Patent Application
20090316327
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of shocking devices containing circuitry intended to record and signal an actual shocking event.
2. Prior Art
Numerous types of devices designed to shock humans and other animals exist. The devices range from medical devices, requiring pre-market notification to or pre-market approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration, to weapons, intended to subdue and capture. Descriptions of some of the many general classes of shocking therapeutic medical devices may be found at 21 CFR Parts 876 (Gastroenterology and Urology Devices), 884 (Obstetrical & Gynecological Devices) and 890 (Physical Medicine Devices). Many United States patents for shocking weapons for subduing and capturing human and other animal targets have issued. These patents include U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,463 to Cover, U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,140 to Hammes and U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,622 to McNulty. Such weapons or restraints are manufactured and sold by Taser International, Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. such as the model X26 Taser™, by Stinger Systems, Inc. of Tampa, Fla. such as the ICE™ shield and by Bestex Company, Inc. of Los Angeles, Calif. such as the Dual Defense System™ remote contact stun gun and the Space Thunder™ stun gun.
As manufactured and sold, many of the shocking devices comprise digital displays or other circuitry designed to indicate and/or record the devices' therapeutic or disabling operation and/or the devices' time of therapeutic or disabling operation and/or to discontinue the devices' operation after a time of operation. Uniformly, however, these designs do not achieve their intended purpose, as the designs indicate/record a device's energization and not necessarily the time of its shock, the intensity of its shock or its shock. The digital displays and other circuitry indicate and record even when one or more of the devices electrodes is not in electrical contact or in secure electrical contact with the subject intended to be shocked by the device.
Particularly illustrative of this problem is U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,262 to Smith for apparatus for recording operation of a Taser weapon. The '262 inventions are embodied in Taser International, Inc.'s M26 and X26 model Tasers. It appears from the claims and specification of the '262 patent that the object of the invention is to insure that the weapon shocks for a duration adequate to disable its target. See '262 patent claim 1 “microprocessor programmed to (1) track date and time . . . (3) to maintain for a period the current from the power supply, and (4) to record tracked date and time . . . ”.
As claimed in each independent claim of the '262 patent, however, the invention will record on each occasion that the Taser's shocking circuit is energized. This does not necessarily provide a record that a target subject was actually shocked during the weapon's time of energization. The high-tension Taser currents can complete alternate circuit paths through atmosphere without shocking, once the weapons are activated if the target path has a higher impedance. See '262 patent at Column 5, lines 8-29 describing high voltage arc detonation of cartridge propellant. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,867 to Murray at Column 6, lines 36-49, where an apparatus uses an alternative atmospheric discharge path to signal a failure to complete a shocking circuit. The '262 patent describes no apparatus or method for initiating recording only when the Taser device is actually shocking.
Monitoring circuits can also be employed as safety circuits for shocking devices. IEC (International Electrical Commission, Rue Devarembe, P.O. Box 131, CH-1211, Geneva 20, Switzerland) and other safety standards or thresholds for shocks are calculated upon time based electrical safety equations, which are only valid for seconds. The time base compensates for shock induced homeostatic imbalances, which rapidly diminish particular organs and organ systems ability to endure the shocks. Recording of the actual shocks is, therefore, desirable for continued treatment and serves a variety of other social purposes.
The present invention comprises an electronic shocking device, comprising a voltage drop detector which signals an integrated circuit to record the occurrence of a shock when the device voltage drops within a preset tolerance corresponding to a prescribed or recommended level of shocking current. The voltage drop detector or integrated circuit can also activate a display to signal the device operator that the device is shocking a target subject. Any number of circuit configurations known in the art can readily be assembled by one skilled in circuit design to construct the voltage detector. For example, a simple circuit comprising a voltage divider and comparator could signal a voltage drop. Any number of integrated circuits known in the art from circuits comprising counters to microprocessor calendar clocks can easily be assembled by one skilled in the art of digital circuit design into a circuit for recording the occurrence of a signal generated by the voltage drop detector.
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide an apparatus that can accurately indicate the occurrence of a shock from a shocking device, so that the device operator can determine whether or not the shock is occurring at the prescribed or recommended current intensity and occurring for the prescribed or recommended duration.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus that overcomes the inaccuracy inherent with manual recording by automatically recording the occurrence of a shock from a shocking device to provide medical or other records.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a safety feature which relies on current-induced voltage reduction to terminate shocking current in the event of an unsafe level of such current.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a circuit for a shocking device which enables calculation of the internal electrical resistance of a target and changes thereof.
The aforementioned objects and advantages of the present invention, as well as additional objects and advantages thereof, will be more fully understood herein after as a result of a detailed description of a preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the following drawings in which:
Referring to the accompanying drawings, and to
The inventive concept hereof is based upon such current flow causing a voltage drop across the target between the two darts. Those having knowledge in the art of electric circuits will appreciate that if, for any reason, current does not flow through the target (such as when one or both darts do not make proper contact with the target) there will be no voltage drop between the darts. Thus, a voltage drop across the darts is very likely to be indicative of an actual shocking of the target rather than merely generation of a high voltage at the shocking circuit. A high voltage at the output of the shocking circuit would occur whenever the power source of
A voltage drop at the output of the shocking circuit is reflected as a commensurate voltage drop at the input to the shocking circuit. Therefore, as shown in
An example of a voltage drop detector is illustrated in
It will now be apparent that the present invention meets the aforementioned object by providing a device for use in shocking products for monitoring and recording when a shocking event actually takes place. An optional feature thereof terminates shocking if the shocking current exceeds a preset safe magnitude. The scope hereof is to be limited only by the appended claims.
