JP2012034840A - Wireless bioinformation sensing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wireless bioinformation sensing system allowing long-time measurement with a compact battery by reducing power consumption.SOLUTION: The wireless bioinformation sensing system includes: an integral control unit distributing a time reference; a plurality of measurement units receiving it; and an operation management unit managing operation conditions or times of the plurality of measurement units. The integral control unit receives signals from the plurality of measurement units, and demodulates, stores, transmits, and displays biosignals. The measurement unit includes an A/D conversion part, a data processing part, and a transmission/reception part, performs biosignal measurement according to the distributed time reference, and performs wireless transmission to the integral control unit. The operation management unit (1) starts the data processing parts of the measurement units, (2) starts the A/D conversion parts, and after the simultaneous measurement of the respective measurement units, (3) brings the A/D conversion parts and the data processing parts into power-saving states, (4) starts the data processing parts and the transmission parts in order of the priority of the measurement units, performs the transmission, and (5) brings the data processing parts and the transmission parts into power-saving states after the transmission.

Description

  The present invention is used for a scalable large-scale measurement system that can simultaneously sample all the sensors of a plurality of wireless biological information sensors and can change the number of wireless biological information sensors as necessary. It is a sensing system that synchronously samples the biological signal of and transmits digital data obtained by the sampling intermittently, and it becomes a problem in making it possible to measure for a long time with a small battery by reducing power consumption as much as possible The present invention relates to a wireless biological information sensing system that solves a random shift in time timing during standby-startup state control of an arithmetic processing unit while maintaining a time-division multiplexing method.

  As a means to monitor human organ activity non-invasively, a means has been developed to analyze the organ's electrophysiological activity from the electrical signals obtained through the electrodes by placing a large number of electrodes on the skin surface near the organ. And is in practical use. For example, by disposing a large number of electrodes around the heart or on the epidermis of the body that sandwiches the heart, it is possible to measure the activity state of the heart muscle that generates the motion of the heart in three dimensions in real time. For medical diagnosis and inter-comparison, the positions of a large number of electrodes to be arranged are standardized as in the 12-lead method, for example. In addition, many methods and devices for measuring cranial nerve activity by placing a large number of electrodes around the head and neck have been put to practical use. For medical diagnosis, for example, as in the international 10-20 method, the installation location of electrodes has been internationally standardized, but a large-scale measurement system having 128 or more electrodes has been put into practical use, and a three-dimensional cranial nerve. It is used for detailed measurement of activities.

  In such bioelectrophysiological activity measurement, it is clinically and fundamentally medical that measurement is performed in a state close to the activity in the daily life space without restraining the subject from the viewpoint of reducing the influence of performing the measurement. . For this reason, various wireless measurement systems exemplified in the following Patent Documents 1 to 3 that do not restrain the subject have been developed and implemented.

  Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-298589) improves the subject's sense of restraint and stabilizes the living body for a long period of time, and can monitor a biological signal in real time at a remote place. A biological signal measuring device is disclosed. This is because a transmitter is integrated with the electrocardiographic electrode, and an electrocardiogram signal is input to the transmitter from a plurality of electrocardiographic electrodes including the electrocardiographic electrode. The electrocardiogram signal input to the transmitter is wirelessly transmitted after being modulated to a frequency required for transmission by the modulator. This transmission wave is received by the wireless repeater, modulated to a frequency different from the above frequency, and then transmitted to the electrocardiogram monitor. The transmission wave output from the wireless repeater is received by an electrocardiogram monitor, is displayed momentarily as an electrocardiogram waveform on the display unit, and is monitored by a doctor or the like.

  Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-271466) discloses a biological signal collecting apparatus and a biological information processing system that can eliminate various problems caused by the presence of signal lines without being affected by noise. It is disclosed. In this configuration, a living body electrode is arranged in a matrix shape over substantially the entire surface of one side, and each of the living body electrodes is provided with a suction disk in which an electrode element is disposed at the center. And it is configured to be able to communicate with the host system wirelessly via an antenna, and the entire system is configured to be flexible, placed on the patient's chest, pressed on the desired position, and the electrode element with the suction disk Is made in contact with the surface of the skin, etc., so that the electrocardiogram information from the biological electrode at the desired position can be collected and the collected result is transmitted wirelessly.

  Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-533262) discloses a plurality of electrodes that are arranged on a support structure arranged on a person's head and that generate a signal that follows the person's brain waves, and electrical signals detected by the electrodes. Amplifying means for amplifying the signal, data processing means for processing the amplified signal, recognizing a specific mental state from the signal and generating a signal indicating the recognized mental state, and A system for recognizing brain activity comprising transmitter means for sending a signal corresponding to a recognized mental state to a computer is disclosed.

  The wireless electroencephalogram measurement system described in Patent Document 3 mainly includes a serial data communication helmet and a synthesis unit. The helmet consists of an electrode, an antenna, a data bus, a power cable, an input / output circuit (I / O) connected to the individual electrodes, and a power cable. The electrode is composed of a scalp contact portion and a signal amplifier, and an analog electric signal is output from the potential at the contact portion by a high input impedance amplifier. The amplifier is an operational amplifier capable of removing common-mode noise, and can remove electromagnetic noise floating in the measurement environment widely, such as power supply noise. These analog signals are connected to the synthesis unit for each electrode, subjected to waveform analysis processing by a digital signal processing circuit (DSP) through an analog-digital converter, and then diagnosed. The diagnosed result can be stored in the memory in the synthesis unit, and can be exchanged with the host computer via the antenna attached to the serial communication helmet by the transmission / reception unit. A multi-channel analog signal is processed by the DSP by time division multiplexing. Multiplexers for time-sharing can be placed in the serial communication helmet, but those that are not integrated in the DSP become unstable due to control signal skew, etc., so they are placed on the DSP side. Yes.

  In the measurement of biological information such as brain waves disclosed in Patent Document 3, it is desirable to optimize the number of channels and the band according to the measurement purpose. However, this requires updating the processing circuit each time the number of channels is changed. This is because information on a plurality of electrodes is aggregated for each subject, data is digitized by a synthesis unit attached to the subject, and processing such as meaning is performed. Furthermore, as the number of channels increases, it is necessary to dramatically increase the size of the multiplexer and the processing speed of the DSP. As a result, additional devices such as a large-capacity battery pack and a fan for cooling a high-speed DSP are required. It was necessary. From another point of view, this means that there is an upper limit to the equipment that can be worn by the subject under a realistic measurement environment, and the scale of the number of measuring instruments used is limited.

  These systems are provided with means and a battery power source for digitally converting electrical signals from a large number of electrodes through an analog signal processing unit, performing arithmetic processing on the converted digital data, and then wirelessly transmitting using a high-frequency carrier. Therefore, the subject can act without being restrained.

  Further, in a measurement system as shown in Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-242217) or Patent Document 5 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-124169), the CPU is started and unnecessary only when necessary to reduce power consumption. In this case, the start-standby state control for stopping is performed.

  Patent Document 4 discloses a power consumption control apparatus and method capable of realizing effective power saving control by finely switching the operation speed of a control element such as a CPU. In a power consumption control device that controls power consumption according to one of a plurality of power consumption modes, when a predetermined elapsed time is measured based on an external signal input or a preset timing, and the elapsed time has elapsed And a clock switching control circuit for switching to another power consumption mode for a predetermined time, and a PLL for switching the operating frequency according to the switched power consumption mode.

  In Patent Document 5, the operation clock of other internal circuits is controlled in conjunction with the frequency switching or supply stop of the CPU clock, and not only the CPU but also the IO controller or the like reduces the power consumption caused by the CPU clock frequency reduction. There is disclosed a system controller that extends to the internal circuit of the system to improve the power saving effect. The clock controller outputs a clock stop control signal (SPXCK) upon receiving a stop grant state detection signal (STP-GRT) under the setting of the power save mode flag by the clock stop, The supply of the CPU clock to the CPU is cut off, and the supply of the operation clock to the ISA bus control unit, DMA controller, infrared communication controller, serial I / O controller, etc. is cut off.

  Now, in response to medical / physiological demands, there is a case where an electrical signal activity measuring system of a living body having a larger scale by increasing the number of channels is required. At this time, the amount of data to be processed also increases with the number of channels. With such an increase in scale, the data processor is required to have an increased wireless transmission capacity as well as higher performance. However, these requirements increase the power consumption and greatly limit the time that can be measured by the battery, and at the same time, increase the size of the device itself to hate the subject's wearing feeling and interfere with the measurement result.

  Therefore, the construction of a measurement system using a parallel distributed processing method is underway. In other words, signals from multiple electrodes are not processed by a single arithmetic unit, but signals from electrodes in which a plurality of arithmetic units are grouped are processed independently and transmitted wirelessly, and these are received by the wireless receiving station. By integrating the data from multiple groups, a multi-channel measurement system can be built in a scalable manner without increasing the size of the system.

