Patent Application
20070028370
Today NASCAR and other sanctioning bodies that sanction auto racing are improving racing safety by integrating new technologies in to the sport. Racing sanctions are beginning to mandate the use of the HANS and Hutchins head restraining devices. New soft walls are being installed at tracks across the country. Racecar frames are now being designed and constructed with built in crush zones to help absorb accident impacts. But the underlying theme is that despite the precautions taken, the sport will always have accidents resulting in minor and fatal injuries.
When an accident occurs on the track the safety crew responds as quickly as possible. They have to either run to the scene of the accident or jump on the safety vehicle. This transition time could take anywhere between thirty seconds to several minutes depending on the size of the track and the location of the accident. Every second is crucial to the driver's well being.
Once the safety crew arrives at the scene they are presented with a mess of mangled race cars. They travel from car to car checking on the condition of the driver in each car. Most accidents involve several cars, but others are upwards of ten to twenty cars creating a large lapse of time till they get to a driver that is seriously injured. To add to the hysteria the safety officials have no clue pertaining to the state of the driver. In some scenarios the driver might be knocked unconscious posing many dilemmas. If the driver is knocked out and unable to communicate with safety officials, improper handling of the driver might substantially increase his injuries. In a lot of horrendous wrecks, the drivers need to be cut out of the car. If a driver cannot respond to the safety crew's questions, the safety crew needs to proceed with caution in removing the driver from the car. There is an answer to these issues. The answer provided by the inventor of the system presented herein is to give the safety crew the ability to know the driver's condition before the safety crew arrives at the accident scene.
The invention presented here is a system that includes hardware and a remote triage protocol for protecting the driver in a car racing accident. The system is supposed to be universal for all forms of racing. This invention pertains to automobile racing and is directed to safety concerns for a driver and elements that allow a safety crew to assist a driver in the event of an accident. One element of the system is a safety helmet to be worn by safety crew members. Another element is Nomex brand fiber underwear that the drivers wear that will monitor their vital signs. Data sensing wire will be woven into the Nomex underwear along with a flexible CPU chip. This data is then received by two sectors, the driver's crew will be able to monitor their driver throughout a race and so will the safety crew. The safety crew members will be wearing a helmet that uses a virtual retinal display system. The virtual retinal display (VRD) is basically a display that gets projected onto a persons eye at a very high resolution. It does not damage the eye in anyway. The system is light and uses hardly any battery power. The VRD is integrated into the helmet along with communications to “Race Control.”
If a driver is badly injured the Nomex underwear will recognize his severe injuries and instantly call a helicopter or other resource if needed and also send his vital signs in real time to the hospital up to the very minute he gets to the hospitals emergency room.
In a typical scenario an accident involving several cars occurs. The drivers involved will have all their vital signs transmitted to all the safety crew. This vital sign data can come in various forms. The driver's health status will be transmitted to the visual retinal display in a green color, meaning the driver is OK, a yellow color, meaning the driver needs help, or in red, meaning that there is danger. The color is displayed on a symbol over the driver's car. This will allow the safety crew to know who's car to go to first and the instant knowledge of the driver's condition.
It is an object of this invention to provide a system for increasing the personal safety of motor sports competition drivers and motor sports rescue personnel. This is done by implementing the systems and apparatus as set forth in provisional patent application 60/676,2226.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a triage system for the benefit of race car drivers.
It is also an object to provide a helmet that can be worn by safety crews that includes a visual retinal display and communication capabilities.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an artide of clothing that can be worn by a driver that can sense the driver's vital signs and transmit that data.
Another object of the invention is to allow safety crews approaching an accident to determine the status of the drivers involved in the accident.
Another object of the invention is to provide a racing accident integration system to be used by a safety crew and a race driver that comprises a helmet for the safety crew, the helmet having a communication system including a microphone and a virtual retinal display and a driver's suit for the driver. The driver's suit has a vital signs monitor and a communication link to allow communication between the driver's suit and the helmet of the safety crew.
It is another object to provide a virtual retinal display on the safety crew helmets worn by safety crew members that can display vital signs information sent from the driver's suit.
Another object is to provide a communication link to receive life monitoring system information as data transmitted from a driver's suit. This communications link unit can be a remote receiver that will receive information from the driver's suit and process the information.
One further object is to provide a communications link unit that includes an interface informing the safety crew of each of the drivers' condition after an accident and prioritizing the order of attending to a driver based on the severity of each driver's injuries.
Another object is to provide a switch to control the virtual retinal display. When switched this switch allows the virtual retinal display to switch from an initial display panel showing car numbers of cars involved in an accident to a panel showing the vital signs, or the medical history of a driver, of a car involved in the accident.
