Wearable Maternity Sensor with Dry Electrode and Pressure Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for monitoring fetal health during pregnancy are limited to clinical visits, failing to detect potential health issues between visits, thus necessitating a device for frequent and convenient monitoring.
Innovation Solution
A wearable sensor device with a dry electrode and pressure sensor that transmits data to a cloud computing server to generate a real-time clinical report on fetal health, accessible to clinicians via a web-based application, allowing for remote monitoring without the need for frequent clinical visits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If clinical monitoring is performed only at clinic visits, then the device complexity is reduced, but the continuous monitoring capability and detection of potential health issues between visits is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system is segmented into a wearable sensor device (counting fetal movements) and a remote server system (analyzing data and generating reports). This segmentation allows the complexity to be distributed: the wearable device remains simple and portable, while the server handles the complex data processing and analysis, resolving the contradiction between continuous monitoring reliability and device complexity.
2Reliability
If frequent clinical visits are conducted for fetal monitoring, then the detection of potential health issues is improved, but the loss of time and patient convenience deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service monitoring where the wearable device continuously tracks fetal movements and automatically transmits data to the server. The server autonomously analyzes the data and generates health assessments without requiring active participation from the patient or clinician during continuous monitoring periods, thereby reducing time loss while maintaining monitoring reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The server receives continuous data from the wearable device and provides feedback in the form of automated health assessments and reports. This feedback mechanism allows for continuous monitoring and detection of potential issues without requiring frequent clinical visits, as the system proactively identifies trends and anomalies based on the accumulated movement count data.
3Reliability
If continuous fetal monitoring is implemented, then the detection of potential health issues between visits is improved, but the device complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The server acts as an intermediary between the simple wearable sensor and the clinician. It receives raw data from the device, performs complex analysis and pattern recognition, and presents simplified health assessments to clinicians. This intermediary approach allows continuous monitoring capability while keeping the wearable device simple and the data processing requirements manageable through centralized server processing.
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
The wearable sensor device enables continuous, non-invasive fetal health monitoring, providing clinicians with timely and accurate assessments, reducing the need for unnecessary clinical visits and ensuring patient data confidentiality through secure authentication.
Implementation Method 1
The pressure sensor is coupled to the dry electrode to sense pressure within the belly
Data Source
AI summary
A sensor device is described that includes a dry electrode, a pressure sensor, and a communication apparatus. The dry electrode is configured to be placed adjacent to a belly of a pregnant patient. The pressure sensor is coupled to the dry electrode to sense pressure within the belly. The sensed pressure indicates counts of physiological activities of a fetus within the pregnant patient over a period of time. The communication apparatus is coupled to the pressure sensor and the dry electrode. The communication apparatus is configured to transmit data characterizing the counts of the plurality of physiological activities to a cloud computing server for generating an assessment of health of the fetus.