Sleep Signal Monitoring for Automatic Bed Heating Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current sleep support technologies, such as electric blankets, lack automation and additional functionality beyond heating, requiring manual operation and failing to adapt to the user's sleep phase or environmental conditions, thereby not effectively promoting healthy sleep.
Innovation Solution
A system that gathers human biological signals like heart rate and breathing rate, and environmental properties like temperature and humidity, to control home appliances, such as bed heating devices, thermostats, and lights, to optimize sleep conditions and wake-up times based on the user's sleep phase.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual operation of electric blanket is used, then user can control heating, but user convenience deteriorates due to requiring manual turning on and off
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically monitors user sleep state through sensors and autonomously controls the heating appliance without requiring user intervention. The processor detects sleep phases and automatically adjusts or turns off the heating based on detected sleep state, making the system serve itself rather than requiring manual operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors user physiological parameters (heart rate, breathing rate, body position) and uses this feedback to automatically adjust the heating appliance. The closed-loop control ensures the heating is optimized based on real-time user state, improving convenience while maintaining appropriate thermal comfort.
2Adaptability or versatility
If electric blanket provides only heating function, then device complexity is low, but functionality is insufficient for optimizing healthy sleep
Solution Approach 1:
The system integrates multiple functions into a single platform: sleep stage detection through physiological monitoring, automatic appliance control, environmental monitoring, and wake-up time optimization. This multi-functional approach allows the system to address various aspects of sleep quality without requiring separate devices for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the heating appliance control with sleep monitoring and management functions in one integrated system. The processor unit coordinates both the physiological monitoring sensors and the appliance control, merging what would traditionally be separate functions into a unified sleep optimization platform.
3Ease of operation
If wake-up time is not optimized to sleep phase, then alarm can be set simply, but user feels tired and disoriented upon waking
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces simple time-based alarm mechanisms with physiological state-based wake-up determination. Instead of waking the user at a fixed time, the system uses sensor data (heart rate, breathing rate, body position) to detect sleep phases and determines the optimal wake-up moment, substituting mechanical timing with biological rhythm detection.
Data Source
AI summary
Introduced are methods and systems for: gathering human biological signals, such as heart rate, breathing rate, or temperature; analyzing the gathered human biological signals; and controlling home appliances based on the analysis.