One further object is to provide a driver's suit comprising fabric that includes sensors sensing biometric information. Further, the sensors may be connected by optical fibers to a multi-function processor.
The inventor contemplates that his invention includes all systems and methods that can be practiced from all suitable combinations of the various aspects of the invention, as well as those disclosed in the detailed description below and particularly pointed out in the claims. Such combinations have particular advantages not specifically recited in the above summary.
The aspects and applications of the invention presented here are described below in the drawings and detailed specification. Unless specifically noted, it is intended that the words and phrases in the specification and the claims be given the plain, ordinary and accustomed meaning to those of ordinary skill in the applicable arts. The inventors are fully aware that they can be their own lexicographers if desired. The inventors expressly elect, as their own lexicographers, to use only the plain and ordinary meaning of terms in the specification and claims unless they clearly state otherwise and then further, expressly set forth the “special” definition from that term and explain how it differs from the plain and ordinary meaning. Absent such clear statements of intent to apply a “special” definition, it is the inventors' intent and desire that the simple, plain and ordinary meaning to the terms be applied to the interpretation of the specification and claims.
The inventors are also aware of the normal precepts of English grammar. Thus, if a noun, term or phrase is intended to be further characterized or specified, or narrowed in some way, then such noun, term or phrase will expressly include additional adjectives, descriptive terms or other modifiers in accordance with the normal precepts of English grammar. Absent the use of such adjectives, descriptive terms or modifiers, it is the intent that the such nouns, terms or phrases be given their plain and ordinary English meaning to those skilled in the applicable arts as set forth above.
Likewise, the use of the words “function,” “means,” or “step” in the specification or claims is not intended to indicate a desire to invoke the special provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, Paragraph 6, to define the invention. To the contrary, if the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, Paragraph 6 are sought to be invoked to define the inventions, the claims will specifically state the phrases “means for” or “step for” and a function, without also reciting in such phrases any structure, material or act in support of the function. Even when the claims recite a “means for” or “step for” performing a function, if they also recite any structure, material or acts in support of that means or step, then the intention is not to invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, Paragraph 6. Moreover, even if the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, Paragraph 6 are invoked to define the inventions, it is intended that the inventions not be limited only to the specific structure, material or acts that are described in the preferred embodiments, but in addition, include any and all structures, materials or acts that perform the claimed function, along with any and all known or later-developed equivalent structures, material or acts for performing the claimed function.
The inventors of the devices, systems and methods presented herein have compiled a document containing numerous nuances of the invention presented herein. The document details the invention, the background of the invention, some of the art known at the time this invention was made and the sources of some of the products that are integrated into the apparatus, systems and methods of this invention. This undated document or compilation is titled “R.A.I.S. Racing Accident Integration System” and the authors are Jarrett Seng and Blair Sonnen. This compilation of information is herein incorporated by reference into this application and specification related to the invention.
The invention disclosed is a motor sports competition driver protection and rescue system. It includes driver specific apparatus, such as driver head restraint systems, driver helmet systems, driver environmental equipment, driver life signs data communication systems, as well as other nuances related to driver safety, driver biomedical data acquisition and tracking. The system also includes event crew, support staff, including doctor and hospital communication links, and rescue personnel hardware and communication systems that assist rescue personnel in giving a high level of medical attention, and rescue support to a driver, a plurality of drivers or personnel involved in a situation and real time triage and priority assignments to a large group of diverse rescue personnel that need to work together in order to supply the best support to drivers, spectators, other rescue workers, and team members that may be involved in a situation.
The invention is set forth in the following description and drawings in which:
A summary of the areas addressed by this invention include, but are not limited to the apparatus shown in the illustrations included in this specification which are primarily directed to: personal environmental status sensing fabrics incorporated into temperature and humidity stabilizing clothing that is worn by drivers and rescue personnel to first provide a medium that can sense certain body functions and status as well as temper the effects of heat intrusion on a wearer's body; a safety crew personal communication and environmental protection head gear including visual and audio input and output capability receiving communications from a processing center, receiving a driver's personal biometric information, receiving vehicle identification data, data and communication from other safety crew personnel, triage directors, transport crews, hospitals, doctors and medical evacuation professionals and the like.
Various elements that will be useful in carrying out the object of the invention will be described below.
In one embodiment of the invention the invention includes a racing suit, see
In the event of an accident, data will be relayed in real-time to a supplied device which is carried by the team and the crew, instantaneously displaying urgent information. The suit and helmet with incorporate sensors at vital points in the body. Research has shown that the brain, neck/spinal cord, wrists, heart, lungs, femurs, knees and ankles are the most commonly affected in a car accident of any sorts.
