Patent Application
20210403132
The present invention relates to a personal aquatic safety system. More particularly, the invention relates to devices and methods for monitoring a wearer's vital signs and generating alarms and distress alert signals when the wearer is in distress and integrated flotation device.
Swimming is a widespread and popular aquatic activity enjoyed by people of all ages and at all times of the year. Millions of adults and children use public and private swimming pools and travel to beaches to also enjoy ocean swimming and recreation activities. Competitive swimming introduces young children to early athletic competition opportunities which they can continue through college and even Olympic competition for a select few. The travel and leisure markets are replete with destinations that individuals and families choose to vacation at due to their recreational swimming opportunities whether through exotic swimming pool installations or scenic and natural beaches. Further, thousands of persons enjoy boating, jet skiing, canoeing, kayaking, surfing and other activities that involve using a vessel or other article on a body of water.
Unfortunately, it is also generally known that large numbers of individuals fall victim to death or serious injury due to drowning every year because they suffered an emergency situation in a body of water. Swimming dangers exist in numerous places, for example, swimming pools (public and private), oceans, lakes, rivers and ponds. Indeed, accidental drowning during swimming causes the death of thousands of people each year and occurs among both experienced and inexperienced swimmers. Many factors can contribute to accidental drownings, including inexperience, lack of supervision, fatigue, a sudden medical condition (e.g., seizure, heart attack, hypoglycaemia-low blood sugar, etc.) and hypothermia. Also, drownings may occur due to horseplay, undertaking dangerous stunts, drunkenness or other impairments.
In a number of situations, a rescue may have been possible if the person in distress was observed by another person(s) and an immediate rescue action taken either by an on-site lifeguard or other rescue teams. For example, in many facilities such as public pools, beaches, lakes and the like, trained lifeguards are employed to supervise and prevent drownings or other injuries by saving individuals in distress. Nevertheless, even with lifeguards on duty drownings still occur every year. To be sure, a wide variety of safety devices are marketed to prevent drownings such as life jackets, so-called “floaties”, flotation belts, swimming rings and the like. However, notwithstanding the availability of such safety devices the incidence of drownings remains a systemic issue. Furthermore, it is not always easy to discern whether a swimmer is experiencing trauma, having difficulty swimming or is experience one or more contributing factors to drowning.
SCUBA diving is another aquatic activity enjoyed regularly by thousands of people every year. By its nature, SCUBA diving is inherently substantially more dangerous than regular swimming. Unless very expensive, uncommon SCUBA equipment is used, SCUBA divers cannot communicate with voice, and instead rely on hand and body signals. When a SCUBA diver is in distress, they are often unable to communicate their distress. Experienced SCUBA divers are trained to monitor their fellow divers and notice telltale signs of distress. However, divers are easily separated, Even when fellow divers do notice a diver in distress, it is often very difficult to tell the nature and extent of the distress being experienced. Numerous other aquatic activities, such as kayaking, rafting and fishing often involve partial or total submersion in water and can themselves be dangerous.
Animals, in addition to humans, can be at risk in aquatic situations. For example, older dogs or cats who have lost sight are at risk of inadvertently falling into a backyard pool, pond, or stream. Horses and larger animals crossing rivers may also get carried away and become endangered. Even large inanimate objects may be lost or damaged if they fall into a body of water.
The above-described deficiencies of today's systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with the state of the art and corresponding benefits of some of the various non-limiting embodiments may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide devices and methods that allow for early and accurate detection of physical distress in persons engaged in aquatic activities.
Disclosed is a personal aquatic safety device that includes at least one vital sign monitor, such as a heart rate monitor and an oxygen level monitor, a programmable microcontroller, and at least one alarm device. An alarm deactivation button may be activated to turn off the alarms in the event of a false reading by the vital sign monitors. The device also includes an inflatable flotation device and a wireless transmitter. The microcontroller monitors the wearer's vital signs and actuates an alarm when the wearer's vital signs fall outside predetermined acceptable values. The microcontroller can also actuate a flotation device and a transmitter to send a distress signal transmitter.
