KR100307085B1 - Ultrasonic incontinence alarm system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An ultrasonic incontinence alarm system and a method thereof are provided to measure the quantity of urinary by measuring a distance between a front wall and a rear wall of a bladder through an ultrasonic sensor unit. CONSTITUTION: A power unit provides predetermined voltages in order to drive all sorts of devices. A DC(Direct Current)/DC converter unit(12) boosts the voltage inputted from the power unit through relay and outputs the boosted voltage. A pulse generating unit(13) receives a signal provided from a microprocessor according to a predetermined time period to generate a sub-pulse of a predetermined voltage. A ultrasonic sensor unit for nature's call receives the sub-pulse from the pulse generating unit(13) and generates an ultrasonic signal to detect a distance between a front wall and a rear wall of a bladder. A receiving signal filter unit(15) eliminates noises of low frequency among the receiving waves received to the ultrasonic sensor unit(11) for nature's call and detects reflected ultrasonic receiving signals. A receiving signal amplifying unit(16) amplifies the weak ultrasonic receiving signals detected from the receiving signal filter unit(15) from low frequency to high frequency.

Description

Ultrasonic incontinence alarm system and method

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic urinary incontinence alarm system and method, and more particularly, by attaching an ultrasonic urinary sensor to the pubic coupling part of the human body, measuring the distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder, and comparing the measured distance with a preset reference distance. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic urinary incontinence alarm system and method, by outputting an alarm sound through a buzzer or the like when the distance is greater than a reference distance, so that a patient with urinary incontinence can recognize in advance without disturbing his bladder.

In general, a normal person can be freely placed at a desired time and place and can be tolerated when necessary, by voluntary control through a sphincter mechanism.

Urinary incontinence is called incontinence when this mechanism causes external damage to the sphincter or paralyzes the nerves that occupy the sphincter.

There are four basic forms of this incontinence:

a. Stress Incontinence: Incontinence, which occurs when the pelvic muscles are injured, occurs when there is some movement of the body that exerts pressure on exercise, coughing, sneezing, laughing or bladder.

b. Urge Incontinence: A condition caused by an inability to control urine while going to the toilet and causing damage to the nerves that pass along the path from the bladder to the brain, and suddenly beyond conscious control It is caused by the contraction of the bladder.

c. Overflow Incontinence: Urinary incontinence that flows automatically beyond the bladder's storage capacity due to an increase in bladder muscles and loss of contractility after uterine surgery or in diseases of the glucose or peripheral nervous system.

d. Incontinence from Surgery: Incontinence from surgery such as hysterectomy, caesarean section, prostatectomy, small intestine or rectal surgery.

Urinary incontinence caused by the above reasons is expected to increase the proportion of patients with urinary incontinence as the ratio of elderly people to the entire population gradually increases due to the development of medicine, and currently there is no clear statistical data on incontinence patients in Korea According to a recent Japanese 1991 survey, 10% of men with urinary incontinence accounted for 10% of the total, more than 24% for women, and a total of about 4 million people. Combining spinal injuries and post-abdominal sequelae from traffic accidents, about 6% of the population, as in Europe, about 6 million people have urinary incontinence.

The survey also found that only 15.1 percent of men and 3.3 percent of women were receiving treatment at the time.

Therefore, the development of measures at home and supportive technologies are needed. One of the typical measures currently used is to use the diaper for the elderly.

This method is most commonly used because it is very easy to use, and development of a paper diaper for the elderly for absorbing incontinence is required.

However, it is not recommended to wear this diaper because it is likely to hurt the pride of the parties, and it is required to limit the use of the diaper to the case of extending the range of life such as going out or temporary use after surgery.

On the other hand, the treatment of urinary incontinence is not only drug therapy or surgical treatment, but also a method of training the bladder or training the pelvic muscles by itself. About 80% of the urinary incontinence can be cured or controlled by this method. .

Besides these methods, Tamura T. et al., One of the most commonly used treatments for night sickness patients, uses an electrode attached to a diaper to measure the change in temperature or impedance and to alarm when the temperature is above the reference temperature or voltage. It was.