  In such a distributed processing type measurement system, it is necessary to control and synchronize units arranged in a distributed manner based on a single time reference. Therefore, synchronous measurement is achieved by distributing a reference clock signal and synchronizing each clock or event timer so that each element of the distributed system is synchronized with the clock signal.

  For example, US Pat. No. 6,441,747 discloses a programmable wireless system for medical monitoring. It comprises a base unit and a plurality of wireless sensor programmable transceivers, each wirelessly programmable. This base unit controls the transceiver by performing registration, arrangement, data collection, transmission command issuance, and the like using wireless technology. The biological information from the wireless transceiver is demodulated and supplied to a display monitor through a standard interface. In the wireless system disclosed in Patent Document 6, when a global time signal is transmitted from a base unit, each biosensor transceiver transmits all acquired signals to the base unit at the same time. Is. Data collection is started when a collection command is transmitted from the base unit to the sensor. In addition, transmission of the collected data starts with a command from the base unit. In addition, in order to use a plurality of sensors in a single frequency channel, time division multiplexing is performed, and the above wide-area time signal is used as a time reference in the wireless system.

  On the other hand, if low power consumption is prioritized, the CPU startup timing is not always constant, and there are variations between CPUs, so even if the clock frequency can be matched, complete synchronization controlled to the clock phase is achieved. Difficult to do. Such a phase shift becomes a fatal obstacle in electrophysiological measurement having information useful for temporal change of the stimulus response. Here, complete synchronization becomes difficult when an attempt is made to actively control between the standby state and the activation state of the arithmetic unit (CPU) for each sampling period, in response to a simultaneous activation signal from the outside, each CPU. Is activated independently, the time timing is shifted for each unit, and synchronized sampling measurement is hindered.

  The present invention is the same as Patent Document 3 described above in that the measurement system includes an overall unit and a plurality of measurement units. However, the following points are clearly different. In other words, the supervision unit distributes a time reference, receives transmission signals from a plurality of measurement units, demodulates a biological signal, and stores, transmits, or displays the biological signal. Further, each measurement unit includes a sensor unit and a transmission / reception unit, receives the time reference, performs biological signal measurement according to the output of a signal generator that can be phase-synchronized with the distributed time reference, and Measurement data is transmitted wirelessly. Furthermore, in the present invention, in order to reduce the size of the battery mounted on the measurement unit so as not to interfere with the behavior of the subject, power saving of the measurement unit is achieved.

JP 05-298589 A JP 09-271466 A Special table 2003-533262 gazette JP 2004-242217 A JP-A-10-124169 US Pat. No. 6,441,747

  In the measurement system that records biological information of multiple freely moving specimens simultaneously in real time, the portable measuring instrument attached to the specimen as described above and the base that receives and integrates the measurement data from each portable measuring instrument It is desirable to connect the stations with wireless communication. However, as in the case of performing detailed measurement of three-dimensional cranial nerve activity, a sensing system that samples a large number of biological signals synchronously and transmits the obtained digital data tends to increase power consumption. Since a large-capacity battery is required for continuous measurement, it may interfere with the behavior of the subject.

  For this reason, it is possible to sample all the sensors of a plurality of wireless biometric information sensors at the same time, and it is used for a scalable large-scale measurement system in which the number of wireless biometric information sensors can be changed as necessary. A wireless biological information sensing system that samples biological signals synchronously and transmits the digital data obtained by the sampling wirelessly, and enables low-power consumption to be measured for a long time with a small battery. It has been demanded.

  The wireless biometric information sensing system of the present invention is generally used for a scalable large-scale measurement system that can sample all the sensors of a plurality of wireless biometric information sensors at the same time and can change the number of wireless biometric information sensors as necessary. This is a sensing system that synchronously samples a plurality of biological signals from a living body that moves freely, and transmits the digital data obtained by the sampling wirelessly and intermittently. This solves a random shift in time timing during standby-startup state control of the arithmetic processing unit, which is a problem in enabling long-time measurement, while maintaining the time-division multiplexing method.

