Patent Application
20130291310
The present invention relates to an air cushion bed, and more particularly to a sensing device capable of detecting the inflation state of air bladders of an air cushion bed and monitoring the condition of a patient lying on the air cushion bed to increase the use safety of the air cushion bed.
People who are not able to freely move around or get out of bed due to illness are usually confined to bed. A bedridden patient is prone to bedsores, which are local tissue necrosis caused by prolonged pressure on and insufficient blood flow to the skin and muscles that continuously contact with the bed. Almost all the bedridden patients are suffering from bedsores, which cause uncomfortable skin ulceration or even septicemia and amputation in worse conditions.
A common way to minimize the development of bedsores in a bedridden patient is to help the patient to change his or her lying position by, for example, rolling him or her over from one position to another periodically, such as every one or two hours, so as to avoid continuous pressure on the same body areas. The bedridden patients have become a heavy burden to nurses because a lot of time and energy is required to help the patients to change their lying position.
Therefore, air cushion beds are developed and introduced into the market for the purpose of preventing bedridden patients from forming bedsores. Generally, an air cushion bed internally includes a plurality of air bladders that can be alternately inflated and deflated. By inflating and deflating the air bladders alternately, it is possible to alternately and temporarily relieve different areas of the bedridden patient's body from prolonged pressure and accordingly reduce the possibility of developing bedsores. However, in the event the air bladders are insufficiently inflated, the air cushion bed is almost useless in terms of relieving the prolonged pressure on the bedridden patient's skin. On the other hand, in the event the air bladders are excessively inflated, the patient might undesirably slip down the air cushion bed.
It is therefore necessary to develop an air cushion bed that includes additional and better functions of determining whether there is a patient lying on the air cushion bed and whether the air bladders of the air cushion bed are properly inflated when a patient is lying thereon the bed.
A primary object of the present invention is to effectively improve the safety of an air cushion bed in use by providing a sensing device capable of detecting the state of the air cushion bed in use, so that the air cushion bed with the sensing device laid below it not only has the functions of detecting whether there is a patient lying on the bed and monitoring the condition of inflatable air bladders in the air cushion bed when a patient is lying on the bed, but also the function of detecting the manner in which the air cushion bed is being used.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sensing device that largely upgrades the accuracy in monitoring the inflation condition of air bladders in an air cushion bed by communicating the sensing device with the air bladders, so that they are synchronously and identically inflated.
To achieve the above and other objects, the sensing device according to the present invention is configured for placing in an air cushion bed outside a plurality of air bladders thereof. In a most preferred manner, the sensing device is laid below lower surfaces of the air bladders at a position generally corresponding to a patient's buttock area when the patient is lying on the air cushion bed.
According to the present invention, the sensing device includes a first sheet, a second sheet, a first sensing element, and a second sensing element. In a preferred embodiment of the sensing device, the first sheet and the second sheet are connected together to define an air chamber between them, and at least one inflation valve is provided on the first sheet for connecting an external tube system to communicate the air chamber with the air bladders of the air cushion bed via the tube system.
The first sensing element is disposed outside the air chamber, and has at least one deformation sensor and at least one acceleration sensor provided thereon. The second sensing element is arranged inside the air chamber, and includes an upper conductive sensing sheet attached to an inner top of the air chamber and a lower conduction sensing sheet attached to an inner bottom of the air chamber. The deformation sensor is configured as a metal sensing chip and is located atop a central area of the air chamber. And, multiple conductive pads are spaced on areas of both the upper and lower conductive sensing sheets at two lateral sides of the deformation sensor.
In an operable embodiment, the first sensing element includes a third sheet having a connection section located atop the first sheet and at least one extension section projected from the connection section to locate beyond the first sheet. The deformation sensor is provided on the connection section of the third sheet, and the acceleration sensor is provided on the extension section of the third sheet. With these arrangements, the deformation sensor, the upper conductive sensing sheet and the lower conductive sensing sheet all are located corresponding to the buttock area of a patient lying on the bed, while the acceleration sensor alone is located beyond the patient's buttock area to correspond to the patient's upper half of body.
The sensing device of the present invention further includes a monitoring device externally electrically connected to the first and second sensing elements, so as to analyze and determine data from the deformation sensor and the acceleration sensor as well as an electrical connection state between the upper and the lower conductive sensing sheet.
