KR100742744B1 - Apparatus for preventing apnea and reducing snore - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention helps to reduce snoring by injecting air to the pad located on the back of the sleeper when the snoring is detected through the breath, thereby inducing the sleeping posture, and preventing apnea so that apnea measurement is possible. The present invention relates to a device for reducing snoring, and the present invention relates to an air-pad and an air tube that detect a sleeper's breathing and inflate by air injected into the inside when the snoring is detected to correct the sleeping posture of the sleeper. Sensor for converting the breath transmitted through the electrical signal, Band filter unit for filtering the breath detection signal by a plurality of bands and outputs the heart / breath / snoring signal for determination, and for inputting the function and mode conversion signal Corresponding to the signal input from the function input unit and the function input unit a) whether the signal is obtained from the band filter unit, respectively, whether snoring and apnea B) control to display breathing state, c) if it is determined to be snoring, generate an air injection signal to inflate the air pad, and d) if no snoring is detected after the air pad inflation, A central processing unit for generating a control signal for exhausting the air introduced into the pad, a motor for driving a pump for injecting air into the air pad according to the air injection signal output from the driver, and an exhaust control signal output from the driver The snoring relief device is realized by an exhaust solenoid that opens and closes the exhaust valve.

Description

Apnea Prevention and Snoring Relief {APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING APNEA AND REDUCING SNORE}

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the apnea prevention and snoring relief device according to the present invention.

Figure 2 is a heartbeat output waveform diagram in the present invention.

Figure 3 is a breath output waveform diagram in the present invention.

Figures 4a to 4c is a state of use of the snoring relief device according to the present invention.

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

101... Air pad

103... sensor

104... Preamplifier

105... Central Processing Unit

106... display

110... Band filter section

120... Driving part

131... motor

132... Exhaust solenoid

The present invention relates to a device for preventing apnea and snoring, and more particularly, when detecting snoring through breathing, snoring by injecting air into a pad located on the back of a sleeper to correct a sleeping posture. The present invention relates to apnea prevention and snoring relief devices that facilitate relief and allow apnea measurements.

In general, the number of people suffering from sleep disorders is increasing due to complex and irregular lifestyles, stress, and obesity due to an incorrect dietary culture. Sleep disorders often involve symptoms such as snoring and sleep apnea. Especially, if snoring persists during sleep, the incidence of hypertension is twice as high and the incidence of myocardial infarction is higher than that of normal people without snoring. Snoring occurs when the throat passes through the air before it enters the airway and becomes narrow when the air cannot enter easily. Most likely. Typically, snoring signals have a specific frequency band between 800 and 1200 kHz.

Conventional methods for reducing or preventing snoring have emerged.

In particular, a device for driving a snoring pillow by detecting a snoring pillow using a pillow for preventing snoring is registered in the Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0236225 (Name of the design: Detecting a snoring pillow Drive device (hereinafter, abbreviated as "prior art").

Looking at the contents of the prior art, it is a device that detects snoring and automatically determines the snoring to drive the pillow to prevent snoring so that the pillow is inclined to one side to prevent snoring.

However, such a device can detect the snoring to some extent, but after detecting the snoring, it is impossible to return to the original state before the user manually resets the snoring prevention pillow in a tilted state. In addition, there is a drawback that it is impossible to measure apnea.

On the other hand, the conventional apnea measurement method, the apnea is usually measured through the sleep polymorphism test, in this case has the disadvantage of requiring hospitalization, and also has the disadvantage of taking a lot of apnea testing time, and also has a disadvantage that costs a lot .

Accordingly, the present invention has been proposed to solve the problems that occur in the conventional snoring prevention device, and to solve the problems that occur in the apnea test,

An object of the present invention, when detecting the snoring through the breath to provide an apnea prevention and snoring device to reduce the snoring by automatically injecting air to the pad located on the back of the sleeper to correct the sleeping posture There is.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apnea prevention and snoring device that can determine whether apnea by a method of detecting the sleep of the sleeper in contact with the data transmission medium (air pad).