The personal aquatic safety device may also include a panic button that, when activated, actuates the flotation device and actuates the transmitter to send a distress signal transmitter. A GPS module may also be included to provide the location of a wearer in distress.
The personal aquatic safety device may be integrated with a flotation device such as an inflatable vest, which may be inflated using a CO2 canister, or optionally a manual blow tube. The personal aquatic safety device may also include a depth gauge and/or a sensor that detects when the aquatic personal safety device is submerged.
The flotation device and wireless distress signal transmitter may be housed within a deployable tracker, that, upon receiving a signal from the microcontroller, detaches from the aquatic safety device, actuates the flotation system, and transmits a wireless distress signal. The deployable tracker may or may not be communicatively connected to the safety device via a cord, and may be integrated into a scuba diving suit.
The personal aquatic safety system disclosed herein works on land and water, and in any type of water, e.g. fresh water, salt water, swimming pools and bathtubs.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system for rapidly detecting when a person in an aquatic situation is experiencing physical distress and to rapidly signal and alarm and alert others of the wearer's distress.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims. There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
A more complete understanding of the present invention, and the attendant advantages and features thereof, will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
The specific devices, processes, systems and methods illustrated in the attached drawings, and described in the following specification, are intended to serve only as exemplary embodiments of the inventive concepts defined in the claims. The invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction or to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description and/or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
The disclosed subject matter is described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various embodiments of the subject disclosure. It may be evident, however, that the disclosed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices may be shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the various embodiments herein. Various embodiments of the disclosure could also include permutations of the various elements recited in the claims as if each dependent claim was a multiple dependent claim incorporating the limitations of each of the preceding dependent claims as well as the independent claims. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, such permutations are expressly within the scope of this disclosure.
Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers expressing quantities of ingredients, dimensions reaction conditions and so forth used in the specification and claims are to be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about”. The term “a” or “an” as used herein means “at least one” unless specified otherwise. In this specification and the claims, the use of the singular includes the plural unless specifically stated otherwise. In addition, use of “or” means “and/or” unless stated otherwise. Moreover, the use of the term “including”, as well as other forms, such as “includes” and “included”, is not limiting. Also, terms such as “element” or “component” encompass both elements and components comprising one unit and elements and components that comprise more than one unit unless specifically stated otherwise. As used herein, the term “alarm” may refer to the alarm itself, or to the physical component that generates the alarm. For example, “audio alarm” may refer to the alarm itself, or to both the audio alarm and the speaker emitting it. “Visual alarm” is often used to refer to the light system that generates the visual alarm, but may also be used to refer to the actual light emitted as an alarm. Actual usage should be clear from the context. “Physiological indicators” refers to parameters used to measure biological activities of living organisms. Non-limiting examples include blood oxygen level, heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, carbon dioxide levels, respiratory rate, EKG, EEG, cerebral oxygen, and arterial blood gas.
For ease of understanding, illustrative examples are used to describe embodiments of the invention. These should not be regarded as limiting. Some examples found herein include references to humans. Throughout the specification the systems, devices and methods of the invention are describe in reference to use with a human. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the described devices and methods are suitable for use with animals and even inanimate objects. The invention may be used with older pets who no longer see well and may accidentally fall into a body of water. Even animals that are not in any way disabled may nonetheless find themselves in distress in a body of water and in need of assistance. Bluetooth® technology is referenced as a form of wireless communication. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many other suitable forms of wireless communication, having different strengths, ranges and qualities. The invention may be used with any suitable, practical form of wireless communication. For example, Bluetooth® may be replaced with wi-fi and wireless routers, radio frequency, other near field technologies, and acoustic technologies. The use ultrasound acoustic signals may be used to send transmissions through the water in place of or in addition to more common wireless technologies.
A personal aquatic safety system as described herein includes one or more monitors for detecting various vital signs or other physiological indicators, such as for example blood oxygen levels, heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, carbon dioxide levels, respiratory rate, EKG, cerebral oxygen, arterial blood gas or other parameters that may be monitored using sensors applied to the body.
