KR20160112449A

KR20160112449A - Health monitor system using capsule endoscope and method thereof

Info

Publication number: KR20160112449A
Application number: KR1020150038208A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 김이곤
Original assignee: 주식회사 인트로메딕
Priority date: 2015-03-19
Filing date: 2015-03-19
Publication date: 2016-09-28

Abstract

The present invention relates to a health monitoring system using a capsule endoscope and to a method thereof. According to the present invention, the health monitoring system using a capsule endoscope and the method thereof can monitor accurate human body information due to being robust to external noise since health monitoring is performed in a low frequency wireless method instead of a high frequency wireless method, and can transmit an electronic signal with a simple electrode only, as well as without an additional antenna when transmitting human body information, thereby requiring a little amount of power consumption and inexpensive manufacturing costs, and being harmless to a human body in comparison with the high frequency wireless method.

Description

[0001] HEALTH MONITOR SYSTEM USING CAPSULE ENDOSCOPE AND METHOD THEREOF [0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a health monitoring system using a capsule endoscope for monitoring health information by sensing human body information and a method thereof.

There are various types of physiological data types that reflect individual health and human body information. A variety of physiological monitors are known in the art and are known in the art and include devices for monitoring electrocardiogram (ECG), devices for monitoring blood oxygen saturation, devices for monitoring respiration, devices for monitoring blood glucose, devices for monitoring blood pressure, Devices that monitor SpO2 saturation, devices that monitor temperature, devices for fat analysis, fetal heart rate monitors for pregnant women, and electroencephalogram (EEG) devices. Each physiological monitoring device includes one or more sensors and may also include analog components such as analog amplifiers, analog comparators, analog-to-digital converters, and the like.

As described above, the various types of physiological data may be information on blood pressure and heart rate according to physical activity of an individual, and may be used to check the risk of personal health by monitoring the physiological data, Various systems and methods have been attempted to monitor the < / RTI >

The present invention provides a health monitoring system using a capsule endoscope capable of monitoring personal health by measuring biometric data, and a method thereof.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a health monitoring system and a method thereof using a capsule endoscope which can reduce obstacles to the external environment and accurately monitor individual health.

A health monitoring system using a capsule endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a sensing device that senses at least one human body information and transmits the human body information sensed by using the human body as a medium, Device.

The health monitoring method using medium communication according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of sensing at least one human body information and converting the human body information into an electric signal and transmitting using an outside of the medium and receiving and displaying the transmitted electric signal . &Lt; / RTI >

As described above, according to the health monitoring system and method using the capsule endoscope according to the present invention, health monitoring can be performed by a low-frequency wireless system rather than a high-frequency wireless system, It is effective.

In addition, according to the health monitor system and method using the capsule endoscope according to the present invention, since an antenna is not separately required when transmitting information, and an electrical signal can be transmitted using only a simple electrode, There is an effect that the production cost is low.

1 is a block diagram of a health monitoring system using a capsule endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a view showing a structure of a transmitting / receiving electrode of the sensing / receiving apparatus used in FIG.
3 is a block diagram of the sensing unit included in the sensing apparatus.
4 is a view illustrating a health monitor system using a capsule endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a health monitoring system using a capsule endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1A is a block diagram illustrating a sensing apparatus 100 including a sensing unit 101, a sensor interface 102, a serial conversion unit 103, a coding unit 104, and a medium interface 105 .

The sensing unit 101 senses human body information and converts the human body information into an electrical signal. The human body information may be a biosensor capable of measuring any one of blood pressure, pulse rate, heart rate, and body temperature and converting it into an electrical signal. The biosensor may be used for the sensing unit 101 using a sensor suitable for a system of a blood pressure sensor, a pulse sensor, a heart rate sensor, and a body temperature sensor.

The sensor interface 102 receives an electrical signal of the sensing unit 101.

The serializer 103 converts an electrical signal (generally a parallel signal) received from the sensor interface 102 into a serial signal.

The encoding unit 104 encodes the electrical signal converted into the serial into a predetermined code. The predetermined coding is for efficiently transmitting variable-length data to the transmission of near-field communication, and the predetermined code is, for example, Manchester coding, DBPSK (Differential Binary Phase Shift Keying) .

The medium interface 105 directly contacts the medium such as a human body and transmits the encoded electrical signals. Here, the meaning of transmission should be understood to energize the medium with current.