However, in all these methods, the alarm is triggered only when the urinary incontinence reaches the electrode.

That is, there is a disadvantage that the alarm by this method does not operate before the patient urinates and operates only when urine is used.

There is a need for the development of a urgent alarm system that can compensate for this shortcoming of the methods currently used and help the patient know and deploy before urination.

For this purpose, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 7-136167 (1995.5.30) discloses an ultrasound probe for urine detection of a patient and an ultrasonic reflection echo corresponding to the front and rear walls of the bladder by driving the ultrasound probe. A urination alarm device comprising an ultrasonic receiver for determining whether or not the storage capacity is the urination level and an alarm issued to a patient or guardian whose storage capacity has exceeded the urination level has been disclosed.

However, the pre-patented patent does not describe the configuration of the device in detail, so that those skilled in the art can not easily implement, and in particular, there is no means for displaying the urinary bladder, the sudden urinary incontinence urgent urinary incontinence ( Urge Incontinence) had no significant effect.

The present invention is to solve the above problems, by attaching the ultrasonic yaw sensor to the pubic coupling part of the human body to measure the distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder, compared with the reference distance set in advance to measure the reference If it is greater than the distance, the alarm sound is output through the buzzer, so that the patient with urinary incontinence can recognize urinary bladder in his or her bladder without any hindrance and urination as well. The aim is to provide an ultrasound urinary incontinence alarm system and method that is effective for patients with Urge Incontinence who do not have time to go to the toilet.

As a technical idea for achieving the object of the present invention, in the device for measuring the amount of urine accumulated in the bladder using ultrasonic waves;

A power supply unit for supplying a predetermined voltage for driving various elements constituting the device, a DC / DC converter unit for boosting and outputting a predetermined voltage input from the power supply unit through a relay, and a microprocessor according to a set time period Ultrasonic yaw that detects the distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder by receiving the signal provided from the pulse generator to generate a negative pulse of a predetermined voltage, and generates an ultrasonic signal by applying the negative pulse applied from the pulse generator A reception signal filter unit for removing the low-frequency noise from the received wave received from the sensor unit of the ultrasonic yaw and detecting only the reflected ultrasonic reception signal, and a weak ultrasonic reception detected from the reception signal filter unit A received signal amplifier for amplifying the signal at a high frequency, and the ultrasonic signal amplified by the received signal amplifier Control means for calculating the inter-wall distance in the bladder through a predetermined calculation algorithm, and if the distance between the bladder is calculated by the calculation of the control means, display means for displaying the quantity corresponding to the calculated inter-wall distance of the bladder. And, when the distance between the wall of the bladder calculated by the control means is greater than the set reference distance is proposed an invention consisting of alarm means that is operated by the control of the control means.

1 is a circuit diagram showing an ultrasonic urinary incontinence alarm system according to the present invention,

2 is a block circuit diagram showing each configuration of the ultrasonic urinary incontinence warning system according to the present invention;

3 is a circuit diagram showing a power supply unit used in the present invention;

4 is a cross-sectional view showing a sensor unit of the ultrasonic yaw according to the present invention;

5 is a flow chart showing an ultrasonic urinary incontinence warning method according to the present invention,

6 is a reference diagram showing various pins of a microprocessor according to the present invention;

7 is a reference diagram for explaining a principle of distance measurement between tissues using ultrasound.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10 microprocessor 11 power unit

12: DC / DC converter section 13: pulse generator

14: ultrasonic sensor unit 15: reception signal filter unit

16: receiving signal amplifier 17: 5V regulator IC

18: voltage conversion unit 19: pulse input unit

20: vibrator 21: acoustic matching layer

22: sound absorption layer 23: primary acoustic matching layer

24: 2nd acoustic matching layer 25: Decimal conversion decoder

26: 7-segment 27: LED for alarm

28: alarm buzzer 29: shield case

30: wedge 31: shield pad

32: resistor 40: clock pulse input unit

41: Interlude set key of bladder

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings with respect to the configuration and operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

1, 2 and 3 are circuit block diagrams showing an ultrasonic urinary incontinence warning system according to the present invention.

