Patent Application
20070142738
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a hearty rate monitor and more particularly, to a dynamic heart rate monitor, which is made in the form of a necklace, having two electrically conductive rubber vacuum mounts for attaching to the chest to measure the heart rate.
2. Description of the Related Art
The heart rate of a person changes significantly before and after exercise. It is important to monitor the change of heart rate during exercise. In order to obtain the maximum benefit from exercise, the pulse of the heart must be kept at about 60% of the maximum pulse rate. It is harmful to keep exercising when the heart rate is at the maximum level. Therefore, using a heart rate monitor that can conveniently and accurately measure the heart rate during exercise is important.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,247 discloses an electrode belt of heart rate monitor. According to this design, the electrode belt comprises an electronic device 70 for measuring the heart rate on the chest, and a belt 71 for securing the electronic device 70 to the chest. The measured signal is then transmitted from the electronic device 70 to a receiver 80 that is fastened to the user's wrist.
This design still has numerous drawbacks as follows:
1. Because electronic device 70 is secured to the user's chest by the belt 71, the binding pressure of the belt 71 causes the user to feel uncomfortable and difficult to breathe during exercise.
2. Because a male has a big breast profile, it is difficult to keep the electronic device 70 in close contact with the chest to measure the heart rate accurately, resulting in a low accuracy.
3. When performing a running exercise, the user's hands are alternatively moved forwards and backwards, resulting in an error in the signal transmitted by the electronic device 70 and received by the receiver 80.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. According to one aspect of the present invention, the dynamic heart rate monitor comprises a neckband carrying a first electrode set for disposing on the skin of the user's neck corresponding to the artery at the neck, and a second electrode set formed of two electrically conductive rubber vacuum mounts for adhering to the left and right sides of the user's chest to measure the user's heart rate comfortably.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the two electrically conductive rubber vacuum mounts can be conveniently positively adhered to the left and right sides of a female user's chest to accurately measure the female user's heart rate.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the first electrode set and the second electrode set of the dynamic heart rate monitor measure the variation of the voltage frequency induced subject to the user's heart rate during exercise, enabling the variation of the voltage frequency to be further calculated into a heart rate data signal for output through a LCD.
Referring to
The neckband 10 is a smoothly arched band made of elastic or resilient material and can be clamped on the user's neck comfortably without giving much pressure to the user's neck.
The first electrode set 20 is made out of a conducting rubber or in the form of a conducting pad and mounted in the neck band 10 and curved smoothly outwards from the inner side of the neckband 10 for disposing on the skin of the user's neck closely;
The heart rate recording and display unit 30, as shown in
The first pair of electric wires 40 are respectively electrically coupled to the first electrode 20 and respectively extending out of the two distal ends of the neckband 10 and then respectively electrically coupled to the heart rate recording and display unit 30. As shown in
Because the heart rate recording and display unit 20 has a size as small as a pendent or mini MP3 player, it can be inserted into the pocket in front of the chest or kept inside the clothes during exercise.
The second electrode set 50 comprises left and right electrically conductive rubber vacuum mounts 51. The left and right electrically conductive rubber vacuum mounts 51 are made out of a conducting rubber for the advantages of good electrical conductivity and skin friendly characteristic. The left and right electrically conductive rubber vacuum mounts 51 of the second electrode set 50 can easily be adhered to the left and right sides of the user's chest without a binding belt. To a female user, the second electrode set 50 can accurately be adhered to the chest to detect the heart rate accurately.
Referring to
Referring to
Further, the detected heart rate data that is stored in the CPU 332 can be transmitted to an external PC (Personal Computer) through the USB connector 34 for physical condition analysis by a computer software in the external PC.
As stated above, the invention provides a dynamic heart rate monitor, which uses two electrode sets 20 and 50 to detect the user's heart rate, a neckband 10 to hang the dynamic heart rate monitor on the user's neck. The use of the dynamic heart rate monitor does not interfere with the user's breathing action. The first and second pairs of electric wires 40 and 60 are adapted to transmit the detected heart rate signal to the heart rate recording and display unit 30 for display. Further, the heart rate record can be transmitted to an external computer through the IUSB connector 34 for storage and further physical condition analysis.
A prototype of dynamic heart rate monitor has been constructed with the features of FIGS. 2˜5. The dynamic heart rate monitor functions smoothly to provide all of the features discussed earlier.
Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.