"Apnea prevention and snoring device" according to the present invention for achieving the above object,

An air-pad that detects the sleeper's breathing and expands by air injected into the inside when the snoring is detected to correct the sleeping posture of the sleeper;

An air tube coupled to the air pad and delivering a detected breath to a rear end and serving as an air inlet and outlet passage;

A sensor for converting the breath delivered to the air tube into an electrical signal;

A preamplifier for preamplifying the respiration detection signal output from the sensor;

A band filter unit filtering the respiration detection signal output from the preamplifier for a plurality of bands and outputting the heartbeat / breathing / snoring signal for determination;

A function input unit for inputting a function and mode conversion signal;

Corresponding to the signal input from the function input unit, a) determine whether snoring and apnea with signals obtained from the preamplifier and the band pass filter unit, b) controlling the display of breathing status, and c) determining snoring. And a central processing unit for generating an air injection signal for inflating the air pad, and d) generating a control signal for exhausting the air introduced into the air pad after a set time if snoring is not detected after the air pad is inflated. ;

A display for displaying a sleep state, a heartbeat state, and the like of a sleeper according to a state display control signal output from the central processing unit;

A driver for outputting a light emitting diode control signal, an air injection control signal, and an exhaust control signal output from the central processing unit as target drive signals;

A light emitting diode (LED) which visually displays whether power is supplied and a function operation state according to a light emitting diode driving signal output from the driving unit;

A motor for driving a pump for injecting air into the air pad according to the air injection signal output from the driver;

Characterized in that it consists of an exhaust solenoid for opening and closing the exhaust valve in accordance with the exhaust control signal output from the drive unit.

"Snoring relief device" according to the present invention,

A debug switch which is a signal input means for changing a control program operated by the central processor for snoring relief;

And a communication interface connected to the CPU and supporting serial communication between an external device and the CPU.

In addition, the band filter unit,

A heart rate filter for filtering the respiration detection signal output from the preamplifier into a band for heart rate measurement and transmitting the filtered signal to the central processing unit;

A respiratory filter for filtering the respiration detection signal output from the preamplifier into a band for measuring apnea and transmitting the respiratory detection signal to the central processing unit;

It characterized in that it comprises a filter for snoring to filter the breath detection signal output from the preamplifier to the band for determining the snoring to deliver to the central processing unit.

In addition, the driving unit,

A light emitting diode driver for generating and outputting a driving signal for emitting light emitting diodes in response to a light emitting diode control signal output from the central processing unit;

A motor driver for outputting a driving signal of a motor for driving a pump in response to an air injection control signal output from the central processing unit;

And a solenoid driver for outputting a driving signal for opening and closing the exhaust solenoid in response to the exhaust control signal output from the central processing unit.

Hereinafter, described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention according to the technical spirit as described above.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of "apnea prevention and snoring device" according to the present invention.

Here, reference numeral 101 denotes an air-pad that detects breathing of the sleeper P and expands by air injected into the inside when the snoring is detected to fix the sleeping posture of the sleeper. The air pad 101 is coupled to the air pad 101 to deliver a detected breath to the rear end and serves as an air tube for injecting and discharging air, and reference numeral 103 denotes an air tube 102. A sensor for converting the delivered breath into an electrical signal is shown, and reference numeral 104 denotes a preamp for preamplifying the breath detection signal output from the sensor 103.

In addition, reference numeral 110 denotes a band filter unit for filtering the respiration detection signal output from the preamplifier 104 by a plurality of bands and outputting the heartbeat / breathing / snoring signal. In this case, the band filter unit 110 filters the respiration detection signal output from the preamplifier 104 into a band for heart rate measurement and transmits the heart rate filter 111 to the central processing unit 105 to be described later. A breathing filter 112 for filtering a breath detection signal output from the amplifier 104 into a band for measuring apnea and transmitting it to the central processing unit 105 and a breath detection output from the preamplifier 104. It is provided with a snoring filter 113 for filtering the signal to the band for determining the snoring to the central processing unit 105.