Since the sensing device 100 is not provided with a general RF modulating means, and the baseband is directly supplied as a medium, the signal can be transmitted at a speed of at least 3 MHz or more. In addition, since it can be transmitted in the DBPSK code, it is strong against external noise and can transmit an accurate signal.

1B is a block diagram showing a receiving apparatus 200 and includes a medium interface 201, a square wave converting unit 202, a TTL converting unit 203, a decoding unit 204, and a display unit 205, do.

The medium interface 201 directly contacts a medium such as a human body and receives electrical signals transmitted from the sensing device 100.

The apparatus may further include a high pass filter for filtering the received electrical signal to remove 60 Hz low frequency and high voltage noise and a low pass filter for filtering high frequency noise from the electrical signal And may further include an amplifier for amplifying a weak electrical signal.

The high-pass filter has a cutoff frequency of about 1/2 of the frequency of the received electrical signal to detect only the edge of the electrical signal. The low-pass filter has a cutoff frequency of about 10 times the frequency of the received electrical signal to clearly recover the edge of the electrical signal. The high-pass filter and the low-pass filter may be referred to as noise elimination filters.

The amplifier amplifies the magnitude of the electrical signal so that the square wave converting unit 202 at the subsequent stage can operate efficiently. The square wave converting unit 202 detects edge components of the electrical signal to generate a square wave signal of a predetermined two-step voltage (for example, +/- 12 volts). The square wave converting unit 202 may be, for example, a Schmitt trigger circuit. In this case, the amplifier is designed as a negative gain amplifier.

The square wave converting unit 202 converts an electric signal amplified by the amplifier into a square wave so as to have a wide bandwidth.

The TTL converter 203 converts the electric signal converted into the rectangular wave signal into a TTL (transistor-transistor logic) level signal of 0V to 5V.

The decoding unit 204 decodes the electrical signal encoded and transmitted by the sensing device 100. [

Here, the decoding unit 204 detects the first rising edge of the encoded electrical signal and designates it as data "1 ", and outputs a rising edge or a falling signal for each signal period corresponding to the transmission frequency on the basis of the first rising edge Edge to detect data "1" or "0 ", respectively. At this time, the detection of the rising or falling edge can be detected at a frequency faster than the transmission frequency within a predetermined range of the transmission period.

The display unit 205 may display the human body information on a screen such as an LCD or the like by reproducing the decoded electric signal, monitor the health state based on the human body information displayed, To analyze the health condition.

FIG. 2 shows a structure of a transmission electrode of the sensing device 100 used in FIG. 1. The sensing device 100 may have transmission electrodes 10 and 11 formed of at least two metal plates in a band- have.

The transmission electrodes 10 and 11 are connected to the sensing device 100 and the transmission electrodes 10 and 11 are electrically isolated from each other. Can be formed at any position on the surface of the substrate 100.

FIG. 3 shows a receiving electrode structure of the receiving apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 1. Like the receiving electrode 200 shown in FIG. 2, the receiving apparatus 200 has a receiving electrode 20 having at least two metal plates, 21).

The receiving electrodes 20 and 21 are connected to the receiving device 200 and if the two receiving electrodes 20 and 21 are electrically isolated from each other and the distance is sufficiently large, It can be formed at any position on the surface of the receiving device 200 like the electrodes 10 and 11. [

Here, the transmission electrodes 10 and 11 transmit various kinds of information (for example, blood pressure, pulse rate, heart rate, body temperature, etc.) collected by the sensing device 100 to the signal processing circuit And then is applied to the transmission electrodes 10 and 11 through the output line of the signal processing circuit to generate a potential difference between the two transmission electrodes 10 and 11. Since the transmitting electrodes 10 and 11 are in contact with the outside of the human body (medium), a current flows to the human body due to the potential difference between the two transmitting electrodes 10 and 11. [ The current flows from the transmission electrodes 10 and 11 having a relatively high potential to the surface of the human body and then flows through the receiving electrodes 20 and 21 of the receiving device 200 again to pass through the human body surface, (10, 11) of the transmitting electrode (10, 11). At this time, the electric current flowing on the surface of the human body can induce a voltage between the receiving electrodes 20 and 21 so that the electric signal including the human body information transmitted from the sensing device 100 can be sensed by the receiving device 200 .

Accordingly, the receiving apparatus 200 processes the received signal, restores the video signal, and displays it in real time or stores it in the memory.

Various embodiments of the transmission electrodes 10 and 11 and the reception electrodes 20 and 21 described above are shown in Fig.

