4. PREAMBAL TO THE DESCRIPTION

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an INTELLIGENT, REMOTE AND WIRELESS VITALS MONITORING FIXTURE FOR WELLBEING AND HEALTHCARE

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a modular device for monitoring human health vital signs of a human body. In the base unit, a pressure sensor is connected to pneumatic pipes that converts pressure vibrations into electrical signals. The pressure sensor gives out electrical signals proportional to the pressure available in the pneumatic pipes. A signal conditional conditioning circuit extracts pulses and shapes the signal obtained from the pressure sensor to a usable form. A controller interfaces with all on-board peripherals and decides the sequence in which the peripherals function. The controller is responsible for acquiring, processing and sending the data to a mobile / desktop computing device through a wireless interface. A wireless circuit establishes the communication between a base unit and a mobile / desktop computing device. An interface circuit consists of components required for voltage level conversions as per specific protocol standard helps in the communication between the base unit and other accessory devices. The accessory device gets connected to and draws power from the base unit. The accessory device collects the data and communicates the data to the base unit for processing and performing wireless transmission to the mobile / desktop computing device.

The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawing, wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a Base Unit of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an Infrared Thermometer (IRT) unit of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit block diagram of Blood Oxygen saturation measurement unit of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the Electrocardiography (ECG) unit of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a digital Stethoscope unit of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a Glucometer unit of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a Cholesterol monitoring unit of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a Hemoglobin measuring unit of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is the block diagram of the Software architecture of the Computing unit software.

FIG. 10 shown the communication between the Computing unit side application and the remote server.

FIG. 11 shows the block diagram for health prognosis section.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Please refer to FIG. 1. The present invention includes a power adaptor 1 that converts mains AC voltage into DC levels used to power the base unit and to recharge the battery. A Li-ion battery or an equivalent battery and charging circuit 2 is adopted to make the base unit portable. A power supply circuit 3 obtains power supply from the battery or external supply and generates various power rails required for the base unit. A pressure sensor 4 is connected to pneumatic pipes. The pressure sensor 4 gives out electrical signals proportional to the pressure available in the pneumatic pipes. A blood pressure (BP) Cuff 5 is wrapped around the arm whose BP has to be measured. The cuff 5 picks up the pressure vibrations from the part where the cuff 5 is wrapped and passes the pulses to the pneumatic pipes. A solenoid 6 is utilized to release the air in the cuff 5 after the required pressure is built. A motor pump 7 is adopted to inflate the cuff 5 and to enable automatic pressure build-up in pneumatics in contrast to manual pumping. A solenoid control circuit 8 obtains solenoid drive command from a controller 11. The solenoid control circuit 8 boosts current to drive the solenoid and maintains the required deflation rate. A drive circuit 9 obtains the command from the controller 11 and drives the motor pump until the required pressure is built up in the pneumatics. A signal conditional conditioning circuit 10 extracts pulses and shapes the signal to be in a usable form. The controller 11 interfaces with all on-board peripherals and decides sequence in which the peripherals function. The controller is responsible for acquiring, processing and sending the data to Mobile/Desktop computing device through wireless interface. The controller controls the activities like scanning the battery voltage, controlling the status Light Emitting Diodes commonly called as LED's and interfacing with all other accessories. A wireless circuit 12 establishes a communication link between the base unit and the Mobile/Desktop computing device. An interface circuit 13 consists of components required for voltage level conversions as per the specific protocol standard and helps in the communication between the base unit and other accessory devices. The interface circuit is connected to other accessories through an accessories connector 14. Accessory device(s) 15 gets connected to and draws power from the base unit. The respective accessory device collects the data and communicates the data to the base unit for processing and performing wireless transmission to Mobile/Desktop computing device. Please refer to FIG. 2. The present invention includes an accessory connector 16 to obtain required power for the Infrared thermometer (IRT) unit from the base unit. A power supply circuit 17 generates required voltage rails for the Infrared Thermometer unit. An interface circuit 18 comprises a transceiver for communicating with the base unit and performing voltage level conversions required to interface with a controller 19 of the IRT board. The controller 19 is responsible for deciding the sequence of operation depending on the command received from the base unit and communicates with the IRT on-board peripherals. An Infrared thermocouple 20 is adopted to convert the measured heat into electrical signals after feeding via a Signal Conditioning circuit. This IR thermometer is intended to be used as Non-Contact thermometer in Human tympanic membranes.

