System and method for remote education

• US 8,620,206 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2006
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch Healthcare Systems, Inc. (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch Healthcare Systems, Inc. (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Inventors: Brown, Stephen J, Quy, Roger J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Kang
• Application Number:
  US11/566,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20070259323A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,583 Days
• Field of Search: 434/236, 434/262, 434/350, 434/322
• US Class Current: 434/350
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/339 Displays specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/00 Instruments, implements or accessories specially adapted for surgery or diagnosis and not covered by any of the groups A61B1/00 - A61B50/00, e.g. for luxation treatment or for protecting wound edges protective face masks A41D13/11; surgeon's or patient's gowns or dresses A41D13/12; devices for carrying-off, for treatment of, or for carrying-over, body liquids A61M1/00
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1012 involving biosensors worn by the player, e.g. for measuring heart beat, limb activity
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/204 the platform being a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/63 for controlling the execution of the game in time
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 23/28 for medicine
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/065 Combinations of audio and video presentations, e.g. videotapes, videodiscs, television systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/17 delivered via infusion or injection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

The invention describes a system and method for allowing an individual to view an educational program remotely. In the preferred embodiment, the invention is used as a healthcare education system. The system comprises a file server which is connected to a database holding the educational programs. A remote interface connected to the file server allows an administrator to assign educational programs to an individual. The remote interface also includes a memory card writer which records the individual'"'"'s identification code and the address of the file server on a memory card. The individual is given the memory card to take home. When the individual places the memory card in the memory card reader of a multimedia processor, the processor uses the file server address to automatically connect to the file server. The file server receives the individual'"'"'s identification code from the processor, retrieves the corresponding educational program from the database, and sends the program to the processor to be displayed. After the individual has watched the educational program, completion data in the form of the date and time the program was watched, or the individual'"'"'s response, is sent from the multimedia processor to the file server. The completion data can then be viewed by the administrator on a report screen.

Claims

1. A system to distribute media programs, comprising:

a processor unit configured to present material to an individual and receive responses from the individual; and

one or more servers configured to communicate with the processor unit through at least one communication network and access a non-transitory computer readable medium on the processor unit for storing one or more media programs, wherein (i) the one or more servers are remotely situated from the processor unit, (ii) the processor unit establishes communication with a particular server of the one or more servers based on an identification code input by said individual and a destination address programmed on the medium by a physician prior to said individual receiving said processor unit, (iii) the one or more servers are configured to communicate one of the one or more media programs to the processor unit based upon the identification code, (iv) the processor unit is configured to communicate the responses received from the individual to the particular server, (v) the identification code is (a) stored on the medium of the processor unit and (b) used to direct the media program to a particular individual or a group of individuals and (vi) the destination address is (a) stored on the medium of the processor unit and (b) comprises data readable by the processor unit to cause said processor unit to establish communication with said particular server.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one educational program.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one advertisement related program.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the individual plugs a data storage card into a card reader coupled to the processor unit.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one health related program.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the at least one health related program comprises education material concerning one or more health related topics selected from the group consisting of preventative measures, exercise, diet, lifestyle, health conditions, diseases, health consequences, health monitoring and self-care.

7. The system according to claim 4, further comprising an interface unit remotely situated from the server and the processor unit, wherein the interface unit is configured to communicate with the server and the processor unit.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the interface unit and the processor unit are configured to write information and read information to and from the data storage card.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the data storage card comprises a plastic card with a magnetic strip.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the data storage card comprises a memory circuit.

11. The system according to claim 7, wherein the media program communicated to the processor unit is assigned to the individual by a healthcare provider using the interface unit.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the media program is assigned based upon a condition or disease being managed by the individual.

13. The system according to claim 7, wherein the individual is a student and the media program communicated to the processor unit is assigned to the student by a teacher using the interface unit.

14. The system according to claim 7, wherein the individual is an employee and the media program communicated to the processor unit is assigned to the employee by an employer using the interface unit.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the media program comprises job training information.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of the one or more media programs is tailored to a particular individual.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein the processor unit is configured to communicate with the server via a wireless network.

18. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an input device configured to communicate one or more responses from the individual to the processor unit.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one communication network comprises a network type or a combination of two or more network types selected from the group consisting of wireless networks, cellular networks, telephone networks, satellite networks, broadcast networks, digital broadcast networks, digital television networks and cable networks.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more media programs comprise one or more elements selected from the group consisting of photos, videos, animation, static web pages and interactive web pages.

21. A method for distributing media programs, comprising the steps of:

(A) storing one or more media programs in a non-transitory computer readable medium accessible by one or more servers, wherein said one or more servers are configured to communicate with one or more remotely located processor units via at least one communication network;

(B) associating one or more pointers to said one or more media programs stored in said non-transitory computer readable medium with one or more identification codes received from an individual, wherein said one or more identification codes are used to direct said one or more media programs to said individual or a group of individuals; and

(C) programming said processor units with a destination address programmed by a physical prior to said individual receiving one of said processor units, wherein (i) said one or more identification codes and said destination address establish a communication link with a particular server of the one or more servers, (ii) said processor units each store said one or more identification codes and said destination address on said medium, and (iii) said destination address comprises data readable by the one or more processor units to cause the one or more processor units to establish communication with the particular server.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one educational program.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one advertisement related program.

24. The method according to claim 21, wherein the individual plugs one or more data storage cards into a card reader coupled to each of the one or more processor units.

25. The method according to claim 21, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one health related program.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the at least one health related program comprises education material concerning one or more health related topics selected from the group consisting of preventative measures, exercise, diet, lifestyle, health conditions, diseases, health consequences, health monitoring and self-care.

27. The method according to claim 24, wherein each of said one or more data storage cards is packaged with a product.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the step of distributing said one or more data storage cards to one or more individuals comprises selling said product.

29. The method according to claim 27, wherein at least one of said one or more media programs comprises advertisement or educational material related to the product.

30. The method according to claim 27, wherein each of said one or more identification codes comprises a product identification code.

31. The method according to claim 21, wherein each of the one or more media programs comprise one or more elements selected from the group consisting of photos, videos, animation, static web pages and interactive web pages.

32. The method according to claim 24, wherein at least one of said one or more data storage cards comprises a plastic card with a magnetic strip.

33. The method according to claim 24, wherein at least one of said one or more data storage cards comprises a memory circuit.

34. The method according to claim 24, wherein said one or more remotely located processor units are configured to (i) read said one or more data storage cards and (ii) automatically establish a communication link with said server using said destination address.

35. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing computer readable data including:

an identification code received by an individual, wherein said identification code is (i) stored on said non-transitory computer readable medium and (ii) used to direct one or more media programs to a particular individual or group of individuals; and

destination address information for establishing a communication link between a particular server of one or more servers and a processor unit, wherein (a) the one or more servers are remotely situated from the processor unit, (b) the one or more servers are configured to communicate at least one of one or more media programs stored in a computer accessible database to the processor unit via at least one communication network based upon the identification code and said destination address information, (c) the processor unit is configured to access the non-transitory computer readable medium and (d) the processor unit is configured to (i) read from the non-transitory computer readable medium the identification code and destination address information to cause the processor unit to establish the communication link with the particular server, (ii) present the at least one of the one or more media programs received from the server to an individual and (iii) communicate one or more responses received from the individual to the server via the at least one communication network.

36. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one educational program.

37. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one advertisement related program.

38. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein the individual plugs the non-transitory computer readable medium into a card reader coupled to the processor unit.

39. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein the one or more media programs comprise at least one health related program.

40. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 39, wherein the at least one health related program comprises education material concerning one or more health related topics selected from the group consisting of preventative measures, exercise, diet, lifestyle, health conditions, diseases, health consequences, health monitoring and self-care.

41. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 35, further containing computer readable data encoding the one or more responses received from the individual, wherein the processor unit is further configured to write the one or more responses received from the individual to the non-transitory computer readable medium.