The system also includes a microcontroller (i.e. a compact integrated circuit) or other programmable devices store predetermined acceptable parameters for the physiological indicators being monitored. In addition to storing acceptable parameters, the programmable device may also either directly include or be in communication with a GPS module, an accelerometer, a water sensor, a depth gauge, a transmitter, and the physiological indicator monitors (also known as vital sign monitors, and generally referred to as monitors herein).
The system also preferably includes one or more alarms that generate a signal likely to attract attention in the immediate vicinity of the person (or animal or object) such as for example an audio alarm, a visual alarm and/or a haptic alarm. An exemplary audio alarm would be a relatively loud emission from a speaker integrated into the aquatic safety system. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such audio alarms are commonly used in a variety of settings and may emit a single loud tone, or a pattern or range of tones, which may be continuous or consist of several short repeating sequences, or anything in between. An exemplary visual alarm may be one or more bright lights which emit a continuous or flashing pattern. For example, a bright, quickly flashing red light is often used with alarms. A haptic alarm is typically intended to only notify a person in contact with the haptic device. A haptic alarm of the personal aquatic safety system may be used to alert a person who's physiological condition is being monitored that one or more parameters have fallen outside acceptable limits. The system may also include one or more haptic alarms in contact with a different individual.
The system also preferably includes a transmitter for providing wireless communication. Most common wireless communication is facilitated by electromagnetic waves, often within a range of frequencies and/or amplitudes. A transmitter for use with the personal safety system may also send acoustic signals in addition to or in place of electromagnetic signals.
The aquatic safety system also preferably includes a flotation system. The flotation system can be any mechanism for increasing positive buoyancy, thereby lifting objects attached to the flotation system to the surface and/or maintaining the object lifted at the surface of a body of water. The flotation system can be part of a garment. For example, a garment such as a shirt or vest may include one or more inflatable pockets and a means for filling the inflatable pockets. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there area a variety of means for inflating pockets, such as for example a cartridge of carbon dioxide or other gas which can be actuated to transfer the gas from the cartridge to the inflatable pockets. Alternatively a flotations system may include one or more negative buoyancy objects (such as for example one or more weights) that can be released, thereby increasing positive buoyancy. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are additional suitable flotation devices.
The aquatic safety system also may optionally include a deployable tracker. The deployable tracker is a device integrated into the aquatic safety system that can be released, causing it to float to the surface. The deployable tracker can include some or all of the other components of the safety system, for example the GPS module, one or more of the alarms, the microcontroller and the transmitter. Alternatively, the deployable tracker may include its own separate microcontroller, GPS module, and/or transmitter. Once the tracker is deployed, it may remain connected to the safety system by a cord, or be completely disconnected from the other components of the personal aquatic safety system. For a person who cannot immediately rise to the surface, a flotation device that causes the wearer to ascend is not suitable. In addition, the most common forms of wireless communication are only effective through air, not water. The deployable tracker is used to rapidly ascend to the surface in order to transmit a distress signal and emit one or more of the alarms. The deployable tracker may itself be relatively buoyant, or may be integrated with a flotation system, which may or may not be the safety system's flotation system.
When one or more of the physiological indicators measured by the device fall outside a preselected range, the microcontroller performs one or more preselected actions. It may send a distress signal through the wireless transmitter, generate one or more alarms, and/or activate the flotation system.
The personal aquatic safety system may be integrated into one or more garments or other objects to be worn. For example, the entire safety system may be integrated into a shirt, vest, dive suit and/or a device worn on the wrist. Optionally, the system may be integrated into two or more communicatively linked garments and/or devices.
Optionally, the microcontroller may activate the haptic alarm only for a short time period, for example 5 to 20 seconds prior to activating the other components. This notifies the wearer that it has detected a distress situation and is preparing to activate the transmitter, alarms and flotation device. The wearer then has the option to cancel the impending actions. This allows the wearer to prevent alarms and distress signals based on a false reading or for other reasons. The system may also include a “panic button” that allows the wearer to activate the alarms, send a distress signal, and activate the flotation device immediately.