2A, the first electrodes 10, 20 and the second electrodes 11, 21 are inserted in the form of a circular plate on the surface of the sensing / receiving device 100, 200, or alternatively, As shown in FIG. 3B, the electrodes may be formed in the form of a band surrounding the surface of the sensing / receiving device 100, 200, or may be formed in the sensing / receiving device 100, 200 as shown in FIGS. And the upper and lower ends of the surface of the substrate.

The shapes and positions of the first electrodes 10 and 20 and the second electrodes 11 and 21 are not limited to those described in the foregoing embodiment and the first and second electrodes 10 and 20 and the second and third electrodes 11 and 21, 21 are electrically isolated and sufficiently spaced apart, any positional configuration is acceptable.

The electrodes (10, 20, 11, 21) must be a metal harmless to the human body. In the embodiment of the present invention, any one selected from SUS316L, gold, silver and aluminum was used as a harmless metal. In order to electrically isolate the electrodes 10, 20, 11, 21 formed on the surface of the sensing / receiving devices 100, 2000, the surfaces of the sensing / receiving devices 100, 200 are non-conductive, As a nonconductive non-harmful substance to the human body, it is possible to use a Playlene coating on any one of a peek, a polyethylene or a polypropylene of a plastic system.

3 is a block diagram of the configuration of the sensing unit 101 included in the sensing apparatus 100. As shown in FIG.

3, the sensing unit 101 includes a sensor 110, a reading circuit 111, a coding circuit 112, a switching circuit 113, a current limiting circuit 114, a control circuit 115, And an oscillation circuit (116).

The sensor 110 is a biosensor that converts human body information into electric signals and stores the converted human body information into electrical signals such as heart rate, blood pressure, pulse rate, body temperature, calorie consumption, and the like.

To briefly explain the principle of measuring heart rate, the heartbeat principle measures the heart rate of the heart directly or the capillary blood vessel has the frequency at the same cycle as the heart rate of the heart. The pulse rate of the heart or the pulse rate of the capillary is checked with a pressure sensor or a laser, and the checked heart rate is converted into an electrical signal and output.

What can measure heart rate is that blood pressure can be measured as well, which requires additional sensors.

In addition, if a body temperature sensor is additionally used to measure the body temperature, information on the body temperature may be converted into an electric signal and output in the same manner as described above.

The reading circuit 111 sequentially takes out the electrical signals output from the sensor 110. [

The encoding circuit 112 encodes the signal output from the readout circuit 110, and employs a PSK method having a simple encoding method and a strong noise-resistant property.

The switching circuit 113 transmits the encoded signal using an output line. In operation, the switching circuit 113 receives a signal from the encoding circuit 112 and applies a positive voltage to the first output line and grounds the second output line when the signal is '1' The first output line is grounded and a positive voltage is applied to the second output line. Thus, the signal is transmitted to the polarity of the voltage rather than the magnitude of the voltage, so that the noise is further strengthened.

The current limiting circuit 114 limits the current value so that a current of 5 mA or more does not flow by adjusting the current value so that a current of a harmful size does not flow to the human body. In the embodiment of the present invention, the current limiting circuit 114 is implemented by connecting resistors in series to the first and second output lines of the switching circuit 113, respectively.

That is, when a power supply voltage is 3 volts and a resistance of 300? Is connected in series to the first and second output lines to constitute the current limiting circuit, the resistance of the human body is very small, And 11 are shorted, the current flowing through the human body does not exceed 5 mA. In addition, a capacitor is further connected in parallel to each resistor to eliminate high frequency components of a signal transmitted through the human body, and electrical matching with the human body is achieved, thereby achieving superior signal transmission.

The signal passing through the current limiting circuit 114 is applied to the first and second electrodes 10 and 11 of the sensing device 100 and transmitted to the receiving device 200 through the human body.

In the conventional radiofrequency (RF) system, a high-frequency signal of several hundreds MHz is required. However, in the present invention, a low-frequency signal of 10 MHz can be transmitted through the human body.

The control circuit 115 controls signal processing and operation of each of the components described above.

The oscillation circuit 116 determines the operating frequency.

4 is a view illustrating a health monitor system using a capsule endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, the health monitoring system using the capsule endoscope according to the present invention includes the sensing devices 100 and 100-1 and the receiving device 200. FIG.

The sensing devices 100 and 100-1 are in the form of bands and may be worn at any point of the human body information that the user can easily acquire, that is, at any one of the wrist, chest, and ankle of the user. Are likewise in band form and can be worn on the user's arm, which can be easily monitored during activity.