The circuit block diagram according to the present invention is an apparatus for measuring urine accumulated in the bladder by using ultrasonic waves;

The power supply unit 11 provides voltages such as + 9V, +5, and -5V to drive the microprocessor 10 and various devices, and the + 9V voltage provided from the power supply unit 11 is converted back to 60V through a relay. A DC / DC converter 12 for boosting and outputting a pulse generator 13 for generating a negative pulse of -48V by receiving a control signal provided from the microprocessor 10 according to a time period set by a user; And an ultrasonic yaw sensor unit 14 for detecting the distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder by receiving the sub-pulse applied from the pulse generator 13 and generating an ultrasonic signal. The reception signal filter unit 15 which removes low-frequency noise among the received waves and detects only the reflected ultrasonic reception signal, and the weak ultrasonic reception signal detected by the reception signal filter 15 are high frequency. Amplifying reception A microprocessor 10 which receives the call amplifying unit 16 and the ultrasonic wave signal amplified by the receiving signal amplifying unit 16 and calculates the distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder through a predetermined calculation algorithm; When the inter-wall distance of the bladder is calculated by the calculation of the microprocessor 10, the display means for displaying the quantity corresponding to the calculated inter-wall distance of the bladder, and the distance between the wall of the bladder calculated by the control means is less than the set reference distance If large, it consists of an alarm means actuated by the control of the said control means.

In addition, the power supply unit 11 is a 5V regulator IC 17 for converting a 9V voltage, which is a battery power source, into a 5V constant voltage, and a voltage converter 18 for converting the + 5V voltage into a -5V voltage to produce a -5V power supply. It is composed.

In addition, the ultrasonic yaw sensor unit 14 includes a pulse input unit 19 which receives a predetermined sub pulse from the pulse generator 13, a vibrator 20 which is an active element for generating ultrasonic waves, and ultrasonic waves in a medium. The acoustic matching layer 21 facilitates the transmission, and the sound absorbing layer 22 mainly absorbing the rear sound to limit the length of the ultrasonic pulse.

In this case, in particular, the vibrator 20 is made of a piezoelectric material such as quartz, rosell salt, barium titanate (BaTiO 3), PZT, and the like to generate ultrasonic waves.

In particular, the acoustic matching layer 21 reduces the acoustic impedance difference with the skin so as to efficiently transmit the ultrasonic waves generated by the vibrator into the tissue and to receive the ultrasonic waves reflected from the tissue with a high sensitivity. s), primary acoustic matching layer 24 with density 3.425 (g / cm3), thickness 222 (μm), acoustic impedance 6.85 (MRayls), sound velocity 2280 (m / s), density 1.083 (g / cm3) And a secondary acoustic matching layer 25 having a thickness of 254 (占 퐉) and an acoustic impedance of 2.47 (MRayls).

In addition, a lower side of the acoustic matching layer 21 is provided with a wedge 30 made of Plexiglass, which is a refractive body, such that an incident angle is 15 °.

In addition, the display means is displayed by receiving a decimal conversion decoder 25 for converting the binary digital data received from the microprocessor 10 to a decimal number, and the decimal data from the decimal conversion decoder 25 It consists of a seven-segment 26.

In addition, the alarm means is an alarm buzzer for outputting a warning LED 27 and a predetermined sound that is emitted under the control of the control means when the distance of the urine calculated by the microprocessor 10 is greater than the set distance. It consists of 28.

5 is a flow chart showing the ultrasonic urinary incontinence warning method according to the present invention.