Please refer to FIG. 3. The present invention includes an accessory connector 21 to obtain required power for the Blood Oxygen saturation measurement unit commonly called as SP02 from the base unit. An interface circuit 22 has a transceiver for communicating with the base unit and performing voltage level conversions required to interface with the controller 24 of the Sp02 board. A power supply circuit 23 generates required voltage rails for the Pulse oximeter unit. A controller 24 is responsible for deciding the sequence of operation depending on the command received from the base unit and communicates with the Sp02 on-board peripherals. Sp02 signal conditioning circuit 25 supplies necessary signals to Red and IR LEDs and acquires signals from a Photodiode. The acquired data is signal conditioned, digitized and sent to the controller for further processing and calculation of Sp02 value.

Please refer to FIG. 4. The present invention includes an accessory connector 26 to obtain required power for the Electrocardiography (ECG) unit from the base unit. An interface circuit 27 has a transceiver for communicating with the base unit and performing voltage level conversions required to interface with the controller 29 of the ECG board. A power supply circuit 28 generates required voltage rails for the ECG Unit. The controller 29 is responsible for deciding the sequence of operation depending on the command received from the base unit and communicates with the ECG on-board peripherals. The ECG signal conditioning circuit 30 acquires data from disposable electrodes placed on chest of the patient. The feeble signals picked up are signal conditioned through suitable filters and amplifiers and digitized for efficient data processing. The ECG signals are picked up from the chest using disposable electrodes which could give a 3-lead ECG information. Wires from the electrode are terminated in an ECG connector 31 which can be plugged-in to the ECG board.

Please refer to FIG. 5. The present invention includes an accessory connector 32 to obtain required power for the digital Stethoscope unit from the base unit. The interface circuit 33 has a transceiver for communicating with the base unit and performing voltage level conversions required to interface with the controller 35 of the digital stethoscope board. The power supply circuit 34 generates required voltage rails for the digital Stethoscope unit. The controller 35 is responsible for deciding the sequence of operation depending on the command received from the base unit and communicates with the digital stethoscope on-board peripherals. The signal conditioning circuit 36 acquires data from an acoustic transducer 37. The acoustic signals picked up are signal conditioned through suitable filters and amplifiers and digitized for efficient data processing. The acoustic transducer 37 is embedded in a stethoscope probe.

Please refer to FIG. 6. The present invention includes an accessory connector 38 to obtain required power for the Glucometer unit from the base unit. The interface circuit 40 has a transceiver for communicating with the base unit and performing voltage level conversions required to interface with the controller 41 of the Glucometer board. The power supply circuit 39 generates required voltage rails for the Glucometer Unit. The controller 41 is responsible for deciding the sequence of operation depending on the command received from the base unit and communicates with the Glucometer on-board peripherals. The signal conditioning circuit 42 reads the data from the transducer. A transimpedance amplifier provides output based on the chemical reaction taken place in the transducer which is further filtered, amplified and digitized. A gluco strip 43 requires a small amount of blood taken using a lancet. When the blood is applied on the electrodes available in the strips, a chemical reaction takes place and the impedance of the strip changes. The change in impedance is measured by the on-board circuitry and is processed further to obtain glucose level in the blood.

Please refer to FIG. 7. The present invention includes an accessory connector 44 to obtain required power for the Cholesterol monitoring unit from the base unit. The interface circuit 46 has a transceiver for communicating with the base unit and performing voltage level conversions required to interface with the controller 47 of the Cholesterol monitoring board. The power supply circuit 45 generates required voltage rails for the Cholesterol monitoring Unit. The controller 47 is responsible for deciding the sequence of operation depending on the command received from the base unit and communicates with the Cholesterol unifs on-board peripherals. The signal conditioning circuit 48 reads the data from the transducer. A transimpedance amplifier provides output based on the chemical reaction taken place in the transducer which is further filtered, amplified and digitized. The Cholesterol strip 49 requires a small amount of blood taken using a lancet. When the blood is applied on the electrodes available in the strips, a chemical reaction takes place and the impedance of the strip changes. The change in impedance is measured by the on-board circuitry and is processed to obtain Cholesterol level in the human body.