The distress signal transmitted from the safety system may include a variety of important information regarding the wearer. For example the distress signal can include the readings from the various physiological monitors, the location of the person in distress, the amount of time the wearer has been under water, the depth of the wearer, the identity of the wearer, and/or the rate of descent or ascent of the wearer.
The transmitted distress signal may also include instructions to generate an alarm on one or more devices. For example, an application on a mobile or other device may be actuated by the distress signal to generate audio or visual alarms and display the information included in the distress signal.
The personal safety system 100 further comprises a personal flotation device 104 configured to be communicatively coupled, illustratively through wireless communications links 108 using well-known Bluetooth® technology, for example, with the wearable personal safety monitoring device 102. The personal flotation device 104 further comprising (i) front vest area 120 that when worn by a person will be aligned with the person's face area when the person using the personal flotation device 104 pulls the personal flotation device 104 over their head in a conventional manner and corresponding back vest area 128 aligned with and proximate to the person's back when worn in such conventional manner. The front vest area 120 and the back vest area 128 may be fabricated from well-known flotation materials that will illuminate (glow) under dark light conditions or when subject to a direct light in a well-known manner; (ii) latch 126 for securing the front vest area 120 to the back vest area 128 when worn in such conventional manner. The latch 26 may also be fabricated for childproofing that will prevent a child from inadvertently unlatching the front vest area 120 from the back vest area 128; and (iii) vest monitor 122 which comprises a variety of monitoring elements such as LEDs 124 for illumination, a microphone (not shown) and a speaker (not shown) for providing visual and audible features. The vest monitor 122 being communicatively coupled with the wearable personal safety monitoring device 102 illustratively through wireless communications links 108 using well-known Bluetooth® technology.
The personal safety system 100 further comprising communications device 106 communicatively coupled with the wearable personal safety monitoring device 102 and/or the personal flotation device 104. As will be appreciated, while the communications device 106 shown in
In an embodiment, as will be further discussed in detail herein below, the wearable personal safety monitoring device 102 is worn by a swimmer such that the swimmer's oxygen and heart rate levels are continually monitored to detect a potential or actual drowning situation such that the wearable personal safety monitoring device 102 transmits, using the wireless communications links 108, a first alert signal to the personal flotation device 104 to automatically inflate thereby raising the level of the swimmer in the body of water in which the swimmer is located and transmits, using the wireless communications links 108, and a second alert signal to the communications device 106 such that this device registers a visual and/or auditory alarm thereon in a well-known manner.
Turning our attention to
Panic button module 218 delivers the electronic functionality for the panic button 118 which can be used by the wearer of the wearable personal safety device 102 in the event of an emergency situation such as drowning. Radio frequency (RF) communications module 210 facilitates the transmission of RF signals in a well-known manner from the wearable personal safety device 102 to other devices (e.g., the personal flotation device 104) and in a similar well-known fashion Bluetooth® communications module 212 facilitates Bluetooth® wireless communications between the wearable personal safety device 102 and other devices (e.g., the communications device 106). Input/output module 214 provides speaker and microphone audio capabilities and battery 216 (e.g., a NiCad battery) provides a power supply to the wearable personal safety device 102, both in well-known fashion. LEDs 112 will illuminate and providing a visual warning in the event the wearer of the wearable personal safety device 102 is drowning, as will be further detailed herein below.