That is, this flowchart is a process of checking whether the inter-wall distance set key 41 of the bladder is initially input when the power is turned on, and setting the input distance (S100, S101, S102) when it is confirmed that the input is made, and the wall of the bladder. After the distance setting process is completed, if the operation time period of the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw is continuously set, the following process is performed, and if not set, the distance between the walls of the bladder is set to a predetermined default value. S103 and S104, a step of boosting the applied voltage by driving the DC / DC converter unit 12 by applying a predetermined voltage (S105), and the pulse generator 13 to which the boosted voltage is applied Generating a sub-pulse at a time period (S106), and transmitting the ultrasonic wave toward the bladder by the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw receiving the pulse generated in the pulse generation process (S107), and the second Waiting for a predetermined time after the start of the wave transmission (S108), and when receiving the ultrasonic signal reflected by reaching the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder in the reception standby process and checking the received signal (S109) S110), and after calculating the distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder using the received ultrasonic echo signal, checking whether the calculated distance between the walls of the bladder is greater than a preset reference distance (S111, S112), and As a result of calculating the distance between the bladder, if the calculated distance between the bladder is larger than the preset reference distance, the alarm buzzer 28 and the LED 27 are operated, and then the quantity corresponding to the calculated distance between the bladder is displayed on the display means. It consists of the process (S113, S114).

Referring to the operation of the present invention configured as described above are as follows.

The present invention is preferably applied when a home elderly person or a patient with urinary incontinence tries to urinate without recognizing that his bladder is full of yoga.

First, when the user turns on the ultrasonic urinary incontinence alarm system, the power generator, which is the power supply unit 11, starts to operate as shown in FIG. 3, and a 9V battery is used for the power generator, and the power generator 11 is used. 9V battery power is switched to 9V, + 5V and -5V (S100).

At this time, the 9V voltage is used as a power source of the DC / DC converter 12, the + 5V voltage is responsible for driving the microprocessor 10 and various devices, the + 5V and -5V is the power supply of the OP amplifier Used as

In addition, when + 5V power is supplied to the microprocessor 10 by the power generator, the microprocessor 10 starts to operate.

For reference, the microprocessor 10 includes a reset pin for resetting the system as shown in FIG. 6 and a P3.0 pin for outputting a predetermined pulse to the DC / DC converter 12 for generating a DC 60V voltage. And P3.1 pin for controlling the pulse output of the Sensor TX terminal, which is an input terminal of the pulse generator 13, and P3 for receiving a signal output through the received signal filter unit 15 and the received signal amplifying unit 16. .2 pins, P3.3 pins for receiving the distance between the bladder by the user, P3.4 pins for increasing the input distance after the distance is input to the P3.3 pins, and P3.3 P3.5 pin for reducing the input distance after the distance is input to the pin, P3.7 for driving the alarm buzzer when the calculated distance between the bladder is greater than the preset reference distance, and 7-segment ( P1.0 to P1.3 pins, which are data pins for the output of 26), P1.4 to P1.5 pins for driving the 7-segment 26, and preset devices It has P1.6, the clock pulse input pins XIN and XOUT, the power supply pin VCC, and the ground pin GND, which flash the alarm LED 27 with the buzzer when the calculated distance between the bladder is greater than the quasi-distance.

On the other hand, when the microprocessor 10 is driven, the user inputs a distance suitable for himself / herself using the inter-wall distance set key 40 of the bladder. In this case, the microprocessor 10 checks this and then enters the distance. The distance between the walls of the bladder is set (S101, S102).

In addition, the user may optionally set the operation time period of the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw through the clock pulse input unit 41. In this case, the microprocessor 10 checks this and there is no separate input by the user. By default, the sensor unit operation time period of the ultrasonic yaw and the distance between the walls of the bladder are set (S103 and S104).

When the microprocessor 10 is driven while the setting process is completed, when the control signal is output to the Power TX terminal through P3.0 pin 2 of the microprocessor 10, the DC / DC converter 12 ) Is driven (S105).

That is, the Power TX terminal becomes the bias voltage of the DC / DC converter 12, and 9V power is input to the base terminal of the KTC4393 TR so that the KTC4393 TR is switched on.

As the KTC4393 TR is turned on, the input 9V voltage is boosted through the relay (1.2mH coil), thereby generating a high voltage of about 60V.

In addition, the 60V voltage boosted by the DC / DC converter 12 is provided to the collector of 2SC1217 TR included in the pulse generator 13, wherein the pulse generator 13 is formed in the first, second, third, and third phases. 4NAND gates 50, 51, 52, and 53 are provided.