More specifically, the present invention is a wireless biological information sensing system, which is a central unit that distributes a time reference;
A plurality of measuring units for receiving the time reference;
An operation management unit that manages operation conditions or operation times of the plurality of measurement units. The overall unit receives transmission signals from the plurality of measurement units, demodulates biological signals from the measurement units, and stores, transmits, or displays them. The measurement unit includes an analog-digital conversion unit, a digital data processing unit, and a transmission / reception unit, performs biological signal measurement according to the output of a signal generator that can be phase-synchronized with a distributed time reference, and measures the measurement unit Data is transmitted wirelessly. In addition, the operation management unit (1) activates the digital data processing unit of each measurement unit under its control, and (2) activates the analog-digital conversion unit, and performs the measurement operation. (3) The analog-to-digital conversion unit and the digital data processing unit are put into a power saving state, and (4) the digital data processing is performed in accordance with the priority assigned to each of the measurement units. And the transmission unit are activated to perform transmission, and (5) the digital data processing unit and the transmission unit are set in a power saving state after the transmission.

  The operation management unit includes a timer unit and a calculation unit that manages an operation condition or an operation time of the measurement unit, and the timer unit manages an operation time zone of the calculation unit.

  The operating conditions or operating time of the analog-digital conversion unit, digital data processing unit, and transmission / reception unit provided in the measurement unit are controlled from the calculation unit of the operation management unit.

The measurement unit further includes an event timer,
The operation management unit manages operation conditions or operation times of the analog-digital conversion unit, the digital data processing unit, and the transmission / reception unit of the measurement unit by managing the event timer.

  The transmission unit of the measurement unit includes carrier frequency control means for controlling a carrier frequency during transmission, and the reception unit includes demodulation means for discriminating the carrier frequency and demodulating a transmission signal. Here, the operation management unit manages the carrier frequency control means so that a plurality of measurement units that transmit at the same timing transmit the transmission carrier at different carrier frequencies all together without congestion.

  It is used for a scalable large-scale measurement system that can simultaneously sample all the sensors of multiple wireless biometric information sensors and change the number of wireless biometric information sensors as necessary. It is a sensing system that performs sampling in synchronization and wirelessly transmits digital data obtained by the sampling, and can realize a wireless biological information sensing system that can reduce power consumption as much as possible and can measure for a long time with a small battery. Furthermore, a data sensing method combining a time multiplexing method and a frequency multiplexing method can realize a large-scale sensing system even if the data transfer rate of a single channel is limited to reduce power consumption.