As shown, the personal flotation device 104 comprises a conventional printed circuit board (PCB) 220 for the delivery of a variety of electronic elements such as RF communications module 224 facilitates the reception of RF signals in a well-known manner from the wearable personal safety device 102 and from other devices and in a similar well-known fashion GPS module 232 facilitates the delivery of location services such that the precise location of the personal flotation device 104 can be determined at any time (e.g., in an emergency drowning of the wearer of the personal flotation device 104) and transmitted to other device (e.g., the communication device 106). Input/output module 226 provides speaker and microphone audio capabilities and battery 230 (e.g., a NiCad battery) provides a power supply to the personal flotation device 104, both in well understand fashion. Camera module 228 provides an individual camera to provide either a live video feed or capture standard photographs and the transmission thereof from the personal flotation device 104 to other devices (e.g., the communications device 106) that can be used during a state of emergency (e.g., drowning). LEDs 124 will illuminate and providing a visual warning in the event the wearer of the personal flotation device 104 is drowning, as will be further detailed herein below. In addition, inflation module 222 will activate when the personal flotation device 104 detects that the wearer of the personal flotation device 104 is experiencing a drowning or temporary submersion issue in the body of water they are located and will activate to inflate to provide additional buoyancy to the wearer to mitigate the drowning or submersion conditions, as will be further detailed herein below. In this way, when activated the inflation module 104 will establish a safer position for the wearer such as floating on their back or head-up position thereby attempting to mitigate the drowning conditions. It will be noted that while the personal flotation device 104 in the above-detailed embodiment is in a vest form there exist many other types of configurations that are consistent with the principles of the disclosed embodiments such as swim shirts, a dry/wet suit or a band wearable across the torso, to name just a few.
As further shown in
Turning our attention to
As further detailed in
For example, in accordance with an embodiment, a proactive guidance system may be provided from a cloud service that provides the wearer of the wearable personal safety monitoring device 102 with instructions on how to use the device and the personal safety system 100 including but not limited to providing CPR instructions in the event of a drowning emergency to individuals who may be proximate the wearer at the time of the emergency. The network connections employed in the embodiments herein may be any type or form of network and may include, without limitation, a point-to-point network, a broadcast network, a wide area network, a local area network, a telecommunications network, a data communications network, a computer network, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network, a synchronous optical network (SONET), a wire-line network and/or wireless network.
Cloud, cloud service, cloud server and cloud database are broad terms and are to be given their ordinary and customary meaning to one of ordinary skill in the art and includes, without limitation, any content database, data repository or storage media which store content typically associated with and managed by users, lifeguards, safety services (e.g., EMS), third party content providers, social media services, to name just a few. A cloud service may include one or more cloud servers and cloud databases that provides for the delivery of various personal safety applications as hosted by a third party service provider or operator. A cloud server may include an HTTP/HPTTPS server sending and receiving messages in order to provide web-browsing interfaces to client web browsers (e.g., as executed on the communications device 106) as well as web services to send data to integrate with other interfaces (e.g., as executed on the communications device 106). The cloud server may be implemented in one or more well-known servers and may send and receive content in a various forms and formats, user supplied and/or created information/content and profile/configuration data that may be transferred to, read from or stored in a cloud database.
A cloud database may include one or more physical servers, databases or storage devices as dictated by the cloud service's storage requirements. The cloud database may further include one or more well-known databases (e.g., an SQL database) or a fixed content storage system to store content, profile information, configuration information or administration information as necessary to execute the cloud service. In various embodiments, one or more networks providing computing infrastructure on behalf of one or more users may be referred to as a cloud, and resources may include, without limitation, data center resources, applications (e.g., software-as-a-service or platform-as-a-service) and management tools. In this way, in accordance with various embodiments, the users may establish a variety of communications and/or operations to facilitate drowning prevention or other cases of accidents due to asphyxiation or heart rate conditions in a fully transparent fashion without any required understanding of the underlying hardware and software necessary to interface, communicate, manipulate and exchange communications and data relevant for personal safety operations.