In addition, when a predetermined signal is applied to one terminal of the third NAND gate 52 of the pulse generator 13 through the sensor TX terminal by the control of the microprocessor 10, the 2N3906 TR is turned on and the 2SC1217 TR is continuously turned on. On, a predetermined pulse is generated.

That is, the sensor TX signal is generated at the third terminal of the microprocessor 10 according to the operating time period of the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw set by the user, and the pulse generator 13 is generated whenever this signal is generated. In the case of the negative pulse of about -45V (S106).

In addition, the sub-pulse generated in the pulse generator 13 is input to the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw so that the ultrasonic wave from the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw is transmitted to the bladder of the human body (S107).

For reference, the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw used in the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 4 as follows.

That is, the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw includes an oscillator 20 which is an active element for generating ultrasonic waves, an acoustic matching layer 21 for facilitating ultrasonic transfer in a medium, and lengths of ultrasonic pulses. For the purpose of limitation, it is mainly composed of a backing layer 22 which absorbs rear sounds.

The sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw of FIG. 4 includes a pulse input unit 19, a shield case 29, an absorbing layer 22, a vibrator (PZT) 20, and primary acoustic matching. The layer 23, the secondary acoustic matching layer 24, the wedge (Wedge) 30, the shield pad (Shield Pad) 31 is described as follows.

First, since the center frequency is 2.25 MHz when the pulse is input to the pulse input unit 19, the shield case 29 receives an intense frequency from the outside and prepares for a case in which there is a leakage of current. The part 14 is used to prevent malfunction and is made of bakelite synthetic resin, which is a kind of waste paper.

In addition, the sound absorbing layer 22 mainly serves to absorb the rear sound, and the acoustic impedance of the layer should be similar to that of the piezoelectric material.

The reason is that the negative reflection between the piezoelectric material and the sound absorbing layer should be small and transmitted to the sound absorbing layer 22 much.

In addition, the vibrator 20 is made of a piezoelectric material and ultrasonic waves are generated when the piezoelectric material causes the piezoelectric effect.

For reference, the piezoelectric effect refers to a phenomenon in which a volume changes when a voltage is applied to a material.

Therefore, the vibrator 20 is made of a piezoelectric material such as quartz, rosell salt, barium titanate (BaTiO3), PZT and the like to generate ultrasonic waves by the piezoelectric effect.

In addition, the primary acoustic matching layer 23 reduces the acoustic impedance difference with the skin to efficiently transmit the sound generated from the piezoelectric material into the tissue and to receive the sound reflected from the tissue with high sensitivity.

The sound velocity of the primary acoustic matching layer 23 is 2000 (m / s), density is 3.425 (g / cm3), thickness is 222 (μm), and acoustic impedance is 6.85 (MRayls).

In addition, since the wavelength of the secondary acoustic matching layer 24 is not uniform when ultrasonic waves are generated, it is more effective to double the acoustic matching layer.

The secondary acoustic matching layer 24 has a sound velocity of 2280 (m / s), a density of 1.083 (g / cm 3), a thickness of 254 (µm), and an acoustic impedance of 2.47 (MRayls).

In addition, the wedge (30) is made of a refractive body so that the incident angle is 15 °.

In this case, the incidence angle is set to 15 ° in order to effectively transmit the ultrasonic wave to the central portion of the bladder when yoga is applied to the bladder located behind the pubic coupling portion.

On the other hand, when the ultrasonic wave is generated and transmitted from the ultrasonic yaw sensor unit 14, the microprocessor 10 maintains the reception standby state for about 1 second (S108).

At this time, when the ultrasonic wave reaches the bladder and is reflected and received by the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw, it is immediately transmitted to the reception signal filter unit 15. In this case, the reception signal filter unit 15 is a low pass filter (Low). Pass Filter) detects the envelope of the received wave in order to detect the peak value in the waveform of the received wave.

That is, the low pass filter removes low-frequency noise from the ultrasonic reception signal and transfers only the reflected ultrasonic signal to the reception signal amplifier 16.