Please refer to FIG. 8. The present invention includes an accessory connector 50 to obtain required power for the Hemoglobin (Hb) measuring unit from the base unit. The interface circuit 52 has a transceiver for communicating with the base unit and performing voltage level conversions to interface with the controller 53 of the Hemoglobin board. The power supply circuit 51 generates required voltage rails for the Hemoglobin measuring unit. The controller 53 is responsible for deciding the sequence of operation depending on the command received from the base unit and communicates with the Hemoglobin on-board peripherals. The signal conditioning circuit 54 supplies the necessary signals to LEDs with individual LED's having multiple wavelengths and acquires signals from the Photodiode. The acquired data is signal conditioned, digitized and sent to the controller for further processing and calculation of Hemoglobin value.

The Base Unit (FIG 1.) includes a software program which has the required functionality for controlling the Pneumatics, Wireless Interface along with the required wireless protocols, and has a command response mechanism for communicating with the optional accessories units with the ability to pull and push data from and to the Computing device.

Please refer to FIG 9. The present invention also has a software running on the Computing device which could be mobile or a desktop device running any Operating system connected to the base unit using the wireless interface. The software consists of a master software 55 which interfaces to the wireless communication section 56 used to interface with the invention and provide command and data transfer, Data and Algorithm section 58 where the captured raw data is used to calculate the human body parameters, Display and Input section 57 used to display the parameter's and acts as a control station to control the invention and a Trends and Network connectivity section used to send the processed data to external storage device and computing device or cloud 61 which could be within the same network, intra-net and connected via the Internet 60 using which the measured patients health records and settings could be retrieved from the external server or cloud or could be viewed on-line if the cloud/server has the ability for on-line viewing. The type of captured data could be in many format from fully computed text data, audio data in case of digital stethoscope and a combination both processed data or raw data or a combination both could be sent to the Cloud/Remote server for computation and processing.

Please refer to FIG 10. The Software system contains unit to allow sharing of the measured data in-addition to sending to external Cloud servers 61 to other users and systems via SMS or via e-mail 62 using the built-in infrastructure provided the computing unit.

Additional the Software system (Figure 11) using the Data 63 on health parameters collected from the Base Unit and the Accessories and having predefined look up tables 64 which matches the data to different health conditions would be in a position to give a preliminary prognosis of the health condition 65 of the person using the invention.

It is to be understood that the above description and drawings are only used for illustrating one embodiment of the present invention, not intended to limit the scope there of. Any variation and derivation from the above description and drawings should be included in the scope of the present invention.

CLAIMS

1. The invention claimed is a base unit to measure the test subject's ECG, Oxygen saturation, Non Invasive BP, Body Temperature, Auscultation, Blood Glucose measurement, Blood Cholesterol measurement, Hemoglobin measurement and volume of air inspired and expired by the lungs using a Spirometer controller by Software running on a mobile/desktop computing unit connected wirelessly using a wireless interface.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 when additional optional accessories could be connected to the base unit to increase the functionality for additional health parameters monitoring.

3. Method of claim 2 including the Software running in Mobile/Desktop computing device with display to administer the test via a wireless unit, provide the results and upload the captured processed and raw data to a remote cloud server.

4. Method of claim 3 wherein the software has the ability to transmit the result of the tests to the user specified email id or text it to user specified Mobile phone.

5. Apparatus of claim 1 to transmit the Auscultation measurement data which is measured using either a digital stethoscope accessory connected to the computation unit to remote server in a Real Time manner for processing.

6. Method of claim 1 where the Base system and the optional accessory attachment which could be controlled by user input from the Computing unit and fetching the performance parameters of the device in operation.

7. Method of claim 2 to offload the processing of Human Vital parameter's calculation to a computation unit running on an operating system.

8. Method of claim 6 where using the Data obtained from the base unit and accessories and using a predefined lookup table a prognosis of the user health aliments would be diagnosed and displayed.