Patent Application
20060270956
This invention relates to a medical appliance, more specifically, to an opto-mechatronic acupressure pen capable of achieving non-intrusive stimulation for therapeutic treatments without piecing the skin.
Acupuncture points have been well known in China from earliest times and most of them are held to correspond to specific organs and area of the body. Acupuncturists work by inserting needles of varying lengths at these points. When particular acupuncture points are stimulated, the corresponding areas being treated respond to the stimulation. Each acupuncture point occupies only a very small area, approximately half of a square millimeter on the skin surface. An acupuncture point is highly sensitive and the feeling elicited in respond to pressure is quite different from the surrounding tissues. The acupuncturist will, of course, insert his or her needle in such points but non-invasively pressing on the point can be almost as effective. After application of a therapeutic quantity of pressure to a particular acupuncture point of patients that suffer from a wide range of illnesses, including asthma, low-back pain, fatigue, weight reduction and so on, the length of time for which relief lasts will vary from patient to patient from a few minutes to several hours, or even days, but the effectiveness of the point will not diminish through use and the same result will be obtained time and time again.
Thus, it has become important to be able to deliver an accurately known pressure to a particular point upon the skin of the body in order to effect relief of pain and other symptoms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,264 discloses a device for applying a therapeutic amount of pressure to the skin and underlying tissue. This device includes a pressure sensor for measuring the pressure on the patient's skin and underlying tissue. A digital controller monitors the pressure exerted on the skin and the elapsed time period during which the skin has been exposed to the measured pressure. When the pressure reaches a preset level, a timer starts. When the combination of pressure and elapsed time reaches a previously determined level, this is indicated by a digital readout device which converting the electrical signal into a visual display of the magnitude of the applied pressure.
The acupressure device mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,264 uses force sensor to detect the applied force. However, the product that utilizes force sensors may be expensive and hazardous. On the other hand, the readout device of the acupressure device mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,264 is separated from the acupressure pen and connected to the acupressure pen by means of electrical wires. This makes the device to be large in size and inconvenient for operating and carrying.
In view of the forgoing, the main object of this invention is to provide an acupressure pen for applying a therapeutic amount of pressure to the skin and underlying tissue, which can deliver a precise and repeatable therapeutic pressure non-invasively, and should be compact in size for easy operating and carrying.
For achieving above object, this invention provides an acupuncture pen, which comprises: casing; a blunt tip, provided at the front end of the casing moveably; a sensing unit, provided in the casing for detecting the movement of the tip; an A/D converter, provided in the casing for converting the analog signal from the sensing unit into digital signal; a microcontroller, provided in the casing for receiving the digital signal from the A/D converter, and calculating the force blunt tip applied on the skin on the basis of the received digital signal; and a digital display, provided in the wall of the casing, and electrically connected with the microcontroller for indicating the calculated force.
The sensing unit further comprises: a spring, a pair of infrared sensor, and a reflective mirror. The spring is disposed between the tip and the casing and will be compressed by the force applied on said tip, that is to say, one end of the spring contact with the tip, and the other end of the spring is against the casing. The pair of infrared sensors, which is consisted of an IR transmitter and an IR receiver, disposed fixedly in the casing oppositely to the tip. The reflective mirror is connected to the tip, and can move along with the longitude direction of the acupuncture pen together with the tip. The distance between the pair of IR sensor and the reflective mirror will alter depending on the force applied on said tip. The light emitted from IR transmitter will be received by the IR receiver after being reflected by the reflective mirror, and the intensity of the received infrared light will increase as the distance becomes less. The IR receiver output voltage signal as the analog signal of the sensing unit, which indicates the distance between the pair of IR sensor and the reflective mirror, to the A/D converter.
The invention combines the ancient knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine with a sophisticated opto-mechatronic circuit, and makes use of a non-contact technique, i.e., infrared technique, to convert displacement data into a series of force signals. Therefore, it is convenient to use with the aid of the digital display of the applied force.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed explanation of the embodiment of this invention with refer to the attached drawings.
A preferred embodiment of the acupuncture pen of this invention is shown in
Preferably, all the electrical component of this invention, such as A/D converter 15, microcontroller 16 and the digital display are mounted on a circuit board which is provided in the casing 11. The acupuncture pen of this invention may further comprise: a battery unit 18, provided in the rear portion of the casing 11, for providing power supply to the circuit board; and a buzzer 17, provided in the casing 11 and electrically connected to micro-controller 16. The buzzer 17 will beep if the pressure calculated by the microcontroller 16 exceeds a preset threshold.
The sensing unit 12 of this invention makes use of non-contact infrared technique to detect the displacement of the tip 13, and further comprises: a spring 121, a pair of infrared sensor, and a reflective mirror 124. The spring 121 is disposed between the tip 13 and the casing 11. When the tip 13 is in contact with the skin of the human body, a force is applied by the tip 13 on the skin. On the other hand, the counter force is applied on the tip by the skin, and cause the spring 121 to be compressed. The pair of infrared sensors, which is consisted of an IR transmitter 122 and an IR receiver 123, disposed fixedly opposite to tip 13 in the casing. The reflective mirror 124 is connected to the tip 13 by a rod which passes through the center of the spring 121, and can move along with the longitude direction of the acupuncture pen together with the tip 13. As can be seen from
As can be seen in
Thus, the force applied on the skin can be controlled quantitatively by reading out the digital display.
The digital display 14 can be embodied as a LED, which will be lit when the force reaches a preset threshold, or as a more sophisticated LCD, which can display the digital value of the force in real time mode.
As shown in
The microcontroller 16 further comprises: a storage unit, for storing the various preset parameters, such as the preset force value, preset elapsed time value, the spring constant k, initial distance D′ and so on; a calculation unit, connected with the storage unit, for calculating the force applied on the basis of the received digital signal with reference to the parameters stored in the storage unit; a control unit, for generating control signals for the digital display and the buzzer 17 on the basis of the calculated force and the elapsed time period inputted with reference to the parameters stored in the storage unit in a above-described manner.
In addition, a power switch 19 may be provided on the casing 11 for switching the acupuncture pen 10 on or off, as shown in
In practice, the acupuncture pen of this invention can be equipped with a series of acupuncture tips designed for various acupoints. The acupuncture pen of this invention can also come with a detailed instruction booklet that identifies the location of acupoints in the body for easy reference by the user.
Above explanation to this invention is only illustrative, rather than limitation to the scope of this invention. The acupuncture pen can be embodied in many configurations without departing the spirit of this invention. The scope of this invention will be defined by the claims appended below.
