KR20100073843A - Apparatus for measuring bio-information using energy harvest - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A bio information measuring device is provided to obtain energy for measuring the movement of an organism by changing the movement of the organism to electrical energy. CONSTITUTION: A measuring electrode(21) generates vibrations according to the movement of an organism. A piezo-electric part(22) changes vibrations to electrical energy. The piezo-electric part comprises a sensing part and a power generator. The sensing part senses the amount of pressure due to vibration. The power generator induces electricity based on the amount of pressure. A charging part(23) stores electrical energy. A measuring part(24) obtains bio-information by using electric energy stored in the charging part. A human body junction part is a patch shaped non-woven fabric. The measuring electrode is arranged in one side of the human body junction part.

Description

Apparatus for measuring biometrics using energy harvesting {APPARATUS FOR MEASURING BIO-INFORMATION USING ENERGY HARVEST}

The present invention relates to a biometric information measuring apparatus, and more particularly, to a biometric information measuring apparatus using an energy harvest, which stores the movement of a living body as electrical energy and uses it as an energy source for measuring the living body movement.

In order to provide U-Health service, the biometric information measuring instruments currently used by patients take a method of additionally installing a network module inside / outside home medical devices that are commonly seen. The patient's biometric information collected at is transmitted to a predetermined remote server through a network module attached to the biometric information measuring instrument.

Looking at the current developments related to such a biometric measuring device, what kind of sensor and how accurate sensor will be made to collect the biometric information, or what communication method will be equipped in the biometric information measuring instrument? If so, how do you mount it?

However, in order to provide stable U-health services, the above-mentioned issues are important, but technology development of how to supply the power necessary to operate the biometric measuring instrument is equally important.

Most portable biometric measuring instruments used to date have been powered by batteries that have characteristics that need to be replaced after a certain period of time, such as ordinary batteries (for example, AA, AAA, etc.) or lithium cell batteries. It takes a method of receiving or an electric charging method using a charger.

In the battery supply method as described above, users who use the biometric information device must periodically check the power supply and replace or recharge it with a new battery. There is a problem that the basis of u-health service is shaken.

In particular, in the portable patch electrocardiograph used by coronary artery disease patients with relatively high acceptance for u-health service, it is necessary for the coronary artery disease patients to check the power supply of the patch electrocardiograph used by them daily. It is an obstacle to the activation of u-health services.

The prior art as described above has a problem in that by using a separate energy source such as a battery in the biometric information measuring device to replace the energy source or replenish (charge) the energy after a certain time, to solve this problem It is a subject of the present invention.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a bioinformation measuring device using energy harvesting, which can store the movement of a living body as electric energy so that it can be used as an energy source for measuring living body movement.

The objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects and advantages of the present invention which are not mentioned can be understood by the following description, and will be more clearly understood by the embodiments of the present invention. Also, it will be readily appreciated that the objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized by the means and combinations thereof indicated in the claims.

In order to solve the above object, the present invention is characterized by storing the movement of the living body as electrical energy, and measuring the movement of the living body using the stored electrical energy.

More particularly, the present invention provides a biometric information measuring apparatus using energy harvesting, comprising: a measuring electrode for generating a vibration in accordance with movement of a living body; Piezoelectric means for converting the generated vibration into electrical energy; Charging means for charging said electrical energy; And measurement means for acquiring biometric information using the charged electrical energy as an energy source.

The present invention as described above, by securing the power required by the patch-type electrocardiograph with its own heart rate, the coronary artery disease patient to periodically check the power supply of the patch-type electrocardiogram used by the patient to eliminate the need to replace the power source It works.

In addition, the present invention, there is an effect that can be applied to a variety of body temperature measuring apparatus or fetal motion detection device for the patch type.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: There will be. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is an exemplary configuration of a u-health service system for a coronary artery disease patient.

A general u-Health system includes a patch-type ECG 11, a health gateway 12, a u-health service server 13, a terminal 14 of a treating physician, and a patient terminal 15. Here, the u-health service server 14 may be referred to as a remote monitoring system.

