Home Care Equipment Monitoring System

• US 20090055216A1
• Filed: 03/23/2006
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mitsuba Corporation, Paramount Bed Company Limited (Paramount Bed Holdings Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Mitsuba Corporation
• Inventors: Kawagoe, Kuniaki, Nagase, Yuichi, Inaba, Mitsunori, Matsumiya, Rika, Nagaoka, Hiroshi, Shimokawa, Masato
• Application Number:
  US11/887,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20090055216A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 2203/14 Joysticks
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 5/04 motor-driven A61G5/06 takes precedence; motor-operated rests A61G5/12; for vehicles with handlebars, equipped with three or more wheels B62K5/003, B62K5/023
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 5/10 Parts, details or accessories
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 7/018 Control or drive mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

In a bed (home care equipment) 1, based on the switch operation, respective drive units of a head unit 12, a leg unit 13, and a height adjustment unit 14 are actuated by motor units 15a to 15c and actuator units 16a to 16c. The actuation state of the respective drive units are detected by the sensor units 17a to 17c, and a respective-unit-operation control means 21 figures out the actuation state of the drive units based on a detection signal, and stores the performance history of the drive units in the operation history storage unit 22 as operation history information. The operation history information in the operation history storage unit 22 is transmitted to a host computer 4 by a communication unit 7. The host computer 4 processes the received operation history information to data which can be displayed by the animation display, graph display, and accumulated time period display, and transmits thus processed data to a computer 5 etc. which is connected to the host computer 4 through the Internet line.

Claims

1. A home care equipment monitoring system, characterized by comprising:

a home care equipment whose at least one drive unit can be actuated by electric drive means based on an operation by a user;

sensor means for detecting an actuation state of the drive unit of the home care equipment;

first control means for figuring out the actuation state of the drive unit based on a detection signal output from the sensor means, and storing a performance history of the drive unit based on the operation by the user in storage means as operation history information; and

second control means for displaying the operation history information on display means in a predetermined pattern.

2. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that

information transmission means that is connected to the first control means and can transmit the operation history information stored in the storage means to the outside of the first control means is arranged, and the second control means receives the operation history information from the information transmission means and displays the operation history information on the display means.

3. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the home care equipment has a plurality of drive units, and the second control means can concurrently display the operation history information of the plurality of drive units on the display means.

4. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 3, characterized in that

the operation history information includes data indicating which of the drive units are operated, and data indicating time periods for which the drive units are operated.

5. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the first control means stores the performance history of the drive unit in storage means as operation history information only when the drive unit is operated for a predetermined time period or longer.

6. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the second control means can display the operation history information on the display means by employing at least any one of display patterns among an animation display, graph display, accumulated time period display, numerical value display, and statistics display.

7. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the first control means and the second control means are connected by a communication line through the information transmission means.

8. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the home care equipment is a bed which includes, as the drive unit, at least any one of a head part angle adjustment unit, a leg part angle adjustment unit, and a bed height adjustment unit.

9. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the home care equipment is an electric wheelchair which includes, as the drive unit, drive wheels for controlling the forward and backward travel performance and the curved travel performance of the electric wheelchair.

10. The home care equipment monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the home care equipment is a lift assist chair which includes, as the drive unit, a seat that can be operated in the upward and downward directions.