In addition, since the received wave detected by the sensor unit 14 of the ultrasonic yaw is very weak at a few mV, the received signal amplifying unit 16 uses the received signal filter unit 15 to make a signal of several V through high frequency amplification. The ultrasonic wave received from the signal is amplified by the OP amplifier LM393 and input to the Sensor RX terminal, which is terminal 6 of the microprocessor 10.

In addition, the microprocessor 10 that receives the ultrasonic signal received through the Sensor RX terminal stops receiving the ultrasonic signal after checking whether the ultrasonic processor receives the signal (S109 and S110).

Subsequently, the microprocessor 10 calculates the inter-wall distance of the bladder using a predetermined calculation algorithm (S111), and the calculation process is as follows.

Step 1: Compare the input voltage of the pulse with the voltage of the threshold.

Step 2: Compare the input voltage with the threshold voltage and start counting when the input voltage is lower than the threshold, and measure the time until it is raised again.

Step 3: Using the measured time between the front and rear wall waves of the bladder calculated at the counter, the distance between the walls of the bladder is calculated according to the following equation.

X = 1/2 vt

= 1/2 × 1540 (m / sec) × measured time

Here, 1540 (m / s) is the average sound velocity of the soft tissue in vivo.

For reference, the principle of distance measurement between tissues using ultrasound is as follows.

As an ultrasonic parameter used to measure the distance in the soft tissue, there is a sound velocity, and FIG. 7 shows an ultrasonic wave propagation model in the biological tissue.

As shown in FIG. 7, V1 and V2 refer to ultrasonic speeds in tissue 1 and tissue 2, respectively, and X1 and X2 represent respective distances.

Ultrasound X (t) incident toward the tissue is reflected at the interface between the tissue 1 and the tissue 2, respectively, and returns with information about the tissue.

At this time, the time when the reflected wave Y (t) returned through each tissue was 2 (t2-t1) (sec) in the tissue 1 and 2 (t3-t2) (sec) in the tissue 2.

Therefore, the thicknesses (distances) of the tissues 1 and 2 may be represented by the equations 2 and 3 by Equation 1, which is a relationship between start, distance, and sound velocity.

[Equation 1]

t = 2x / v (t: time, x: distance, v: sound velocity)

[Equation 2]

X1 = 1/2 × v1 × (t2-t1)

[Equation 3]

X2 = 1/2 × v2 × (t3-t 2)

Here, since v is a soft tissue, its average value is about 1,540 (m / sec), and thus, the distance x can be measured by knowing the round trip time t of the ultrasonic wave.

In particular, the tissue targeted by the present invention is a liquid because it is the urine between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder.

Moreover, since ultrasonic waves have attenuation coefficients near zero (dB / cm / MHz) in liquids, echo signals reflected from the front and rear walls of the bladder can be detected relatively clearly, thus clearly monitoring the temporal changes in urine volume. .

On the other hand, when the inter-wall distance of the bladder is calculated through the above steps, the microprocessor 10 compares the calculated inter-wall distance of the bladder with a preset reference distance (S112). In this case, the calculated inter-wall distance of the bladder is set. If it is confirmed that the reference distance is greater than the control signal to the warning buzzer 28 to output an alarm sound, the alarm LED (27) also lights up so that the user can be sure that his bladder is filled with a lot of attention. (S113).

At this time, the alarm of the alarm buzzer 28 may be divided into a preliminary command and a main command to ring, or may be changed to a vibration mode as necessary.

In addition, at the same time as the alarm, the microprocessor 10 processes the urine data calculated by the calculated distance between the walls of the bladder as digital binary data and sends it to the decimal conversion decoder 25, wherein the 10 The decimal conversion decoder 25 converts the binary data back to decimal, and then sends the quantity data converted to decimal to the 7-segment 26.

In addition, the output of the urine data is controlled by the microprocessor 10 by switching the TR Q1 and TR Q2 by the above-mentioned switching control the amount corresponding to the distance between the wall of the bladder to each of the 7-segment 26 Displayed in decimal through (S114).

In addition, a resistor 32 is provided between the decimal conversion decoder 25 and the 7-segment 26 so that the 7-segment 26 is not damaged by an overvoltage.

