Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61F—FILTERS IMPLANTABLE INTO BLOOD VESSELS; PROSTHESES; DEVICES PROVIDING PATENCY TO, OR PREVENTING COLLAPSING OF, TUBULAR STRUCTURES OF THE BODY, e.g. STENTS; ORTHOPAEDIC, NURSING OR CONTRACEPTIVE DEVICES; FOMENTATION; TREATMENT OR PROTECTION OF EYES OR EARS; BANDAGES, DRESSINGS OR ABSORBENT PADS; FIRST-AID KITS
  • A61F13/00—Bandages or dressings; Absorbent pads
  • A61F13/15—Absorbent pads, e.g. sanitary towels, swabs or tampons for external or internal application to the body; Supporting or fastening means therefor; Tampon applicators
  • A61F13/42—Absorbent pads, e.g. sanitary towels, swabs or tampons for external or internal application to the body; Supporting or fastening means therefor; Tampon applicators with wetness indicator or alarm

Definitions

• the incontinent people are often not immediately nursed after having a motion of the bowels, unless the nursing people often do continuous, disagreeable check ; this results in a more or less prolonged contact with the liquids and a negative influence on the subject's psyche and health, because to be continuously in contact with bodily liquids can cause several painful irritations.
• Our invention allows to check the subjects continuously and communicate their needs of aid to the nursing people in real time .
• the Electronic Radio Acoustic Bodily Liquids Detector works on the basis of two distinct basic principles : the electrical conductivity of bodily liquids and the peculiar characteristic of bodily liquids to act as an electrolyte in a system that consists of proper metals, so that it turns into a sort of electrical generator or a cell.
• Our invention consists of three parts :
• the Sensor consists of several parts solidly assembled among one another : two electrodes made of thin, flexible, filigree metal foils among which there is a thin hydro-absorbent film.
• Each Sensor electrode is solidly assembled and electrically connected to a metallic male press-button that has to be pushed into the corresponding female press-button assembled and electrically connected to the Electronic Subsystem of Detection and Radio- Transmission . Because of its peculiar use, the Sensor is thrown away after being used, therefore, in order to restrain production expenses at most, the fastening system between the Sensor and the
• Detector can be made simpler by using synthetic material instead of the metal press-buttons.
• Both the two fastening systems offer a solid electrical connection that can even stand mechanical stress .
• the electrodes may be made of the same metal if the Sensor works on the principle of the electrical conductivity of bodily liquids .
• the electrodes must not be made of the same metal
• the Sensor may be set between two hydro-absorbent layers which may either wrap up the pelvis of the subject to nurse or be put under the subject's body . Again, it is never in direct contact with the subject's skin.
• the Sensor works according to the principle of the electrical conductivity of bodily liquids, provided they are lacking, there is no ion exchange between electrodes since they are separated by a hydro-absorbent dielectric film; in this way the Detector does not enable the Transmitter that is blocked .
• Detector enables the encoder which modulates, in accordance with a stored code, a radio- frequency wave that is propagated by the aerial .
• the Detector does not enable the Tansmitter that is blocked .
• the hydro-absorbent film between the electrodes soaks up the subject's liquids, an ion exchange between the two foils, or better, a potential difference occurs between the electrodes. Having excedeed a limit that has been set by a differential comparator this latter enables the encoder which, in accordance with a stored code, modulates a radio-frequency wave that is propagated by the aerial .
• the receiver picks up the signal that has been opportunely codified and transmitted by the Electronic Subsystem of Detection and Radio Transmission .
• the code received is compared with the one stored in the Receiver and the successful result of this comparison results in an intermittent sound that informs the person keeping the Receiver that the subject needs immediate help .
• FIG.1 we can see the three parts forming the Electronic Radio Acoustic Bodily Liquids Detector .
• FIG.5 the block diagram of the Receiver is shown .
• the radio frequency signal, picked up by the receiving aerial (R), is opportunely amplified and demodulated (S), then it reaches the decoder (T), which compares its own code with the code received by the radio signal.
• the amplified pulse generator (U) turns on and drives directly a buzzer (V), which produces an intermittent sound, otherwise the buzzer is off.
• FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of the Electronic Subsystem of Detection and Radio- Transmission whose working principle is based on the electrical conductivity of bodily liquids.
• the output of the square wave oscillator with fixed frequency (B) is connected with one of the electrodes of the Sensor (A) .
• FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the Electronic Subsystem of Detection and Radio- Transmission whose working principle is based on the peculiar characteristic of bodily liquids acting as an electrolyte in a system that consists of proper metals, so that the system turns into a sort of electrical generator or a cell .
• the electrodes of the Sensor (J) are connected to a detector Schmitt trigger type (K) whose output is cleaned from noise or spurious signal by means of the filter (L) before reaching the encoder (M), which, according to a stored code, modulates the amplitude of the radio- frequency wave generated by the radio-transmitter (N) and propagated by the aerial (P) .
• the battery (Q), that supplies power to the subsystem, completes FIG.4 .
• FIG. 2 shows all the several parts the Sensor is composed of . Both the electrodes "dl" and
• d3 are made of thin, flexible, filigree metal foils, as to allow the bodily liquid to soak the hydro-absorbent film (d2) between the two electrodes more quickly and uniformly .
• a metallic male press-button (d4) is connected which correspons to the two female buttons (el) of the Electronic Subsystem of Detection and Radio-Transmission as showed in FIG. 1 .
• the Subsystem of Detection and radio transmission may be carried out using a single-chip microcontroller that has on board the following devices: - a 12 bit Manchester encoder .
• the microprocessor has to be connected to a hybrid radio transmission module that has the following characteristic: - transmission frequency fixed by a laser trimmed coil at 433.92 Mhz in conformity with regulation I-ETS 300-220 .
• the Receiver consists of a single microcontroller that has on board the following devices :
• a piezoelectric transducer Driven by the microcontroller is a piezoelectric transducer that produces a 5 Khz sound frequency.

Landscapes

• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Epidemiology (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Biomedical Technology (AREA)
• Heart & Thoracic Surgery (AREA)
• Vascular Medicine (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Public Health (AREA)
• Veterinary Medicine (AREA)
• Measuring And Recording Apparatus For Diagnosis (AREA)
• Geophysics And Detection Of Objects (AREA)

Priority Applications (1)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=11404412

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Cited By (4)

Citations (8)

• 1996
  • 1996-09-06 IT IT96RM000610A patent/IT1285883B1/it active IP Right Grant
• 1997
  • 1997-09-05 AU AU43961/97A patent/AU4396197A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1997-09-05 WO PCT/IT1997/000218 patent/WO1998010390A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (8)

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