It is a block diagram which shows the wireless biometric information sensing system of this invention. A plurality of measurement units and a control unit, wherein the control unit transmits a time reference to the plurality of measurement units, receives and demodulates a signal transmitted from the measurement unit, and stores, transmits, or displays the time reference; To do. The measurement unit includes a sensor unit and a transmission / reception unit, performs biological signal measurement at a timing based on the distributed time reference, and wirelessly transmits measurement data to the overall unit. It is a figure which shows the example of the wireless biometric information sensing system which further reduced power consumption from the structure of FIG. This manages a plurality of measurement units 20 that measure and transmit biological signals, a plurality of reception units 30 that receive respective transmission data from the measurement unit 20, and operating conditions or operating times of the measurement units 20. The operation management unit 10 is the same as the case of FIG. However, the measurement unit 20 includes a second event timer 27, and differs in that the analog signal processing unit 21, the digital signal processing unit 22, and the transmission unit 23 are managed accordingly. It is a figure which shows the example of a time chart in which the operation management unit of FIG. 1 manages eight measurement units. It is a figure which shows the example of a time chart used when the said operation management unit 10 manages the operating condition or operating time of the said analog signal processing part 21, the said digital signal processing part 22, or the said transmission part 23 of the said measurement unit. . In accordance with the event timer 11, the operation management unit 10 uses a distribution means 14 to perform detailed procedures stored in the memory 13 by the CPU (arithmetic unit) 12 via the trigger pulse signal line 1. Deliver to. Here, the second event timer 27 manages the events in each measurement unit. The pulse (A) from the event timer 11 is emitted to activate the second event timer 27 of each measurement unit, and (1) the digital signal processing unit 22 of the measurement unit 20 is activated. (2) Subsequently, after the analog signal processing unit 21 is activated and the measurement operation is simultaneously performed by the respective measurement units, (3) the analog signal processing unit 21 and the digital signal processing unit 22 store data. Then, these are put into a power saving state, and (4) the digital signal processing unit 22 and the transmission unit 23 of the measurement unit 20 are sequentially activated and transmitted according to the priority assigned to each of the measurement units. I do. The digital signal processing unit 22 is activated to transmit digital data. Next, (5) after the transmission, the digital signal processing unit and the transmission unit are set in a power saving state. The transmission unit of the measurement unit includes carrier frequency control means for controlling a carrier frequency at the time of transmission, and the operation management unit is configured such that a plurality of measurement units that transmit at the same timing have the transmission carriers at different carrier frequencies without congestion. It is a figure which shows the time chart in the case of managing the said carrier frequency control means so that it may transmit all at once. This shows a scheme in which the transmission carrier frequency is controlled for each unit that transmits data all at once, and data is transmitted all at once at carrier frequencies f1 and f2 by the frequency multiplexing method. The plurality of receiving units have means for selectively discriminating a signal corresponding to a carrier frequency from frequency multiplexed signals. The first event timer accurately generates the timing for sampling. In addition, a second event timer is provided for each measurement unit, and an event trigger is generated that receives a trigger signal from the first event timer, generates an event trigger indicating the start of measurement at a delay time τ1, and starts transmission. Is generated with a delay time τn. τn is stored in advance in the measurement unit in accordance with the priority order determined for each measurement unit. This time varies according to the priority order, and a necessary and sufficient time interval: τ _{i + 1} −τ _{i + 1} (i = 1, 2,..., So as to prevent congestion due to overlapping transmission times in adjacent orders. .., n-1) is defined. (A) shows an example in which a set of reference electrodes used in common with the measurement unit and the exploration electrode connected to the measurement unit is mounted on the head, and an electroencephalograph based on the standard (10-20 method) is configured with a 4-channel measurement unit It is a figure which shows the Example in the case of having carried out. The ear electrodes A1 and A2 are common negative electrodes. Fz, Cz, and Pz connect the common electrode of the measurement unit. The probe electrode can be attached to any part of the head, but is usually attached to a site defined by an international standard for electroencephalogram measurement. The reference electrode is concentrated in the earlobe with all four units. (B) shows the example which mounted | wore the hat with the measurement unit of FIG. Reception is performed using a reception module corresponding to the transmission module, and the received signal is taken into the PC via USB. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example which uses this invention also as a wireless multi-person electroencephalogram measurement system. In this case, the wireless biological information sensing system 300 includes stimulus generation means 310 that operates according to a time reference signal. Impulse-like stimuli from the stimulus generating means are simultaneously given to a plurality of subjects, and biological signals caused by the stimuli are measured by the measurement unit 200 and compared. It is a figure which shows the Example which comprises a 12-lead electrocardiograph measurement system by three measurement units of 4 channels. The separation resistor is inserted to prevent a short circuit between the measurement electrodes. The time management unit is connected to distribute the time reference clock to the three measurement units in the same manner as the brain waveform (not shown in the figure). (A) shows the example which uses this invention as a cardiac radio wave measuring system by installing an electrode in a body part, especially a heart part. Electrodes E1 and E2 are placed on the arm, E3 and common electrode COM are placed on the foot, and E4 to E9 are placed around the heart. (B) is the example of a connection diagram of each electrode and module (measurement unit) in the case of (a). The amplifier is an amplifier that performs addition / subtraction in accordance with the regulations of I lead to III lead, aVR lead, aVL lead, aVF lead, and V1 lead to V6 lead.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, devices having the same function or similar functions are denoted by the same reference numerals unless there is a special reason.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of a wireless biological information sensing system of the present invention. This manages a plurality of measurement units 20 that measure and transmit biological signals, a plurality of reception units 30 that receive respective transmission data from the measurement unit 20, and operating conditions or operating times of the measurement units 20. The operation management unit 10 is provided. The measurement unit 20 includes an analog signal processing unit 21 that performs a measurement operation for processing an analog signal input from the measurement electrode 26 and converting the analog signal into a digital signal, and a digital signal that is input, processed, and temporarily stored. A processing unit 22 and a transmission unit 23 that transmits the digital signal are provided.

