vital signals as the potential signals,

wherein the vital potential sensing unit further comprises a matching unit in which information about the filtering is matched to the determined body part, and the filtering unit filters the sensed vital signals according to the filtering information matched to the determined body part.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program performing a health care method comprising:

determining a body part of an examinee where vital signals of the examinee sensed;

sensing different potential signals of the examinee based on the determined body part; and

analyzing the potential signals,

wherein determining the body part comprises;

examining whether an acceleration of the body part meets a predetermined magnitude; and

determining the body part in response to an examined result.