The health monitoring system using the capsule endoscope according to the present invention uses communication using the human body as a medium, and is described below in the health monitoring method according to the above-described configuration.

The sensing apparatuses 100 and 100-1 sense at least one human body information and convert them into electrical signals and transmit them to the receiving apparatus 200 using the outside of the human body (medium). In the receiving apparatus 200, Receives and decodes the electrical signal, and displays it so that it can be viewed by the user.

Here, a method of transmitting is to transmit a current to the outside of the human body by using a potential difference between the transmitting electrodes included in the sensing apparatuses 100 and 100-1, and the current flowing outside the human body is transmitted to the receiving apparatus 200, and decodes the organic electrical signal so as to display it on a screen such as an LCD so that the user can see it.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications and combinations are possible. Of course.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the embodiments but should be determined by the claims.

100: sensing device 200: receiving device
101: sensing part 102: sensor interface
103: serial conversion unit 104: encoding unit
105, 201: medium interface 202: square wave converting section
203: TTL conversion unit 204:
205:

Claims

A sensing device that senses at least one human body information and transmits the sensed human body information using the human body as a medium; And
And a receiving device for receiving the transmitted human body information.

The apparatus according to claim 1,
Wherein the capsule endoscope has at least two electrodes.

The electrode according to claim 2,
SUS316L, gold, silver, and aluminum. The health monitor system using the capsule endoscope.

The electrode according to claim 2,
Wherein the capsule endoscope is electrically insulated from the surface of the sensing device and the receiving device.

The plasma display apparatus according to claim 2,
Wherein one side of the capsule endoscope is electrically connected to an internal circuit of the sensing device and an electrical signal generated in the internal circuit is applied to the capsule endoscope.

3. The plasma display apparatus according to claim 2,
Wherein one side of the capsule endoscope is electrically connected to an internal circuit of the receiving device, and an electrical signal is applied to the capsule endoscope through the outside of the capsule endoscope.

2. The sensor of claim 1,
Wherein the capsule endoscope is made by coating Playlene coating on any one selected from the group consisting of Peek, Polyethylene and Polypropylene.

The apparatus according to claim 1,
A sensing unit for sensing human body information and converting it into an electrical signal,
A sensor interface for receiving the converted electrical signal,
A serial converter for converting the electrical signal into a serial signal;
An encoding unit for encoding the serial signal into a predetermined code;
And a medium interface for directly energizing the encoded electrical signal to the outside of the medium.

9. The apparatus of claim 8,
A sensor for converting human body information into an electrical signal and storing the same,
A reading circuit for sequentially taking out electrical signals of the sensor,
An encoding circuit for encoding the output signal of the read circuit,
A switching circuit for changing the polarity of the output line according to the encoded signal,
A current limiting circuit for limiting the current of 5 mA or more from flowing,
A control circuit for controlling the operation of each of the components,
And an oscillation circuit for generating a pulse.

9. The sensor according to claim 8,
Wherein the capsule endoscope is a biosensor.

9. The method according to claim 8,
Manchester code or DBPSK code. &Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > 11. < / RTI >

The receiving apparatus according to claim 1,
A media interface for receiving an encoded electrical signal,
A square wave converting unit for converting the encoded electrical signal into a square wave signal of two voltage levels,
A TTL converter for converting the electric signal converted into the square wave signal into a TTL level signal,
And a decryption unit for decrypting the encoded electrical signal.

13. The receiving apparatus according to claim 12,
Further comprising a noise removing unit for removing noise included in the electrical signal.

13. The decoding apparatus of claim 12,
A first rising edge of the coded electrical signal is detected and designated as data "1 ", a rising edge or a falling edge is detected for each signal period corresponding to the transmission frequency on the basis of the first rising edge, Quot; 0 "or" 0 ".

15. The method of claim 14, wherein detecting the rising or falling edge comprises:
Wherein the detection is performed at a frequency faster than the transmission frequency within a predetermined range of the transmission period.

The method according to claim 1,
Blood pressure, pulse rate, heart rate, and body temperature of the capsule endoscope.

Detecting at least one human body information, converting the human body information into an electrical signal, and transmitting the electrical signal using the outside of the medium; And
And receiving and displaying the transmitted electrical signal. &Lt; Desc / Clms Page number 19 >

18. The method of claim 17,
Wherein the transmission is performed using a potential difference between the transmission electrodes included in the sensing device.

18. The method of claim 17,
And decodes and displays the electrical signal induced between the receiving electrodes.