In the present invention, as a new power supply method of the patch-type electrocardiogram measuring apparatus 11, a detailed description of the relationship between each component as shown in Figure 1 will be omitted.

In FIG. 1, the patch-type electrocardiograph 11 is a type of biometric information measuring device having a thin plate-like shape, such as a pars, and is attached to the center of a chest of a heart patient to sense (measure) the heartbeat movement of the heart patient. The sensor transmits the sensed data to the health gateway 12 using a wireless communication method.

The u-health service server 14 transmits the biometric information received through the health gateway 12 to the attending physician terminal 14. Then, the attending physician analyzes the collected biometric information and transmits the result to the terminal 15 of the patient.

In addition, the attending physician may analyze the collected biometric information and set / change the transmission cycle of the patch-type ECG 11 based on the result.

Figure 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a patch-type electrocardiogram measuring apparatus according to the present invention, showing a patch-type electrocardiogram measuring apparatus connected to the U-health service using a heart rate as an energy source.

Energy Harvest (Energy Harvest) technology, which has recently been in the spotlight, is a technology that converts energy such as vibration (including vibration caused by biological movement), heat, and light that exist in the surroundings into electrical energy through a conversion material. It converts into electrical energy using a piezoelectric effect, an electrostatic effect, or the like. Here, the piezoelectric effect method uses a phenomenon in which electricity is induced when a pressure is generated by vibration. As the piezoelectric material, a polymer, a polycrystal, a single crystal, a composite material, or the like is used. As part of this energy harvest, the present invention was born.

Patch electrocardiogram measuring apparatus according to the present invention, as shown in Figure 2, the human body 20, the electrocardiogram measuring electrode 21, the piezoelectric sensor 22, the battery unit (charge unit) 23, and ECG measurement / transmission It comprises a portion 24.

In the present invention, in order to implement an electrocardiogram measuring apparatus close to the general patch concept, as shown in Figure 2, the patch-type electrocardiogram measuring apparatus is composed of three unit modules and one battery unit (charge unit).

Chest junction 20 is a thin patch-shaped non-woven fabric (eg, in the form of a so-called "pas") that is at least 3 in order to detect a patient's heartbeat (biological movement, i.e., physical movement) as an analog signal (vibration). Two electrocardiogram measuring electrodes 21 are included on one surface of the patch, and a biocompatible adhesive is applied to the patch surface on which the electrocardiogram measuring electrode 21 is provided.

In this case, the electrocardiogram measuring electrode 21 generates vibration (analog signal) according to the heartbeat (movement of a living body) instead of a general electrode, and corresponds to various biometric electrodes such as a pressure sensor.

The present invention converts the vibration (vibration signal) generated through the electrocardiogram measuring electrode 21 into electrical energy (piezoelectric sensor), and obtains the corresponding biometric information through the vibration.

First, the charging function using the energy harvest will be described.

The piezoelectric sensor 22 converts vibration (vibration signal) generated through the electrocardiogram measuring electrode 21 into electrical energy, and includes a sensing unit 221 and a power generation circuit 222 as shown in FIG. 2. .

Here, the sensing unit 221 detects the pressure amount for the vibration (vibration signal) generated through the electrocardiogram measuring electrode 21, and the power generation circuit 222 induces electricity based on the detected pressure amount. That is, the power generation circuit 222 converts vibration (kinetic energy) into electrical energy.

Then, the battery unit (charge unit) 23 charges the electric energy output from the power generation circuit 222, the electric energy thus charged is supplied to each component of the ECG measurement / transmission unit 24. Here, the battery unit (charge unit) 23 is a battery unit (power supply unit) in terms of supplying electrical energy to the electrocardiogram measurement / transmitter 24, and may be referred to as a charging unit in terms of storing electrical energy according to a living body movement. It can also be called any of a charging part or a battery part.

By converting and using the above-mentioned living body movement into electrical energy, inconvenience such as replacing the battery can be eliminated.

