The subject invention relates to a monitoring system able to monitor and record a person's vital signs such as respiration, heart rate, and the like.
Various systems are known which monitor a person's heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, location and the like. For ambulatory-type systems, a portable unit may be used to wirelessly transmit the various sensor signals to a base station computer for processing, display, and storage.
For sport, outdoor, and military applications especially, the portable unit must be waterproof and removable from the shirt or garment carrying the sensors in order to wash the shirt or garment. The electrical connections between the sensors and the portable unit must be robust. And yet, no system will be commercially viable if numerous manual labor steps are required increasing manufacturing costs. The portable unit must be small, remain electrically connected to the sensors while in use, and not interfere with the activity being carried out by the user.
Several wearable physiological monitoring systems have been proposed. They typically include one or more sensors (e.g., a respiration sensor, a heart rate sensor, an accelerometer, and the like). Using a transmitter, the sensed data is transmitted to a base/readout unit. Some prior art references disclose a sensor subsystem with a transmitter apparently hard wired to the sensors. See, e.g., U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0240087 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,471, incorporated herein by this reference.
Other prior art references disclose a stand alone sensor/transmitter unit carried by the user. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,092,846. Such systems cannot sense respiration, heart rate, and the like. The Apple+Nike product, now on the market, is similar.
For sports, military, and other applications where the sensor subsystem is integrated into a shirt or other garment, the garment is typically washed between uses. Also, when worn, it is important that nothing interfere with the user's comfort. Some physiological monitoring systems are not comfortable to wear; others are difficult to use.
Some require preparation prior to and/or after donning the garment. Some include discrete wires which must be routed and/or connected each time the garment is worn. Some include electrodes which must be secured to the person's body and/or must be used in connection with a conductive gel. Some physiological monitoring garments are simply not aesthetically pleasing. Others interfere with the activities of and duties carried out by the wearer.
In some physiological monitoring systems, a portable transmitting unit is mechanically and electronically connected to a sensor band worn by the user. The portable transmitting unit is thus on the person's chest. Typically, to keep the portable transmitting unit containing a transmitter small, both the power available to operate the transmitter and the range of the transmitter are somewhat limited. It has been discovered by the applicant, for example, that a player on a field, when he turns his back to the base/readout unit, blocks the RF signal from the transmitter of the portable transmitting unit. Thus, in some sports and in other applications, physiological data from players is only intermittently received.
In other applications, the portable transmitting unit is simply not powerful enough to transmit physiological data to a base/readout unit because the person wearing the portable transmitting unit is too far away from the base/readout unit. Examples include soldiers on a battlefield and/or first responders working at a site.
In accordance with one aspect of the subject invention, a new physiological monitoring system is provided which better assures physiological data is received by the base/readout unit or station of the system.
The subject invention features a physiological monitoring system comprising a sensor subsystem worn by a person including at least on physiological sensor, a dock associated with the sensor subsystem including a first connector component electrically connected to the physiological sensor, and a portable transmitting unit received by the dock including a transmitter and a connector component removeably mateable with the dock connector component to route physiological data to the transmitter.
A base station receives and displays physiological data. At least one portable relay unit is provided and includes a receiver for receiving physiological data from the portable transmitting unit, a transmitter for relaying physiological data to the base station, an antenna subsystem for the receiver and transmitter, and a portable power source for the receiver and transmitter. The relay unit is preferably configured to optimize the coverage of a field of play. For example, portable relay includes a linear vertical array of circularly polarized radiators producing an antenna pattern which is ideal for covering a field of play, e.g., a pattern wide in azimuth and narrow in elevation.
The antenna subsystem typically includes a transmitting antenna assembly rotatably disposed with respect to receiving antenna assembly. The receiving antenna assembly may include a phased array of circularly polarized radiators.
One version of a sensor subsystem includes a flexible band integrated with a shirt, the band including at least one conductor extending between the sensor and the dock. The band typically includes at least two additional conductors configured for sensing respiration. The dock may include an accelerometer.
In one design, the dock includes a receptacle with a printed circuit board associated including the dock connector component, and a cover over the printed circuit board. A housing receives the receptacle therein. The housing may have a concave shape and can include a tongue member and side rails upstanding therefrom receiving the portable transmitting unit therebetween. Preferably the rails curve inwardly over the tongue member.
The portable transmitting unit may include a latch mechanism releasably engaging the portable transmitting unit in the housing. The receptacle can be sewn and/or glued to the flexible band. The portable transmitting unit may further include a printed circuit board, a battery, and an antenna.
A physiological monitoring system in accordance with the invention may include a physiological sensor subsystem worn by a person including at least one physiological sensor and a portable transmitting unit configured to transmit physiological data. At least one portable relay unit includes a receiving antenna assembly connected to a receiver for receiving physiological data from the portable transmitting unit, a transmitting antenna assembly rotatably disposed with respect to the receiving antenna assembly, and a transmitter responsive to the receiver and connected to the transmitting antenna assembly for relaying physiological data from the portable transmitting unit to a base station or other portable relaying unit. The portable relay unit preferably includes a portable power source for the receiver and transmitter.
