Floating touch fall alert bath mat system

• US 10,043,370 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2016
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong Appscomm Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Guangdong Appscomm Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Le, Liuping, Xie, Shangfeng, Zheng, Daifu
• Primary Examiner(s): Bousono, Orlando
• Application Number:
  US15/541,486
• Publication Number:
  US 20180025608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/043 detecting an emergency event, e.g. a fall
• 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

Abstract

The present invention discloses a float touching fall alert bath mat system, wherein a power management module is installed in a body, the power management module is electrically connected to a single chip microcomputer (SCM) and a sensor, a front end of the sensor is equipped with floating touch sensor chips in sheet structure, the floating touch sensor chips are configured around the body, and the power management module is electrically connected to a wireless communication module; the SCM conducts calculation according to the real-time position information to obtain a size and a shape of a contact area between a human body and a bath mat, a reaction time of contact change and a movement direction of the human body; the system can accurately detect whether an actual fall has occurred. The present invention has the advantages of small size and low power consumption. With a big monitoring area, it conducts highly accurate monitoring covering the size and the shape of the contact area, the reaction time of contact change and the movement direction of human body. It can accurately judge whether the user has fell and his falling direction, and can predict a possible injured position to provide assistance for rescue.

Claims

1. A floating touch fall alert bath mat system comprising a body and a power management module, wherein the power management module is installed in the body, the power management module is electrically connected to a single chip microcomputer (SCM) and a sensor, a front end of the sensor is equipped with floating touch sensor chips in sheet structure, the floating touch sensor chips are configured around the body, and the power management module is electrically connected to a wireless communication module;

through the floating touch sensor chips configured around the body, the sensor detects a change of a human body current in real time to determine a position contacted by the human body in a bath mat, and the sensor transmits the position information to the SCM;

the SCM conducts calculation based on the real-time position information to obtain a size and a shape of a contact area between the human body and the bath mat, reaction time of contact change and movement direction of the human body; and

with the data above being analyzed, when the position is changed, the system analyzes whether the contact area is larger than a threshold value (previous contact area or normal standing area);

if the contact area is larger than the threshold value, then the analysis will be continued;

when an actual fall is identified as the position changing time exceeds the threshold value (quick fall), plus an analysis of whether the human body falls forward or backward according to his moving direction and change of contact position, the SCM sends a signal to the power management module to activate the wireless communication module, which sends the fall information to a caregiver or a service center;

meanwhile, the sensor continues monitoring the state of the human body to judge whether the fall continues and whether the human body is conscious.

2. The float touching fall alert bath mat system according to claim 1, wherein the power management module is connected to an independent power supply, and the independent power supply is a button battery.

3. The float touching fall alert bath mat system according to claim 1, wherein the SCM is connected to a microphone and a loudspeaker, and the caregiver may talk with the user through the microphone and the loudspeaker under the assistance of the wireless communication module to determine a falling condition.

4. The float touching fall alert bath mat system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor i.s in a continued working state, and the SCM in a dormant state;

it is only when the human body is in contact with the floating touch sensor chips will the SCM be switched into a working mode to perform real-time data analysis.

5. The float touching fall alert bath mat system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication module is a Bluetooth-based communication module.

6. The float touching fall alert bath mat system according to claim 1, wherein by analyzing the shape change of the contact area and the reaction time of the change when the human body falls, the SCM located an impacted part of the human body, and proceeds to predict the human body'"'"'s possible injured position to provide rescue data for the service center.

7. The float touching fall alert bath mat system according to claim 1, wherein the floating touch sensor chips are in regular hexagonal structures.