Autonomous fall monitor using an altimeter with opposed sensing ports
Inventors
RICHARDSON, Neal T. • PARKER, JR., B. Eugene • Gressick, William T.
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Assignees
MemberBarron AssociatesBarron AssociatesBarron Associates is a research and development company serving aerospace, defense, and healthcare applications. It develops technologies for sensing, modeling, predicting, and controlling complex systems, including control software, simulations, biomedical devices, and monitoring systems.
Barron Associates is a research and development company serving aerospace, defense, and healthcare applications. It develops technologies for sensing, modeling, predicting, and controlling complex systems, including control software, simulations, biomedical devices, and monitoring systems.
Publication Number
US-9704369-B2
Publication Date
2017-07-11
Expiration Date
Abstract
A system, a method and an apparatus for autonomous monitoring, detecting and tracking of at least one of movement and orientation of a body or portion of a body. The apparatus comprises a device configured to monitor the translational movement and/or rotational movement of the body; and an altimeter including at least one pair of opposed high sensitivity sensors configured to measure changes in height of the body. An alert condition is determined based on the translational and/or rotational movement of the body and changes in height of the body or portion of the body. The alert condition may comprise a hard fall event, a soft fall event, a susceptibility to a fall, or a near fall event.
Core Innovation
The invention provides a communicator for autonomous monitoring, detecting and tracking of movement and orientation of a wearer's body or portion of a wearer's body. The communicator monitors at least one of a translational movement and a rotational movement of the wearer's body and includes an altimeter configured to measure changes in elevation of the wearer's body. The altimeter includes at least one pair of high sensitivity sensors having opposed sensing ports arranged to cancel inertial forces sensed by the opposed sensing ports and reduce an effect of sensor noise.
The communicator stores data for synchronous communication to a transceiver, where the data includes at least one of date data, time data, location data, biometric measurement data and alert condition data. An alert condition is determined based on at least one of the translational movement, the rotational movement, and changes in elevation of the wearer's body or portion of the wearer's body. The alert condition comprises at least one of a hard fall event, a soft fall event, a susceptibility to a fall, and a near fall event.
A device aspect of the invention includes a transceiver unit configured to receive alert status data from the communicator. The device also stores data for synchronous communication to the transceiver unit and stores recipient information associated with the communicator. Based on the alert status data, the transceiver unit notifies one or more recipients using the alert status data comprising at least one of a hard fall event, a soft fall event, a susceptibility to a fall, and a near fall event.
Claims Coverage
The partial content identifies three independent claims, covering a communicator with motion/orientation monitoring plus an altimeter with opposed sensing ports, a monitoring device with a transceiver that receives alert status data and notifies recipients, and a method for autonomous monitoring that averages opposed-sensor data to cancel inertial forces and then determines an alert event.
Communicator for autonomous monitoring with opposed-port altimeter and fall alert conditions
A communicator configured to monitor translational movement and rotational movement and includes an altimeter having at least one pair of high sensitivity sensors with opposed sensing ports to measure changes in elevation, cancel inertial forces, and reduce an effect of sensor noise, with storage for synchronous communication data and an alert condition determined from motion and elevation changes, where the alert condition comprises hard fall, soft fall, susceptibility to a fall, and near fall events.
Transceiver unit for autonomous monitoring and notification based on alert status data
A device including a transceiver unit configured for autonomous monitoring and detecting/tracking of orientation movement, translational movement and rotational movement using a pair of high sensitivity sensors with opposed sensing ports to measure changes in elevation and cancel inertial force effects and reduce sensor noise, where the transceiver receives alert status data from a communicator, stores synchronous communication data and recipient information, and notifies one or more recipients based on alert status data including hard fall, soft fall, susceptibility to a fall, and near fall events.
Method using opposed-sensor averaging to cancel inertial forces for elevation-based alert events
A method that monitors at least one of translational movement and rotational movement, arranges at least one pair of high sensitivity sensors with opposed sensor ports configured to measure changes in elevation, averages out sensed data recorded by the opposed sensor ports to cancel inertial forces, measures change in elevation using the averaged out sensed data, stores other data for synchronous communication to a transceiver, and determines an alert event from translational movement, rotational movement, and change in elevation where the alert event comprises hard fall, soft fall, susceptibility to a fall, and near fall events.
Across the independent claims, the core coverage is the combination of translational/rotational movement monitoring with an altimeter using opposed high sensitivity sensors that cancel inertial forces and reduce sensor noise, followed by determination of an alert condition or alert event for hard fall, soft fall, susceptibility to a fall, and near fall events, and in the device embodiment, notification to one or more recipients based on alert status data.
Stated Advantages
Cancel inertial forces sensed by the opposed sensing ports.
Reduce an effect of sensor noise.
Documented Applications
No documented applications found
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