The inventor's research into safety crews took an in-depth look at several aspects of their work. The first of those being what they wear. Findings laid down some basic criteria of what the data transfer device should be. Basic criteria such as the fact that they wore heavy leather gloves told the inventor that if it's a hand held device the buttons need to be large and accessible.
In doing the research a quote was found that greatly influenced the design, “many people die because emergency service personnel cannot reach then in time to carry out life saving procedures.” Thus it is apparent that safety crews need to know who to go to first so they can get there in time and that they need to be supplied with the proper information to make crucial life saving decisions on the spot. The safety crews order of operations, as shown in
Safety crews have no prior knowledge of a driver's condition when they are approaching the accident scene. In some instances the driver may be knocked unconscious and unable to communicate with the safety crew. The solution to this problem is provided by a wearable vital signs monitoring system from Lifeguard System; NASA Ames Astrobionics. This device monitors the following signs: ECG, respiration, activity skin temperature, heart rate, pulse oximetry, and diastolic and systolic blood pressure. The wearable device acquires and logs these physiological parameters and can download or stream the information in real time to a base station PC on demand.
One implementation of safety crew data transfer using the Lifeguard CPOD system is provided in the scenario wherein the driver is equipped with a Lifeguard vital signs system sewn to his NOMEX underwear. An accident occurs. The driver's vital signs are sent in real time to the safety crew and the crew chief. The driver's vitals are also transmitted to a hospital. On the drivers arrival at the hospital the hospital has immediate knowledge of the incoming patient's status and history. At this point remote triage system is enabled.
Another way to monitor driver vitals is by using smart underwear. Generally smart underwear is known. Sensatex has developed a groundbreaking Interconnection Technology that allows sensing, monitoring and information processing devices to be networked together in a fabric. See
Turning to
A chin strap 121 will serve as part of the retention system. It may be a nylon strap covered in cotton that is breathable for comfort. Alternatively, it can be a chin strap that is lined with Nomex.
The noise canceling boom microphone may be moveable mounted on the helmet to make it easier to talk to a driver, that is, the boom mike can be swung out of the way to talk to the driver. The boom could alternatively be a flexible urethane boom so the user can move it out of the way in need be. In an alternative embodiment the boom mike 118 can be rigidly mounted and thus afford some protection to the face of the helmet wearer.
It is expected that the helmet may have a microphone to record outside ambient sound. Ambient noise is handled by use of a noise canceling microphone which may be mounted in two positions, one in the front such as 144 and one in the back of the helmet in a location near location 146, underneath the outer shell of the safety helmet. It then records ambient noise and directs it to the headset. The microphone specifically cancels out race car engine noise. This allows the safety crew to communicate with the driver at the accident scene. Previously, the safety crew took their helmet off when they got to the accident scene so they could hear the drivers. It will also have interior communications capability. Interior communications may include built in hearing protection cups and a intercom headset.
The driver will be provided with apparel that can sense and transmit biometric information to the safety crew's helmets. As shown in
The driver's suit 148 in
In an alternative embodiment to the Smart Underwear alternative, a Lifeguard CPOD system may be used to collect vital signs from the driver. The driver will have a Lifeguard CPOD sewn to his Nomex underwear. This wearable vital signs monitoring system monitors: ECG, respiration, activity, skin temperature, heart rate, pulse oximetry and diastolic and systolic blood pressure. The wearable device acquires and logs these parameters and can download or stream in real time to a base station PC on demand.
At this point the safety crew helmet with communication capabilities and the drivers apparel also with communication capabilities and vital sign monitoring equipment has been discussed. Following is a description of how the safety crew and the driver will work together for the safety of the driver.
Turning now to
In
With the racing accident integration system, shown generally as the list of acts generally 156 of
In a typical accident response the safety crews will see, in their VRDs, a scene where the actual cars that are involved in the accident will be shown.
The interface panel 160 on the left in the screen has the car numbers in order according to who needs to be attended to first. Stylized NASCAR numbers are used as the safety crew could recognize those easier than regular numbers.
When the safety crew reaches the cockpit of a car, they will hit the rocker switch of the VRD to scroll to the next interface, this being interface 162 shown in
After seeing the driver's basic condition, the safety crew can hit the VRD rocker switch again to bring up the driver's medical history 164. The feature bar, shown as item 164 in
With this information at hand the safety crew can quickly and properly extract the driver without further injuring him, have medevac on site and ready and waiting for transport to the emergency room, and lastly, a prepared emergency room for incoming patients.
Returning to
While the invention has been described with respect to the embodiments set forth above, the invention is not necessarily limited to those embodiments. Accordingly, other embodiments, variations and improvements not described herein are not necessarily excluded from the scope of the invention, which is defined by the following claims.
This application claims priority from Provisional Application No. 60/676,226, filed Apr. 29, 2005, herein incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60676226 | Apr 2005 | US |