However, if one or more thresholds are violated and detected at step 710 then this is an indication that the wearer may be experiencing a drowning emergency. As such, as noted above, alarms are triggered on the wearable personal safety device 102 and the personal flotation device 104 and signals sent to the communications device 106 to further trigger audio and/or video alarms thereon and/or contacting emergency services by dialing “911” in a well-known fashion. Illustratively, upon detection of the threshold violation(s), the wearable personal safety monitoring device 102 transmits a first alert signal to the personal flotation device 104 to automatically inflate thereby raising the level of the swimmer in the body of water in which the swimmer is located and transmits a second alert signal to the communications device 106 such that this device registers a visual and/or auditory alarm thereon. The wearer will also be alerted, at step 714, to manually activate, at step 716, at least the personal floatation device (e.g., in the event signal transmission fails between the wearable personal safety device 102 and the personal flotation device 104. Upon activation (either manually or automatically), at step 716, of the personal flotation device 104, the rescue operation are performed, at step 718, that include but are not limited to the activation of the inflation module 222 thereby inflating the personal flotation device 104 and adjusting the wearer's body and/or head position in the body of water to mitigate the drowning conditions. In this way, the personal flotation device 104 causes a positioning of the body in the body of water to a second position in the body of water such that the previously detected personal safety condition that triggered the alert(s) no longer violates the predefined threshold. The wearer may also manually activate the panic button 118 on the wearable personal safety device 102. Additional rescue operations may be performed including, but not limited to, transmitting the wearer's GPS location, illuminating the LEDs 112 on the wearable personal safety device 102 and/or the LEDs 124 on the personal flotation device 104, initiating execution of a cardiopulmonary (CPR) program, and initiating execution of tracking system to locate the wearer.
Thus, in accordance with the embodiments detailed herein above, the user is provided an end-to-end personal safety system to facilitate drowning prevention or other cases of accidents due to personal safety conditions such as asphyxiation or heart rate conditions. Turning our attention to
Alternatively, as shown in
Upon activation, the personal flotation device 104 through the activation of the inflation module 222 will inflate (see, inflation state 902 as shown in
Further, it will be noted that the body of water 804 may be any type or body of water (e.g., freshwater, saltwater, chlorinated waters, bathtub water, etc.) and while the illustrative embodiment in
In some embodiments the method or methods described above may be executed or carried out by a computing system including a tangible computer-readable storage medium, also described herein as a storage machine, that holds machine-readable instructions executable by a logic machine (i.e. a processor or programmable control device) to provide, implement, perform, and/or enact the above described methods, processes and/or tasks. When such methods and processes are implemented, the state of the storage machine may be changed to hold different data. For example, the storage machine may include memory devices such as various hard disk drives, CD, or DVD devices. The logic machine may execute machine-readable instructions via one or more physical information and/or logic processing devices. For example, the logic machine may be configured to execute instructions to perform tasks for a computer program. The logic machine may include one or more processors to execute the machine-readable instructions. The computing system may include a display subsystem to display a graphical user interface (GUI) or any visual element of the methods or processes described above. For example, the display subsystem, storage machine, and logic machine may be integrated such that the above method may be executed while visual elements of the disclosed system and/or method are displayed on a display screen for user consumption. The computing system may include an input subsystem that receives user input. The input subsystem may be configured to connect to and receive input from devices such as a mouse, keyboard or gaming controller. For example, a user input may indicate a request that certain task is to be executed by the computing system, such as requesting the computing system to display any of the above-described information, or requesting that the user input updates or modifies existing stored information for processing. A communication subsystem may allow the methods described above to be executed or provided over a computer network. For example, the communication subsystem may be configured to enable the computing system to communicate with a plurality of personal computing devices. The communication subsystem may include wired and/or wireless communication devices to facilitate networked communication. The described methods or processes may be executed, provided, or implemented for a user or one or more computing devices via a computer-program product such as via an application programming interface (API).
In this embodiment, several components are located within a housing 1012 to protect the components and their electrical connections from exposure to water or other deleterious materials. The housing 1012 houses a speaker 1014 four emitting an audio alarm, a microcontroller 1016, a wireless transmitter 1018 an indicator light 1020, a power button 1022, a panic button 1024, a GPS module 1028, and a haptic alarm 1030. The wireless transmitter 1018 allows the safety device 1000 to be communicatively linked to a Wi-Fi network and/or a particular electronic device such as a smart phone 1032. Optionally, the safety device 1000 may be linked to a tablet, laptop or other computer device or computer network. As explained above, a smart phone app or other software may then be used to program the microcontroller 1016 with predetermined values for the parameters measured by the vital sign monitors, including minimum or maximum values which will trigger the alarms and/or the flotation device.
