Luminous Respiratory Ventilation With Sensor-Driven Visual Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing CPAP ventilation devices lack advanced features for user interaction and feedback, such as visual cues to adjust breathing patterns and detect potential issues like mask removal, while maintaining quiet operation.
Innovation Solution
A respiratory ventilation device with integrated light sources controlled by a control unit to modulate light intensity and color based on airflow and pressure sensors, providing visual feedback and alarm sequences for user compliance and safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If light sources are added to provide visual feedback and alarm sequences, then user interaction and safety monitoring are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The light sources serve multiple functions: providing visual feedback for respiratory rate and heart rate estimation, indicating alarm conditions for mask removal detection, and creating relaxation patterns. This multi-functionality allows a single component addition to address various user needs without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The control unit receives data from flow and pressure sensors, processes this information to estimate physiological parameters and detect anomalies, then activates light sources to provide visual feedback to the user. This closed-loop feedback system enables adaptive user interaction while maintaining systematic control.
2Measurement precision
If multiple sensors and light sources are integrated, then monitoring accuracy and user safety are improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines flow sensors, pressure sensors, control unit, and light sources into a single integrated CPAP device housing. This merging approach allows multiple functional components to be manufactured and assembled together as one unit, simplifying the manufacturing process compared to separate devices while maintaining high measurement precision through dedicated sensor integration.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the device provides multiple functionalities including respiratory rate estimation and heart rate estimation, then user care and monitoring are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flow sensor serves dual purposes: measuring airflow for CPAP operation control and providing data for both respiratory rate estimation and heart rate estimation. This universal use of the same sensor for multiple monitoring functions enables enhanced user care capabilities without adding separate sensing systems, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A respiratory ventilation device—configured to send an airflow, generated by a fan, into a duct that extends between the device and a breathing mask configured to be worn by a user—comprises an air inlet intended to admit air into the device; a fan; and an air outlet configured to be connected to the duct, such that, when the fan is in operation, the air flows from the air inlet successively toward the fan and then toward the air outlet. The device also comprises a flow rate sensor configured to measure a flow rate of air circulating through the device, and/or a pressure sensor configured to measure a pressure between the fan and the air outlet. A control unit is connected to the flow rate sensor and/or to the pressure sensor. The device also includes at least one source of light.