From a contacting state between the upper conductive sensing sheet and the lower conductive sensing sheet, the monitoring device can examine whether the air bladders are sufficiently inflated. From different angular positions of the acceleration sensor on the air cushion bed, the monitoring device can determine the manner in which the air cushion bed is being used. And, by analyzing a deformation amount as well as positive and negative electricity amounts of the metal sensing chip of the deformation sensor, the monitoring device can monitor how the air cushion bed reacts to a patient lying thereon.
The present invention is characterized in that the first and the second sensing element are respectively arranged outside and inside the air chamber defined between the connected first and second sheets of the sensing device, so that the air cushion bed with the sensing device placed therein below the air bladders thereof has three major functions of detecting whether there is a patient lying on the bed, monitoring the condition of inflatable air bladders in the air cushion bed when a patient is lying on the bed, and detecting the manner in which the air cushion bed is being used. Further, with the air chamber being communicable with the air bladders via inflatable valves provided on the first sheet and connected to an external tube system, the air chamber and the air bladders can be synchronously and identically inflated to largely increase the accuracy in monitoring the inflation state of the air bladders.
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
The present invention will now be described with a preferred embodiment thereof and with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Please refer to
The first sensing element 23 is located outside the air chamber 26, and includes a third sheet 231, two deformation sensors 232 and an acceleration sensor 233. The third sheet 231 is disposed on a top central area of the air chamber 26, and includes a connection section 234 located atop the first sheet 21 and an extension section 235 projected from the connection section 234 to locate beyond the first sheet 21. The deformation sensors 232 and the acceleration sensor 233 are arranged on the connection section 234 and the extension section 235, respectively, of the third sheet 231. In an operable embodiment, the connection section 234 has a hole 236 formed at a position corresponding to the inflation valve 212 on the central compartment 261 of the air chamber 26, allowing the connection section 234 to be fitted around the central inflation valve 212 and held to the first sheet 21. Further, the deformation sensors 232 are respectively a metal sensing chip.
It is understood the above-described first sensing element 23 is only illustrative and not intended to restrict the structural configuration of the third sheet 231 and the number of the deformation sensors 232 and the acceleration sensor 233. That is, the third sheet 231 may be configured to have more than one extension section 235 and there may be more than one acceleration sensor 233 to match the number of the extension sections 235. Meanwhile, the number of the deformation sensors 232 may also be increased to enable upgraded monitoring accuracy of the sensing device 20.
The second sensor element 24 is located inside the air chamber 26, and includes an upper conductive sensing sheet 241 attached to an inner upper side of the air chamber 26, or a lower face of the first sheet 21, and a lower conductive sensing sheet 242 attached to an inner lower side of the air chamber 26, or an upper face of the second sheet 22. Multiple conductive pads 243 are spaced on areas of both the upper conductive sensing sheet 241 and the lower conductive sensing sheet 242 at two lateral sides of the deformation sensors 232.
The connecting cable 25 is a bunched cable containing multiple small cables 251. The small cables 251 have one end electrically connected to the two deformation sensors 232, the acceleration sensor 233, and the conductive pads 243 of the second sensing element 24, respectively, and another opposite end bunched into a plug 252.
Please refer to
From a contacting state between the upper conductive sensing sheet 241 and the lower conductive sensing sheet 242, the monitoring device 27 can examine whether the air bladders 11 are sufficiently inflated. From different angular positions of the acceleration sensor 233 on the air cushion bed 10, the monitoring device 27 can determine the manner in which the air cushion bed 10 is being used. And, by analyzing a deformation amount as well as positive and negative electricity amounts of the metal sensing chips 232, the monitoring device 27 can monitor how the air cushion bed 10 reacts to a patient lying thereon.
Please refer to
As can be seen in
When a head portion of the air cushion bed 10 is elevated to an inclined position as shown in
In brief, an air cushion bed with the sensing device according to the present invention can provide three major functions of detecting whether there is a patient lying on the air cushion bed, whether the air bladders in the air cushion bed are properly inflated when a patient is lying on the air cushion bed, and how the air cushion bed is being used, and can therefore have effectively improved safety in use. Further, since the air chamber of the sensing device and the air bladders of the air cushion bed are synchronously and identically inflated or deflated, the accuracy in monitoring the inflation state of the air bladders is largely upgraded.
The present invention has been described with a preferred embodiment thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiment can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.