The personal aquatic safety device 1000 also includes a water contact sensor 1010 for determining whether the device 1000 is submerged, a depth gauge 1011, and two visual alarms 1034 on each shoulder of the inflatable vest 1002. In this embodiment, the visual alarms 1034 comprise bright lights that may be set to flash one or more colors when activated. The inflatable vest 1002 also includes a blow tube 1036 for manually inflating the pockets 1003. The inflatable vest 1002 also includes a pressurized gas source 1036, which in this embodiment is a carbon dioxide cartridge. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are a variety of devices that may be used to provide gas for rapid inflation of pockets in an inflatable device, and that many of these will be suitable for the present invention. The pressurized gas source 1037 may be actuated manually by pulling the cord 1038 or may be actuated automatically by the microcontroller 1016.
In use, the personal aquatic safety device 1000 and is turned on by depressing the power button 1022. When the microcontroller 1016 detects that there is sufficient power from the power supply source, that the vital sign monitors and other components of the device 1000 are functioning properly, and it is able to establish a wireless connection with the smart phone 1032 or other device, the indicator light 1020 will emit a constant green light. If one or more components are not functioning properly, there is insufficient power or it cannot establish a connection, the indicator lights 1020 may emit red, yellow or other colored light and may blink. An operator then uses the smart phone 1032 or other device to set minimum, maximum, or ranges of values for the various parameters measured by the vital sign monitors. The personal aquatic safety device 1000 then proceeds to monitor the wearer's vital sign parameters measured by the vital sign sensors, either continuously or at intervals. When the microcontroller 1016 detects that one or more vital sign parameters is outside an acceptable range, it will actuate the haptic alarm 1030. During vigorous activity, the vest 1002 or the various vital sign sensors may be jostled, moved out of place or temporarily removed from communication with the wearer. These events may cause false readings. Therefore, the haptic alarm 1030 is actuated first. If the wearer is not in distress, he or she may depress the power button 1022 to reset the device 1000 to continue monitoring his or her vital signs. If the wearer does not reset the device 1000 within a predetermined amount of time, such as for example 10 or 15 seconds, the microcontroller 1016 will proceed to actuate the audio alarm through the speaker 1014 and the visual alarms 1034. If the water contact sensor 1010 and/or the depth gauge 1022 detect that the inflation vest 1002 is currently submerged, the microcontroller 1016 will actuate the pressurized gas source 1036 to inflate the inflatable pockets 1003, thereby raising the wearer of the aquatic safety device 1000 to the surface. Once the device 1000 is at the surface, the microcontroller 1016 can reestablish wireless communication with the smart phone 1032 or other electronic device using its wireless transmitter 1018 and send an alert to the smart phone 1032 or other device. As a result, within an extremely short period of time, the device can detect that the wearer is in distress, rapidly send the wearer to the surface of the water, generate both audio and visual alarms within the proximity of the wearer, and also send an alarm to a remote location via a wireless network. The wearer is thus removed from immediate danger of drowning and alarms sufficient to notify others of the wearer's distress are rapidly initiated. The wearer experiences distress, he or she may depress the panic button 1024, which will immediately trigger the alarms and the pressurized gas source 1036. Optionally, the panic button 1024 is only activated after it has been depressed continuously for a predetermined length of time, for example three seconds or five seconds.
The depth gauge 1011 and the GPS module 1022 are optional. However, when they are included the microcontroller 1016 may record the time a wearer spends at which depths and provide that information, along with a GPS location, as part of the alert signal it wirelessly transmits to a smart phone or other device. The microcontroller can also document the rates of ascent and descent of the wearer. This information can be included in the distress signal sent by the transmitter, allowing people responding to the distress signal to better prepare whatever aid is required to the wearer of the safety device.