Also, reference numeral 107 denotes a function input unit for inputting a function and mode conversion signal, and reference numeral 105 corresponds to a signal input from the function input unit 107 a) the preamplifier 104 and the band filter unit ( Determine whether snoring and apnea with the signals obtained from each of 110, b) controls to display the breathing state, c) if it is determined to be snoring, generates an air injection signal for inflating the air pad 101 and d) when the snoring is not detected after the expansion of the air pad 101, a central processing unit generating a control signal to exhaust the air introduced into the air pad 101 after a set time.

In addition, reference numeral 106 denotes a display for displaying on the screen the breathing state, heart rate state, etc. of the sleeper in accordance with the display control signal output from the central processing unit 105, reference numeral 120 from the central processing unit 105 The driving unit outputs the light emitting diode control signal, the air injection control signal, and the exhaust control signal as the target driving signals. Herein, the driver 120 generates and outputs a driving signal for emitting light emitting diodes in response to the light emitting diode control signal output from the central processing unit 105 and the central processing unit 105. The motor driver 122 outputs a drive signal of the motor for driving the pump in response to the air injection control signal output from the control unit, and the exhaust solenoid 132 in response to the exhaust control signal output from the central processing unit 105. It is provided with a solenoid driver 123 for outputting a drive signal for opening and closing.

In addition, reference numeral 109 denotes a light emitting diode (LED) which visually indicates whether power is supplied and a function operation state according to the light emitting diode driving signal output from the driving unit 120, and reference numeral 131 denotes the driving unit 120. A motor for driving a pump for injecting air into the air pad 101 according to the output air injection signal, the reference numeral 132 denotes an exhaust solenoid for opening and closing the exhaust valve in accordance with the exhaust control signal output from the drive unit 120 Denoted at 132, reference numeral 133 denotes a debug switch which is a signal input means for changing a control program operated by the central processing unit 105 for snoring relief, and reference numeral 134 denotes the central processing unit ( And a communication interface that supports serial communication between an external device and the central processing unit 105.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, the operation of the snoring relief device according to the present invention configured as described in detail as follows.

First, before snoring history display function, apnea history display function, snoring function, apnea measurement function, calendar / time setting function prior to the overall operation of the present invention will be described as follows.

1) Snoring history display function: When the power is turned on and the snoring measurement function in the function input unit 107 is selected, the history of the number of snorings used up to the previous time is displayed on the display 107. In this state, when the UP key provided in the function input unit 107 is pressed, the previous data is displayed one by one. When the DOWN key is pressed, the latest data is displayed one by one. Press the Up and Down keys simultaneously for more than 3 seconds to delete the snoring history data.

2) Apnea history display function: When the power is turned on and the apnea measurement function of the function input unit 107 is selected, the history of the apnea measurement used last time is displayed on the display 106. In this state, pressing the UP key displays the previous data one by one, and pressing the down key displays the latest data one by one. Pressing the Up and Down keys simultaneously for more than 3 seconds will clear the apnea history data.

3) Snoring alleviation function: When snoring history display is pressed, press Start / Stop key for 3 seconds and snoring alleviation function operates. When 10 hours have elapsed after the snoring function is started, the snoring function is automatically switched to the history display function. When the snoring function is operated, pressing the start / stop key for 3 seconds or more switches to the history display function. During snoring relief operation, the pump is automatically exhausted every eight drive cycles.

4) Apnea measurement function: Press the start / end key for 3 seconds to display the apnea measurement function. After 10 hours of initiation of the apnea measurement function, the apnea history display function is automatically switched. During the apnea measurement function operation, pressing the start / end key for 3 seconds or more switches to the apnea history display function.

4) Calendar / Time setting function: Pressing the reset switch for 2 seconds during apnea history display or snoring history display switches to calendar / time setting function.In calendar / time setting function, it is in order of year, month, date, hour and minute. Can be set. Press the up key to increase the value one by one and press the down key to decrease the value one by one to set the year, month, day, hour and minute. If you press the reset switch for more than 1 second after setting with up / down key, the value is set and move to the next setting item. After setting the minute, press the reset switch for more than 1 second to start the clock function at the set calendar / time value, and switch to the apnea history display or snoring history display function.