For example, one operation management unit manages eight measurement units. In other words, the operation management unit 10 communicates with the measurement unit using each channel of n = 8 channels, and sets the operation conditions such as the applied voltage of the measurement unit 20 or the operation time such as the operation start and end times. Set in the unit 24 and manage. For example, management is performed according to the time chart shown in FIG.
(1) Start the digital signal processing unit 22 of each of the measurement units (assuming there are n) 20 under its own management. In accordance with the event timer 11, the operation management unit 10 uses a distribution means 14 to transmit the contents stored in the memory 13 by the CPU (arithmetic unit) 12 via the data bus 2 or the trigger pulse signal line 1. Distribute to the measurement unit 20 (A). In each measurement unit 20, when a trigger pulse is delivered for itself, the digital signal processing unit 22 is activated according to the contents of the setting unit (B1,..., Bn).
(2) Subsequently, the analog signal processing unit 21 is activated (C1,..., Cn), and the measurement operation is simultaneously performed by the respective measurement units 20.
(3) In accordance with the priority assigned to each of the measurement units 20, the transmitter 23 is activated to transmit from the antenna 25 (D1,..., Dn). This is managed by a trigger pulse for each measurement unit from the operation management unit 10.
(4) The digital signal processing unit 22 and the transmission unit 23 are set in a power saving state after the transmission. It is desirable that the timing for setting the power saving state is immediately after each transmission unit finishes transmission. The time until each measurement unit finishes transmission is known, and the time is set in the operation setting unit.
(5) Moreover, the transmitted signal is received by the receiving unit corresponding to each measuring unit.

  In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the operation management unit 10 uses a data bus 2 or a trigger pulse signal for the contents stored in the memory 13 by the CPU 12 according to the event timer 11 using the distribution means 14. Delivered to each measuring unit 20 via line 1. In each measurement unit 20, when the trigger pulse is distributed for itself, the digital signal processing unit 22, the analog signal processing unit 21, and the transmission unit 23 are activated as described above according to the contents of the setting unit.

  The above power saving state refers to a state in which the applied voltage is reduced or the clock frequency of the logic circuit is reduced to reduce power consumption.

  Thereby, it is possible to perform sampling synchronized with a plurality of channels without depending on the absolute time shift for each transmission unit accompanying the state transition of standby-activation. In transmission of measurement data, it is possible to collect a large amount of data via the corresponding receiving units by using both frequency multiplexing and time multiplexing. In addition, each measurement unit is configured as an independent basic unit, so that this measurement system can be changed in a scalable manner for each multiplication of the basic unit.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of a wireless biometric information sensing system that further saves power. This manages a plurality of measurement units 20 that measure and transmit biological signals, a plurality of reception units 30 that receive respective transmission data from the measurement unit 20, and operating conditions or operating times of the measurement units 20. The operation management unit 10 is the same as that in the first embodiment described above. However, the measurement unit 20 includes a second event timer 27, and the analog signal processing unit 21, the digital signal processing unit 22, and the transmission unit 23 are managed in accordance with the second event timer 27.

The operation management unit 10 manages the operation conditions or operation time of the analog signal processing unit 21, the digital signal processing unit 22, or the transmission unit 23 of the measurement unit, for example, according to a time chart shown in FIG. In accordance with the event timer 11, the operation management unit 10 uses a distribution means 14 to perform detailed procedures stored in the memory 13 by the CPU (arithmetic unit) 12 via the trigger pulse signal line 1. Deliver to. Here, the second event timer 27 manages the events in each measurement unit.
The pulse (A) from the event timer 11 is emitted to activate the second event timer 27 of each measurement unit, and (1) the digital signal processing unit 22 of the measurement unit 20 is activated. (2) Subsequently, after the analog signal processing unit 21 is activated and the measurement operation is simultaneously performed by the respective measurement units, (3) the analog signal processing unit 21 and the digital signal processing unit 22 store data. Then, these are put into a power saving state, and (4) the digital signal processing unit 22 and the transmission unit 23 of the measurement unit 20 are sequentially activated and transmitted according to the priority assigned to each of the measurement units. I do. The digital signal processing unit 22 is activated to transmit digital data. Next, (5) the digital signal processing unit and the transmission unit are put into a power saving state after the transmission.