Next, the electrocardiogram measuring / transmitting unit 24 measures the electrocardiogram and transmits the measurement result to the outside. As shown in FIG. 2, the electrocardiogram signal amplifying circuit 241 and the signal noise canceling filter circuit 242. , An analog-to-digital converter (AD converter) 243, and a wireless transmission module 244. Hereinafter, each component will be described.

The electrocardiogram signal amplifying circuit 241 performs a function of amplifying the vibration (vibration signal) generated through the electrocardiogram measuring electrode 21, and the signal noise removing filter circuit 242 makes noise at the output of the electrocardiogram signal amplifying circuit 241. Remove it.

An analog-to-digital converter (AD converter) 243 converts a signal (analog signal) output from the signal noise canceling filter circuit 242 into a digital signal (biological information data).

Then, the wireless transmission module 244 transmits the biometric information data to the u-health service server 13 (more specifically, the remote monitoring unit corresponding to one functional block) through the health gateway 12 according to a wireless communication method. For example, electrocardiogram data, heart rate data, etc.) is transmitted. In addition, depending on the embodiment, it may be transmitted to a mobile phone, a home gateway, or the like, or may be directly transmitted to the u-health service server 13.

The wireless transmission module 244 may transmit the biometric data to the outside according to a transmission period (transmission interval) set for each patient, and the transmission period may be set for each patient by the doctor in charge. By adjusting the transmission period in this way it is possible to minimize the consumption of power charged from the heartbeat.

That is, in the patient-specific transmission cycle set in the wireless transmission module 244, the primary care physician terminal 14 periodically manages biometric data (for example, heartbeat data, etc.) managed by the u-health service server 13. Analysis and reset by the attending physician based on the results of the analysis.

Although the above description has been made using a heartbeat as an example, the present invention may be used to charge electrical energy through the movement of various living bodies, and use it again for biometric information measurement (eg, body temperature measurement). In addition, it may be used to charge electrical energy through the first living body movement (for example, heart rate), and use it to measure other living body information (for example, body temperature measurement).

On the other hand, the method of the present invention as described above can be written in a computer program. And the code and code segments constituting the program can be easily inferred by a computer programmer in the art. In addition, the written program is stored in a computer-readable recording medium (information storage medium), and read and executed by a computer to implement the method of the present invention. The recording medium may include any type of computer readable recording medium.

The present invention described above is capable of various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is not limited by the drawings.

1 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a U-health service system targeting a coronary artery disease patient,

Figure 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a patch-type electrocardiograph according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

11: patch-type electrocardiograph 20: human body junction

21: ECG measuring electrode 22: piezoelectric sensor

23: battery part (charge part)

Claims (11)

In the bioinformation measuring device using the energy harvest, A measuring electrode for generating vibrations according to the movement of the living body; Piezoelectric means for converting the generated vibration into electrical energy; Charging means for charging said electrical energy; And Measuring means for obtaining biometric information using the charged electrical energy as an energy source Biometric information measuring apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 1, Human body bonding means in the form of a patch included to expose the measuring electrode on one surface Biometric information measuring device further comprising. The method of claim 2, The human body joining means, Biometric information measuring device is a bio-adhesive adhesive is applied to one surface containing the measuring electrode. The method of claim 1, The measuring means, And biometric information based on the vibration generated by the measurement electrode. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The exercise of the living body, Biometric information measuring device, characterized in that the heart rate. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The measuring electrode, Biometric information measuring device comprising at least three electrodes for measuring biometric information. The method of claim 6, The measuring electrode, Biometric information measuring device, characterized in that the pressure sensor. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The piezoelectric means is Sensing means for sensing a pressure amount with respect to the generated vibration; And Power generation means for inducing electricity based on the sensed pressure amount Biometric information measuring apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 4, wherein The measuring means, Signal amplifying means for amplifying the generated vibration; Filtering means for removing noise at the output of the signal amplifying means; And Signal conversion means for converting the output of the filtering means into digital biometric data Biometric information measuring apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 9, The measuring means, Transmission means for transmitting the digital biometric data to the u-health service server Biometric information measuring device further comprising. The method of claim 10, The transmission means, Biometric information measuring device that the transmission period is set by the attending physician.

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