When the safety device 1100 detects vital signs indicating that the wearer is in distress, the speaker 1114 will emit an audible alarm, the light 1116 will emit a visual alarm, for example bright flashing red light, and the transmitter 1112 will wirelessly transmits a distress signal, as explained above. If the water sensor/depth gauge 1113 detects that the safety device 1100 is submerged, the safety device 1100 will automatically release the deployable tracker 1110. Because the deployable tracker 1110 is buoyant, it will rise to the surface of the water so that the audio and visual alerts can be more easily seen or heard, and so that the transmitter 1112 is able to send the wireless distress signal. The personal aquatic safety device 1100 may also optionally include a GPS module so that the location of the wearer in distress may be provided in the distress signal.
When the safety device 1100 is used with the flotation device 1150, it may be set to activate the inflation device 1158 if vital signs being monitored fall outside an acceptable range, for example if blood oxygen is being monitored, the device 1100 may be set to inflate the vest if saturation falls below 94%. The safety lock and the flotation garment may be configured to only be removable when actuated remotely using a wirelessly connected electronic device. The safety device may be programmed to automatically inflate the flotation garment if a water sensor detects water, thus inflating automatically upon entering water. This may be a preferable setting for young children.
The embodiment shown in
The personal aquatic safety device 1100 will function in much the same way on dry land, except that if the device does not detect that it is in water (using the water sensor and/or depth gauge) it will not detach the deployable tracker, but will otherwise carry out the same functions.
Thus the safety device 1100 shown in
The safety lock is preferably only releasable via a remote electronic device, such as for example an application on a smartphone. A smartphone application may also be used to set the preselected acceptable and unacceptable parameters for the various vital signs being read. The safety system 1100 may be configured using any wirelessly connected electronic device, which may be used to set various physiological parameters, adjust the volume, brightness, duration and/or patterns of the alarms, and turn on and off various features of the safety system. The software application used to wirelessly communicate with the safety system may also be used to release the safety lock, activate or deactivate various features of the device, store data received from the device via a distress call or any other transmission. The application may also receive signals sent by the safety system's transmitter what confirm that the various components of the system are connected and functioning.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that scuba divers and free divers often dive to relatively deep depths. Were the scuba diver to wear a vest that inflates and immediately sends the diver to the surface, the scuba diver could suffer from decompression sickness, also known as “the bends,” which can be fatal. Scuba divers also rarely utilize equipment that allows verbal communication between each other. Thus, when a scuba diver is in distress, other divers in his or her vicinity may not recognize that the diver is experiencing distress. Even if other divers do realize something is wrong, it is often difficult or impossible to discern what type of distress a diverse suffering from. Wireless transmitters generally do not carry a signal a substantial distance through water. Similarly, GPS modules do not work well underwater unless specially modified. The deployable tracker 1224 of the present invention allows both the transmitter 1226 and the GPS module 1227 to reach the surface quickly so that a distress signal may be relayed to the dive boat or other persons in the vicinity. The distress signal can include the trackers precise location as well as the vital signs and depth of the diver in distress. This allows responders from the dive boat or elsewhere to quickly locate the diver in distress and have some preliminary information on the nature of the distress the divers experiencing. By providing the haptic warning prior to deploying the tracker 1224, the safety device 1200 prevents the tracker 1224 from deploying accidentally. Connection of the safety device 1222 the tracker 1224 with the cord 1236 is optional. The tracker 1224 may be deployed without any connection to the safety device 1200. Removing the cord 1236 from the safety device 1200 avoids the need to store a potentially very long cord within the device. However, it may be more difficult to locate a distressed diver without the cord 1236. In addition, the cord 1236 may be used to constantly update the distress signal emitted by the transmitter 1226 to inform anyone receiving the distress signal of the divers current depth and vital sign readings.
Whereas, the present invention has been described in relation to the drawings attached hereto, other and further modifications, apart from those shown or suggested herein, may be made within the spirit and scope of this invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. That is, the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The descriptions of the embodiments shown in the drawings should not be construed as limiting or defining the ordinary and plain meanings of the terms of the claims unless such is explicitly indicated. The claims should be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/043,925 filed on Jun. 25, 2020, the contents of which are hereby incorporated in their entirety. Not Applicable. Not Applicable Not Applicable. Not Applicable
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63043925 | Jun 2020 | US |
