Personal Care Device Location Tracking with Orientation and Surface Sensors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing personal care devices lack the accuracy in determining their location on a body part during operations, necessitating improvements for better performance monitoring and user guidance.
Innovation Solution
A personal care device equipped with an orientation sensor to measure 3D angular orientation relative to Earth's gravity, a surface-displacement sensor for 2D displacement relative to the skin surface, and a processing unit to determine location using these signals and a skin contact signal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If orientation sensors and movement sensors are used to determine device location, then location determination is enabled, but location accuracy is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines orientation sensors, movement sensors, and skin contact sensors into an integrated sensor system. The processing unit fuses data from all sensor types to determine device location, achieving higher accuracy than individual sensors could provide alone. This merging of sensor functions directly addresses the contradiction by improving measurement precision while managing device complexity through unified data processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The processing unit acts as an intermediary that receives raw data from multiple sensors and transforms it into accurate location information. By processing and fusing sensor signals, the intermediary component enables high-accuracy location determination without requiring complex sensor hardware, thus resolving the contradiction between precision and complexity.
2Measurement precision
If additional sensors (IMU, curvature sensors) are added to improve location determination, then measurement accuracy increases, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor system is designed with multi-functionality where orientation sensors, movement sensors, and skin contact sensors serve multiple purposes: determining device location, monitoring skin contact status, and providing data for performance analysis. This universal approach allows the system to achieve high measurement precision without proportionally increasing device complexity, as each sensor contributes to multiple functions.
3Reliability
If real-time location monitoring is implemented, then performance monitoring and user guidance improve, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic location determination rather than continuous monitoring. The processing unit calculates device location at specific intervals based on sensor data, enabling performance monitoring and user guidance while reducing energy consumption compared to continuous real-time processing. This periodic action maintains reliability for monitoring purposes while managing energy usage.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances the accuracy of determining the device's location on the body part, enabling better performance monitoring and user guidance during personal care operations.
Implementation Method 1
an orientation sensor configured to measure a three-dimensional, 3D, angular orientation of the personal care device relative to Earth's gravity
Implementation Method 2
a surface-displacement sensor configured to measure a two-dimensional, 2D, displacement of the personal care device relative to a skin surface of the body part
Data Source
AI summary
According to an aspect, there is provided a personal care device (2) for performing a personal care operation on a subject, the personal care device (2) being configured to determine a location of the personal care device (2) on a body part of the subject. The personal care device (2) comprises an orientation sensor (6) configured to measure a three-dimensional, 3D, angular orientation of the personal care device (2) relative to Earth's gravity over time and output a corresponding orientation measurement signal; a surface-displacement sensor (10) configured to measure a two-dimensional, 2D, displacement of the personal care device (2) relative to a skin surface of the body part and output a corresponding surface-displacement measurement signal; a processing unit (22) configured to determine the location of the personal care device (2) on the body part based on the orientation measurement signal, the surface-displacement measurement signal and a skin contact signal indicating whether the personal care device (2) is in contact with the skin surface of the body part.