FIG. 5 shows that the transmission unit of the measurement unit includes carrier frequency control means for controlling the carrier frequency at the time of transmission, and the operation management unit is configured such that a plurality of measurement units that transmit at the same timing mutually exchange the transmission carriers. It is a figure which shows the time chart in the case of managing the said carrier frequency control means so that it may transmit simultaneously with a different carrier frequency without congestion. This shows a scheme in which the transmission carrier frequency is controlled for each unit that transmits data all at once, and data is transmitted all at once at carrier frequencies f1 and f2 by the frequency multiplexing method. The plurality of receiving units have means for selectively discriminating a signal corresponding to a carrier frequency from frequency multiplexed signals. The first event timer accurately generates the timing for sampling. In addition, a second event timer is provided for each measurement unit, and an event trigger is generated that receives a trigger signal from the first event timer, generates an event trigger indicating the start of measurement at a delay time τ1, and starts transmission. Is generated with a delay time τn. τn is stored in advance in the measurement unit in accordance with the priority order determined for each measurement unit. This time varies according to the priority order, and a necessary and sufficient time interval: τ _{i + 1} −τ _{i + 1} (i = 1, 2,..., So as to prevent congestion due to overlapping transmission times in adjacent orders. .., n-1) is defined. By such a combined transmission method of time multiplexing and frequency multiplexing, the accommodation measurement is performed up to the product nk of the time multiplexing number n (τ1,..., Τn) and the frequency multiplexing number k (f1, f2,..., Fk). The number of units can be expanded.

  FIG. 6A shows an example in which a set of reference electrodes used in common with four sets of measurement units and exploration electrodes connected thereto is mounted on the head. The probe electrode can be attached to any part of the head, but is usually attached to a site defined by an international standard for electroencephalogram measurement. The reference electrode is concentrated in the earlobe with all four units. FIG. 6B shows an example in which the measurement unit, electrodes, and the like shown in FIG. Reception is performed using a reception module corresponding to the transmission module, and the received signal is taken into the PC via USB.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the wireless biological information sensing system of the present invention can also be used as a wireless multi-person electroencephalogram measurement system. In this case, the wireless biological information sensing system 300 includes stimulus generation means 310 that operates according to a time reference signal. An impulse-like stimulus from the stimulus generating means is simultaneously given to a plurality of subjects, and a biological signal caused by the stimulus is measured by the measurement unit 200 and compared.

  This is used when, for example, the difference in the influence of some stimulus on the sensibility such as video and sound on a plurality of subjects or test animals is converted into data by the difference in the biological signal. With this system, for example, the influence of some video on the subject can be converted into data using differences in biological signals.

  For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 7, (1) an audiovisual information control device 312 that controls content in which a stimulus start marker is embedded is used. The main purpose of this apparatus is to set presentation conditions such as timing when a single intense stimulus or repeated minute stimulus of video or audio is presented to a subject or test animal. Also, (2) an audiovisual information display device 311 that displays content to a subject by visual, auditory, or both methods is used. The audiovisual information display device is not limited to a normal image display device and sound source, and includes white or monochromatic illumination, an ultrasonic source and an ultra-low frequency source, a disturbance source and a noise source that interfere with audiovisual. The audiovisual information display device 311 and the audiovisual information control device 312 constitute the stimulus generating means 310. (3) A stimulus marker detector 330 that is installed near the audiovisual information display device and detects a stimulus point from display information is used. This becomes an input means for inputting a stimulus start time point signal. This is because the stimulus that is actually displayed to the subject is temporally different from the stimulus marker embedded in the content from the audiovisual information control device due to a circuit delay or the like, and it is desirable that the stimulus be placed near the subject There is also. By detecting the information on the stimulation points presented on the display device in the same space as the subject, it is possible to remove the influence of circuit delay, propagation delay, and the like. The stimulus start time signal may be a signal synchronized with the stimulus, or a signal for notifying the disclosure time of the stimulus.

  FIG. 8 shows an embodiment in which a 12-lead electrocardiogram measurement system is constituted by three 4-channel measurement units. The separation resistor is inserted to prevent a short circuit between the measurement electrodes. The time management unit is connected to distribute the time reference clock to the three measurement units in the same manner as the brain waveform (not shown in the figure). (A) shows the example which uses this invention as a cardiac radio wave measuring system by installing an electrode in a body part, especially a heart part. Electrodes E1 and E2 are placed on the arm, E3 and common electrode COM are placed on the foot, and E4 to E9 are placed around the heart. (B) is the example of a connection diagram of each electrode and module (measurement unit) in the case of (a). The amplifier is an amplifier that performs addition / subtraction in accordance with the regulations of induction I to induction III, aVR induction, aVL induction, aVF induction, and V1 to V6 induction.

  Further, the electrodes E1 to E9 can be installed on the abdomen of a pregnant woman and used as a fetal cardiac radio wave measurement system. In this case, in order to separate the electrocardiogram of the electrocardiogram 2 maternal body and the electrocardiogram of the fetus, it is necessary to measure with a plurality of electrodes, and it is desirable to use as many electrodes as possible. This is to obtain an electrocardiogram of the fetus using the fact that the electrocardiogram waveform is a projection of the myocardial conduction vector in the direction connecting the measurement electrodes. In other words, it is possible to separate the fetal and maternal ECG waveforms by simultaneously measuring the ECG waveforms in many directions while estimating the fetal and maternal heart positions individually, The wireless living body information sensing system of the present invention can be realized without impairing the flexibility of the mother body.

