Biological information monitoring apparatus

a technology of biochemical information and monitoring apparatus, which is applied in the direction of catheters, instruments, angiography, etc., can solve the problems of inconvenient use, limited site observation, and inconvenient use of monitoring apparatus comprising components arranged in a bed or a chair, and achieve the effect of smooth handling of the interface of machines

Inactive Publication Date: 2008-09-25
CANON KK
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]In view of the above-identified circumstances, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a biological information monitoring apparatus that can highly precisely observe a clothed subject who is taking any desired posture in order to make it conveniently utilizable and support the life of the subject.
[0007]A biological information monitoring apparatus according to the invention employs a high frequency electromagnetic wave (especially 300 GHz to 30 THz) including a terahertz band to remotely detect positional fluctuations of the surface of the skin of the subject so as to acquire biological information easily and conveniently. When such an electromagnetic wave is used, it is possible to acquire the temporal displacement of positional fluctuations, or the vibration component, by detecting the component of the electromagnetic wave transmitted through the wear and scattered and reflected by the surface of the skin of the subject.
[0011]A biological information monitoring apparatus according to the invention can highly precisely observe a clothed subject who is taking any desired posture. Therefore, it can be utilized very conveniently to support the daily life of the subject. For example, it is possible to judge the physical and emotional conditions of the subject and give advice for the behavior of the subject by acquiring information on the pulse, the respiration and other activities of the body that cause vibrations of the body that are transmitted through the body and computing the pulse wave, the pulse rate, the blood pressure and so on.
[0012]Additionally, it is possible to smoothly handle the interfaces of machines and electronic appliances that the subject operates.

Problems solved by technology

While monitoring apparatus of the type having components to be put on the body of the subject can be handled with ease and light weight, they are neither convenient nor comfortable when used in daily life.
On the other hand, monitoring apparatus comprising components arranged in a bed or a chair are also rather inconvenient because the subject is forced to quietly keep a predetermined posture in the bed or on the chair for the purpose of monitoring.
However, the apparel and the hair of the subject reflect and absorb ultrasonic waves and infrared rays to operate as obstacles so that only limited sites can be observed by such means if the subject is clothed.
Additionally, movements of the apparel and those of the hair that are caused by flows and vibrations of the air can enter the monitoring system as noise.

Method used

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embodiment 1

[0022]The first embodiment of biological information monitoring apparatus according to the invention is adapted to monitor biological information at the wash basin that the family members use several times a day in order to accumulate and provide information effective to maintain the health and support the daily lives of the family members without giving them any feeling of inconvenience.

[0023]FIG. 1 illustrates a situation where a person 3 is standing in front of a wash basin 1 that is provided with a mirror 2 and doing something. A remote sensing section 4 adapted to use an electromagnetic wave is buried in the wash basin in order to remotely acquire information on the person standing in front of the wash basin typically from the abdomen of the person. A technique of irradiating an electromagnetic wave having a wavelength longer than that of infrared rays and analyzing the reflected wave so as to analyze the vibrations of the body of the person from the acquired positional fluctua...

embodiment 2

[0033]The second embodiment of the present invention is a small module of a remote sensing apparatus as described above for the first embodiment. A number of such modules may be arranged at different sites in order to simultaneously acquire biological information from a person. This arrangement is effective for accurately acquiring and correcting information on vibrations and the state of propagation of vibration in the body of the person.

[0034]FIG. 5 schematically illustrates an integrated module according to the invention. A semiconductor mode-locked laser 60 is mounted on a substrate 50 and adapted to generate a pulse of about 0.3 psec that is coupled to an optical waveguide 61. One of the propagated laser beams branched by the optical waveguide 61 is irradiated onto a terahertz wave generator 65 and converted into an electromagnetic wave 66 having a pulse width of about 0.5 psec, which is then propagated through transmission paths 57a, 57b. The other laser beam is propagated by ...

embodiment 3

[0040]The third embodiment of the present invention is adapted to bury sensors 81a through 81d of the above described type in a chair 80 as shown in FIG. 8. Note that, in FIG. 8, the components same as or similar to those of FIG. 1 are denoted respectively by the same reference symbols.

[0041]Known vibration sensors are adapted to be arranged on or near the surface of a chair and hence are accompanied by problems particularly in terms of the appearance, the design and the comfortableness of the chair. To the contrary, electromagnetic type modular sensors according to the invention can be contained in a chair to allow a high degree of design freedom comparable to that of ordinary chairs without damaging the comfortableness of the chair. Additionally, unlike known sensors, the subject is not required to hold the back in tight contact with the back cushion of the chair and sit still. This is because the electromagnetic wave of millimeter to terahertz range to be used for observation is ...

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Abstract

A biological information monitoring apparatus highly precisely observes a clothed subject who is taking any desired posture. The apparatus acquires information on positional displacements of the surface of a living body, by generating a high-frequency electromagnetic wave to radiate it into air, detecting the electromagnetic wave scattered by the surface of the living body, computationally determining the changes with time of the positional displacements of the surface of the living body from the state of propagation of said electromagnetic wave and computationally determining characteristic quantities of vibrations of the living body such as the pulse or the respiration from the changes with time as biological information.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10 / 555,873, filed Mar. 23, 2005 as PCT / JP05 / 05998, claims benefit thereof under 35 U.S.C. § 120, claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of Japanese Patent Application 2004 / 092401, filed Mar. 26, 2004, and incorporates the entire disclosure of each of the two mentioned prior applications by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]This invention relates to a biological information monitoring apparatus for acquiring biological information including the respiratory condition, the pulse wave, the pulse rate and so on of a living body, or subject, judging the psychosomatic condition of the subject and taking out the judgment as output signal in order to grasp the physical and emotional conditions and support the daily life of the subject.BACKGROUND ART[0003]Known apparatus for monitoring the respiratory condition, the pulse rate and so on of a living body, or subject, include those comprising one or more than one sens...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): A61B5/05A61B5/02A61B5/0245A61B5/08A61B5/00A61B5/022A61B5/024A61B5/087A61B5/11A61B5/113A61B5/16G01S7/03G01S13/02G01S13/08G01S13/10G01S13/88
CPCA61B5/024A61B5/0507A61B5/113G01S13/88G01S13/0209G01S13/10G01S7/032
Inventor OUCHI, TOSHIHIKO
Owner CANON KK
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