As can be seen from the above description, when the power is initially turned on, a process of setting the distance between the input bladder after checking whether the inter-wall distance set key of the bladder is input and setting the distance between the bladder walls is completed. After checking whether the operating time period of the sensor unit of the ultrasonic yaw is set, if it is set, the following process is performed, and if it is not set, a process of setting the distance between the bladder to the default value and applying a predetermined voltage to drive the DC / DC converter unit And boosting the applied voltage, generating negative pulses from the pulse generator at a predetermined time period through the step-up process, and transmitting ultrasonic waves from the sensor unit of the ultrasonic yaw to the bladder by the pulse generation process. Waiting for a predetermined time after the start of the ultrasonic transmission, and the bladder during the reception standby process When the received and reflected ultrasonic signal is received, the process of stopping the reception and checking the inter-wall distance of the bladder by using the received ultrasonic signal to determine whether the currently calculated wall distance between the bladder is greater than the preset inter-wall distance. The procedure of calculating the distance between the bladder and the above-mentioned calculation of the distance between the bladder, and if the currently calculated distance between the bladder is larger than the preset reference distance, after confirming this, operates the alarm buzzer and LED and calculates it according to the detected distance between the bladder. The process of displaying the prepared amount in 7-segments is performed sequentially.

Through the above process, the present invention can measure the urine quantity by measuring the distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder by using the sensor unit of the ultrasound urine, and thus, a patient with urinary incontinence is charged with his bladder. Urge incontinence patient who can be recognized through a predetermined alarm signal and can urinate without a hitch, and has a means to display the urinary bladder's urgent urinary incontinence. It also works for.

Claims (2)

An apparatus for measuring urine accumulated in the bladder using ultrasonic waves; The power supply unit provides a predetermined voltage for driving various devices, the DC / DC converter unit boosts and outputs the voltage inputted from the power supply unit through a relay, and applies a signal provided from the microprocessor according to a set time period. A pulse generating unit for receiving a negative pulse having a predetermined voltage, an ultrasonic yaw sensor unit for detecting a distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder by generating an ultrasonic signal by receiving the negative pulse applied from the pulse generating unit; Receiving signal filter unit for removing only low-frequency noise of the received wave received from the sensor unit of the ultrasonic yaw and detect only the reflected ultrasonic receiving signal, and receiving for high frequency amplification of the weak ultrasonic signal detected by the receiving signal filter unit A signal amplification unit and an ultrasonic reception signal amplified by the received signal amplification unit Control means for calculating the wall-to-wall distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder through a mechanism; and if the wall-to-wall distance of the bladder is calculated by the calculation of the control means, display means for displaying a quantity corresponding to the calculated wall-to-wall distance; Ultrasonic incontinence alarm system characterized in that the alarm means which is operated by the control of the control means if the distance between the wall of the bladder calculated by the control means is greater than the set reference distance. A method for measuring the amount of urine accumulated in the bladder using ultrasonic waves; When the power is initially turned on, the procedure for setting the distance between the walls of the bladder and setting the distance between the walls of the bladder is completed. If it is set, perform the following process, and if not set, set the distance between the walls of the bladder to a predetermined default value, and boost the applied voltage by driving the DC / DC converter by applying a predetermined voltage. Generating a pulse at a time period set by the pulse generator receiving the boosted voltage; and transmitting ultrasonic waves toward the bladder by the sensor unit of the ultrasonic yaw receiving the pulse generated in the pulse generating process; Waiting for a predetermined time after the start of the ultrasonic transmission, and before the bladder in the reception standby process And receiving the reflected ultrasound signal after reaching the rear wall and stopping reception of the received wave, and calculating the distance between the front wall and the rear wall of the bladder by using the received ultrasonic echo signal, and then calculating the wall between the bladder. Checking whether the distance is greater than a preset reference distance, and if the calculated distance between the bladder is greater than the preset reference distance, the alarm buzzer and the LED are operated and then the calculated bladder wall Ultrasonic incontinence alarm method comprising the step of displaying the urine corresponding to the distance with the display means.