In one version, the sensor subsystem includes a flexible band integrated with a shirt. The band includes at least one conductor extending between the sensor and a dock on the band. Typically the band includes at least two additional conductors configured for sensing respiration.
The subject invention, however, in other embodiments, need not achieve all these objectives and the claims hereof should not be limited to structures or methods capable of achieving these objectives.
Other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of a preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings, in which:
Aside from the preferred embodiment or embodiments disclosed below, this invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Thus, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. If only one embodiment is described herein, the claims hereof are not to be limited to that embodiment. Moreover, the claims hereof are not to be read restrictively unless there is clear and convincing evidence manifesting a certain exclusion, restriction, or disclaimer.
As noted in the background section above, if player 5′ has his back to base station 9, his portable transmitting unit may not be able to transmit physiological data to base station 9 since his body blocks such transmissions. Typically, due to a small size which is desirable in ambulatory-type systems, the transmitter of the portable transmitting unit is not very powerful. The result is that physiological data is not received when athletes turn their back to base station 9 during the course of a practice of a game.
In accordance with one feature of the subject invention, portable relay unit 10a,
Electrically interconnected radiators 16 are preferably stacked patch antennas each on a ground plane forming a phased array of circularly polarized elements to provide consistent reception from the players portable transmitting units without polarization fade (when, for example, a player is on the ground). Patch radiators in a vertical linear phased array form a hemispherical radiation pattern in azimuth, and a narrow (high gain) pattern in elevation to cover a field of play end to end. Two such arrays may be disposed at opposite sides of corners of a field to help eliminate signal loss due to blockage form the player's body.
In one specific example, portable relay unit 10′,
A new physiological monitoring system in accordance with the subject invention features, in one example, a garment (e.g., a shirt) 30,
Portable transmitting unit 38, removeably received in dock 39, includes connector 36b which mates with connector 36a of dock 39 to receive the signals transmitted by the conductors in band 32 and the signals from accelerometer 48. Connector 36b may include pogo pins, for example, which mate with the conductive pads of connector 36a when portable transmitting unit 38 is located in dock 39. Portable transmitting unit 38 is configured to wirelessly transmit signals via transmitter 40 and antenna 42 to a base unit or the like. Performance data can be stored in memory 47 for later transmission. Portable transmitting unit 38 is typically small, has a low profile, and is removed from the garment so that the garment can be washed. Portable transmitting unit 38 also typically includes power supply 44 providing power to transmitter 40 and controlling electronics 46 which receives and processes signals from connector 36b and controls transmitter 40 accordingly. Other signal processing components such as A/D converters, signal processing circuitry, and the like are not shown in
An easily washable shirt 30,
Note the lack of any loose wires inside or outside the shirt. Other than the electrodes, and/or any sensors or an optional cover, only shirt material touches the wearer's skin. Except for electronics module 38,
Stretchable band 32 is shown alone in
An electronics module includes a circuit which detects changes in, for example, capacitance as the adjacent nested circumferential conductors move away from and towards each other as stretchable band 32,
Other conductor pairs can also be used for sensing respiration but typically at least a few conductors are reserved for signal transmission from sensors such as the ECG electrodes to an electronics module and possibly between the electronics module and these and other sensors or processing units which may be included on or electrically connected to the band.
Dock 39 can be attached at any location on the garment and stretchable bands are used to electrically connect dock 39 to sensors located elsewhere on the garment and/or to a respiration sensing band as disclosed above. Cover 86 may be sealed (e.g., ultrasonically welded) to board 84. Fasteners 83 secure cover 86 to housing 88 via bosses (e.g., boss 85) in cover 86.
Housing 88 is attached (e.g., sewn and/or glued) to shirt 30,
In this preferred example, housing 88 includes tongue member 90,
When portable transmitting unit 38 is in housing 88, the combination is typically no larger than 4 inches wide, 8 inches long, and 3 inches high. A prototype unit measured 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 0.6 inches high. As shown in both
O-ring seal 98,
Although specific features of the invention are shown in some drawings and not in others, however, this is for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the invention. The words “including”, “comprising”, “having”, and “with” as used herein are to be interpreted broadly and comprehensively and are not limited to any physical interconnection. Moreover, any embodiments disclosed in the subject application are not to be taken as the only possible embodiments.
In addition, any amendment presented during the prosecution of the patent application for this patent is not a disclaimer of any claim element presented in the application as filed: those skilled in the art cannot reasonably be expected to draft a claim that would literally encompass all possible equivalents, many equivalents will be unforeseeable at the time of the amendment and are beyond a fair interpretation of what is to be surrendered (if anything), the rationale underlying the amendment may bear no more than a tangential relation to many equivalents, and/or there are many other reasons the applicant can not be expected to describe certain insubstantial substitutes for any claim element amended.
Other embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art and are within the following claims.
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/807,449, filed on May 29, 2007 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/922,336, filed Aug. 20, 2004, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.