Mesh network personal emergency response appliance

• US 9,901,252 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2016
• Issued: 02/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Tran, Bao
• Primary Examiner(s): POPE, DARYL C
• Application Number:
  US15/150,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20160360965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 658 Days
• Field of Search: 3405391, 34053911, 34053913, 3405731
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/42 where power is generated by conversion of mechanical movement to electricity, e.g. by piezoelectric means
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/46 Global positioning system [GPS] sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/48 with transmitting devices, e.g. GSM or Wi-Fi®
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0008 Temperature signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0013 Medical image data A61B1/00011, A61B6/56, A61B8/56 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• 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 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0261 using optical means, e.g. infrared light
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/053 Measuring electrical impedance or conductance of a portion of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/369 Electroencephalography [EEG] devices for psychotechnics A61B5/16
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/384 : Recording apparatus or displays specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/389 : Electromyography [EMG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/395 : Details of stimulation, e.g. nerve stimulation to elicit EMG response
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 : Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6806 : Gloves
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6807 : Footwear
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 : Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6824 : Arm or wrist
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6826 : Finger
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6891 : Furniture
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 : Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/00 : Instruments for auscultation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 : Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/045 : Detection of Korotkoff sounds A61B5/0225 takes precedence; measuring blood pressure A61B5/021
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/00 : Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves imaging of objects using sonar G01S15/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 : Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0808 : for diagnosis of the brain
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/488 : involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/565 : involving data transmission via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 : Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0423 : detecting deviation from an expected pattern of behaviour or schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0446 : worn on the body to detect changes of posture, e.g. a fall, inclination, acceleration, gait
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 : worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0461 : integrated or attached to an item closely associated with the person but not worn by the person, e.g. chair, walking stick, bed sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0476 : Cameras to detect unsafe condition, e.g. video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0484 : Arrangements monitoring consumption of a utility or use of an appliance which consumes a utility to detect unsafe condition, e.g. metering of water, gas or electricity, use of taps, toilet flush, gas stove or electric kettle
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0492 : Sensor dual technology, i.e. two or more technologies collaborate to extract unsafe condition, e.g. video tracking and RFID tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 : Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 : ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 : delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 : relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 : for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 : for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 : ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 : Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 : including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 : for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A monitoring system includes one or more wireless nodes forming a wireless mesh network; a user activity sensor including a wireless mesh transceiver adapted to communicate with the one or more wireless nodes using the wireless mesh network; and a digital monitoring agent coupled to the wireless transceiver through the wireless mesh network to request assistance from a third party based on the user activity sensor.

Claims

1. A digital stethoscope for detecting circulatory information in an object which is part of a living person, said stethoscope comprising a transducer, said transducer comprising:

a) a first piezoelectric crystal proximate to said object and capable of generating a first acoustic signal at a first frequency;

b) a second piezoelectric crystal proximate to said object and positioned at an angle with respect to said first piezoelectric crystal and capable of receiving a second acoustic signal at a second frequency which is a reflection of said first acoustic signal generated when said first acoustic signal is reflected from said object;

wherein said angle is determined by the depth of the object within said living person;

c) a receiver circuit coupled to said first and second crystal transducers and for outputting a difference frequency signal which is representative of the circulatory information and based upon the difference in frequency between the first acoustic signal and the second acoustic signal.

2. The digital stethoscope of claim 1 wherein the circulatory information is the speed of the blood flow.

3. The digital stethoscope of claim 2 wherein the acoustic signals are ultrasonic signals and the difference frequency signal is a Doppler signal.

4. A health monitoring device configured to be worn on at least one part of a living body, wherein said health monitoring device comprises the digital stethoscope of claim 1.

5. The health monitoring device of claim 4 wherein one part of a living body is a wrist.

6. The health monitoring device of claim 4 wherein one part of a living body is a finger.

7. A user activity device for use with a wireless mesh network, said activity device comprising:

a. a sensor for detecting a health related measurement of a user;

b. a wireless transceiver coupled to said sensor and adapted to communicate with one or more wireless nodes in said wireless mesh network;

c. a digital monitoring agent coupled to the wireless transceiver to request assistance from a third party based on the sensor.

8. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises an optical detector.

9. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises an ultrasonic detector.

10. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises a sound transducer.

11. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises an EMG detector.

12. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises an accelerometer.

13. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises bioimpedance sensor.

14. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises and EEG detector.

15. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises and EKG detector.

16. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said digital monitoring agent comprises a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) recognizer.

17. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said digital monitoring agent comprises a dynamic time warp (DTW) recognizer.

18. The user activity device of claim 7 wherein said digital monitoring agent comprises a rule-driven system.

19. The user activity device of claim 7 further comprising a microphone and a speaker.

20. A method for detecting circulatory information in an object which is part of a living person comprising the steps of:

a. Generating a first ultrasonic signal having a first frequency and directing it to a blood vessel at or near the surface of part of a living person;

b. measuring the a second frequency which is the frequency of the reflected signal reflected by said blood vessel;

c. detecting the difference in frequency between said first ultrasonic signal and said second ultrasonic signal wherein said difference is representative of the circulatory information.