When the snoring describes the operation of the device, the sleeper P sleeps in a state where the air pad 101 is placed on the back side as shown in FIG. 4A. The air pad 101 serves to detect breathing (vibration) of the sleeper. Since the air pad 101 is a known technique, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The breath detected by the air pad 101 is applied to the sensor 103 via the air tube 102.

The sensor 103 converts the applied breath detection signal into an electrical signal corresponding thereto, and outputs the preamplifier 104. Since the analog breath detection signal output from the sensor 103 is very weak, the signal of the rear stage is detected. In order to provide ease of processing, amplification is performed to a predetermined level in advance.

The amplified respiratory detection signal is applied to the central processing unit 105 as it is, and transmitted for detecting body movements (sleepers' movements), and is also applied to the band filter unit 110.

The band filter unit 110 filters the detection signal for each band by using the heart rate filter 111, the breathing filter 112, and the snoring filter 113 and applies them to the central processing unit 105, respectively. 2 shows an analog signal waveform for heart rate output through the heart rate filter 111, and FIG. 3 shows an analog signal waveform for breath output through the breathing filter 112. Referring to FIG. Each filter filters the breath detection signal input to the band set by the experiment in advance.

The central processing unit 105, when a signal for detecting breathing is input, stores the corresponding information in the memory 108 and simultaneously transmits the information to the display 106 so that the information corresponding to the function selected by the user is displayed on the screen.

In addition, if the function selected by the user is a snoring function to reduce snoring by analyzing the output signal of the snoring filter 113 to determine whether or not snoring. That is, snoring determination is determined as snoring when the output occurs through the snoring filter 113. In other words, when there is no snoring, the output of the snoring filter 113 does not occur. In contrast, when the snoring occurs, the output of the snoring filter 113 is generated, so that the central processing unit 105 It is easy to determine whether snoring.

If it is determined that the snoring is the central processing unit 105 generates a control signal for driving the pump to the drive unit 120, the motor driver 122 in the drive unit 120 for driving the motor in response to the control signal A driving signal is generated and applied to the motor 131. As a result, the motor 131 is driven to drive a pump for generating air. Here, the control signal for driving the pump is generated only for a predetermined time and automatically turned off.

When the pump is driven, air is generated, and the generated air is introduced into the air pad 101 through the air tube 102 to inflate the air pad 101. When the air pad 101 is inflated to some extent, the sleeper P cannot maintain the same sleeping posture as the first time and moves the body as shown in FIG. 4B, and the expansion of the air pad 101 is completed after a little time. In the state, as shown in FIG. 4C, the side is naturally turned sideways. If you turn it sideways, you will naturally have no snoring. If you sleep on your side, snoring does not occur because the narrowed throat can be extended again.

When the snoring is stopped by the operation as described above, the output of the snoring filter 113 does not occur, and accordingly, the central processing unit 105 determines that the snoring is stopped and generates an exhaust control signal. To the driving unit 120.

The solenoid driver 123 in the driving unit 120 generates a driving signal for driving the solenoid in response to the exhaust control signal applied thereto, and applies the driving signal to the exhaust solenoid 132. The exhaust solenoid 132 receives the driving signal. Open the solenoid valve to discharge the air injected into the air pad (101). Here, the solenoid control signal is also generated only for a preset time, and automatically turns off when the set time is reached.

When the air injected into the air pad 101 is discharged, the air pad 101 is restored flat as in the initial state.

After that, depending on whether the snoring is detected, the operation as described above is repeatedly performed.

On the other hand, when the apnea measurement function is set, the central processing unit 105 analyzes the output signal of the breathing filter 112 to determine whether or not apnea in real time. If it is determined that the apnea is a result of the determination, the corresponding information is stored in the memory 108 and the apnea state is displayed on the display 106 so that others can know it.

In addition, although not disclosed in the present invention, if only a separate alarm device is connected to the central processing unit 105, if it is determined that the apnea generates an alarm, so that others recognize that the sleeping person is apnea state. This is important for protecting sleepers from danger.