  When measuring the electroencephalograms and electrocardiograms of a large number of people at the same time, an electrocardiograph having the same basic configuration as the electroencephalograph can be used. However, since the potential corresponding to the electrocardiogram is about 100 times larger than that of the electroencephalogram, it may be difficult to use a measurement unit optimized with an electroencephalograph. In this case, a measurement unit corresponding to both electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram can be constructed by increasing the resolution of the ADC and simultaneously reducing the gain of the signal amplifier to give a margin in the dynamic range. It should be noted that the difference between the measurement bands of the electrocardiogram and the electroencephalogram can be compensated by subjecting the time series digital data accumulated after the data acquisition to a computational filtering calculation process.

1 Signal line for trigger pulse 2 Data bus 10 Operation management unit 11 Event timer 12 CPU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 13 Memory 14 Distribution means 20 Measurement unit 21 Analog signal processing part 22 Digital signal processing part 23 Transmission part 24 Operation setting part 25 Antenna 26 Measurement electrode 27 Second event timer 30 Reception unit 31 Antenna 300 Wireless biological information sensing system 310 Stimulus generation means 311 Audiovisual information display device 312 Audiovisual information control device 330 Stimulus marker detector

Claims (6)

A plurality of measurement units that measure and transmit biological signals;
A plurality of receiving units for receiving respective transmission data from the measuring unit;
An operation management unit for managing the operation conditions or operation time of the measurement unit;
With
The measurement unit includes an analog signal processing unit that performs a measurement operation of processing an analog signal input from a measurement electrode and converting the analog signal into a digital signal, and a digital signal processing unit that inputs, processes, and temporarily stores the digital signal. A transmission unit for transmitting the digital signal,
The operation management unit manages the operation condition or operation time of the analog signal processing unit, the digital signal processing unit, or the transmission unit of the measurement unit, and (1) each of the measurement units under its own management. The digital signal processing unit is activated, (2) the analog signal processing unit is subsequently activated, and the measurement operation is simultaneously performed in each of the measurement units, and then (3) the analog signal processing unit is in a power saving state. (4) sequentially activate and transmit the transmitter of the measurement unit according to the priority assigned to each of the measurement units, and (5) after the transmission, the digital signal processing unit and the transmitter It is intended to save power,
A wireless biological information sensing system characterized by that. The operation management unit manages the operation condition or operation time of the analog signal processing unit, the digital signal processing unit, or the transmission unit of the measurement unit, and (1) each of the measurement units under its own management. (2) Next, after starting the analog signal processing unit and simultaneously performing the measurement operation in each of the measurement units, (3) the analog signal processing unit and the digital signal The processing unit is set in a power saving state, (4) according to the priority assigned to each of the measurement units, sequentially activates the digital signal processing unit and the transmission unit of the measurement unit to perform transmission, and (5) the The digital signal processing unit and the transmission unit are set in a power saving state after transmission.
The wireless biological information sensing system according to claim 1.   The operation management unit includes a timer unit and a calculation unit that manages an operation condition or an operation time of the measurement unit, and the timer unit manages an operation time zone of the calculation unit. The wireless biological information sensing system according to any one of claims 1 and 2.   2. The operation condition or operation time of an analog signal processing unit, a digital signal processing unit, and a transmission / reception unit provided in the measurement unit is controlled from a calculation unit of the operation management unit. 4. The wireless biological information sensing system according to any one of items 1 to 3. The measurement unit further includes an event timer,
The operation management unit manages operation conditions or operation times of the analog-digital conversion unit, the digital data processing unit, and the transmission / reception unit of the measurement unit by managing the event timer. The wireless biological information sensing system according to any one of 1 to 4. The transmitter of the measurement unit includes carrier frequency control means for controlling a carrier frequency at the time of transmission,
The receiving unit includes demodulation means for discriminating the carrier frequency and demodulating a transmission signal,
The operation management unit manages the carrier frequency control means so that a plurality of measurement units that transmit at the same timing transmit the transmission carrier at different carrier frequencies all together without congestion. The wireless biological information sensing system according to any one of 5.

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