In addition, the present invention inputs a signal for changing the control program operated by the snoring to the central processing unit 133 through the debug switch 133, the control program to be changed through the communication interface 134 By changing the control program in such a way as to store the control program in the memory 108 by inputting, it is easy to change the control program, thereby facilitating the function upgrade.

According to the present invention as described above, when detecting the snoring through the breath it has an excellent effect of reducing the snoring by injecting air to the pad located on the back of the sleeper to correct the sleeping posture. .

In addition, since it is possible to measure apnea in real time, there is an effect that can be prevented in advance, such as loss of time due to apnea measurement, waste of hospitalization.

Claims (6)

In the apnea prevention and snoring relief device, An air pad 101 that detects breathing of the sleeper P and expands by air injected into the inside when the snoring is detected to correct the sleeping posture of the sleeper P; An air tube 102 coupled to the air pad 101 to transfer the detected breath to the sensor 103 and serving as an air inlet and outlet passage; A sensor 103 for converting the breath delivered to the air tube 102 into an electrical signal; A preamplifier 104 for preamplifying the respiration detection signal output from the sensor 103; Heart rate filter to filter the breath detection signal output from the pre-amplifier 104 to the band for heart rate measurement, the band for measuring apnea and the band for determining snoring, respectively, and transmits it to the central processing unit 105 ( 111, a band filter 110 consisting of a breathing filter 112 and snoring filter 113; A function input unit 107 for inputting a function and mode conversion signal; Corresponding to the signal input from the function input unit 107 a) determine whether the snoring and apnea with the signals obtained from the preamplifier 104 and the band filter unit 110, respectively, b) display the apnea state display unit 106 C) generates an air injection signal for inflating the air pad 101 if determined to be snoring, and d) the air pad after a set time if no snoring is detected after the air pad 101 is inflated. A central processing unit (105) for generating a control signal to exhaust the air introduced into (101), and generating an alarm control signal so that others can recognize the apnea state of the sleeper (P) if it is determined to be apnea; A display 106 for displaying the apnea and heart rate of the sleeping person P on the screen according to a status display control signal output from the central processing unit 105; An alarm device that alerts another person of an apnea state of the sleeping person P according to an alarm control signal output from the central processing unit 105; A driver 120 for outputting a light emitting diode control signal, an air injection control signal, and an exhaust control signal output from the central processing unit 105 as respective target drive signals; A light emitting diode 109 for visually displaying whether power is supplied and a function operation state according to the light emitting diode driving signal output from the driving unit 120; A motor 131 for driving a pump for injecting air into the air pad 101 according to the air injection signal output from the driver 120; And An apnea prevention and snoring device, characterized in that it comprises an exhaust solenoid (132) for opening and closing the exhaust valve in accordance with the exhaust control signal output from the drive unit (120). The apnea prevention device and snoring device of claim 1, wherein the air pad (101) detects breathing by contacting with the back of the sleeper (P) when the sleeper (P) is correctly lying. According to claim 1, wherein the snoring device, A debug switch 133 which is a signal input means for changing a control program operated by the central processing unit 105 for snoring relief; And Connected to the central processing unit 105, the apnea prevention and snoring device characterized in that it further comprises a communication interface 134 for supporting serial communication between the external device and the central processing unit 105. delete The method of claim 1, wherein the driving unit 120, A light emitting diode driver 121 for generating and outputting a driving signal for emitting light emitting diodes in response to a light emitting diode control signal output from the central processing unit 105; A motor driver 122 for outputting a driving signal of a motor 131 for driving a pump in response to an air injection control signal output from the central processing unit 105; And And a solenoid driver (123) for outputting a driving signal for opening and closing the exhaust solenoid (132) in response to an exhaust control signal output from the central processing unit (105). According to claim 1, wherein the snoring device, The apnea prevention and snoring device, characterized in that it further comprises a memory (108) for storing the corresponding information when a signal for detecting the breath is input by the control of the central processing unit (105).

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