KR20190122115A - Wearable device monitoring residual urine volume in bladder using ultrasonic wave and method of monitoring residual urine volume in bladder using ultrasonic wave - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wearable ultrasound measurement device which measures a size of a urine region by using ultrasonic waves. The wearable ultrasound measurement device comprises: a flexible pad attachable to a body; a plurality of first ultrasonic transducers arranged in a first direction in the flexible pad; an inertial sensor positioned adjacent to the first ultrasonic transducer in the flexible pad and installed at two or more points spaced apart from each other; a first urine region extracting unit extracting a first urine region in the first direction from a reflection signal received from the first ultrasound transducer; and a first urine region correction unit correcting a dimension of the first urine region in the first direction by using a bending amount of the flexible pad obtained from the inertial sensor.

Description

WEARABLE DEVICE MONITORING RESIDUAL URINE VOLUME IN BLADDER USING ULTRASONIC WAVE AND METHOD OF MONITORING RESIDUAL URINE VOLUME IN BLADDER USING ULTRASONIC WAVE}

The present invention relates to a wearable device for measuring the amount of residual urine in the bladder, and more particularly, to a wearable ultrasound measuring apparatus and a measuring method for monitoring the amount of residual urine in the bladder of patients with uncomfortable behavior.

After metabolism, our body produces urine and stores it in the bladder via the ureters. The urinary reservoir relaxes the bladder and contracts the sphincter to store urine. When the urine is full of bladder, the sphincter is relaxed by the control of the central nervous system, and the bladder muscle contracts and urine is discharged out of the body.

This urination process can control urine storage and urination function to some extent by control of central nervous system even if bladder is not completely filled. Therefore, the basic organs in charge of the storage function and discharge function of urine during daily life are bladder and urethral sphincter, but these sphincter and bladder activities are controlled under the control of central nervous system. Because urine storage and urination are living organisms, they are always active and are the most basic physiological activity of the human body.

However, in patients suffering from lower paraplegia due to congenital malformations or spinal cord injury, physical sensations may not be sensed or incompletely related to sensory nerve abnormalities accompanied by movement disorder caused by motor neuron disorder. In patients with CNS paralysis, dysfunction may be accompanied not only in the extremities but also in the internal organs such as the digestive system and the urinary system. Damage or lesions to these nervous systems, which control the terminal organs responsible for the storage and excretion of urine, cause abnormalities in the storage and excretion of urine. You won't feel full.

If urine is not stored, urine leaks, unlike your intention, urinary incontinence occurs, on the contrary, if urine is not drained, symptoms of urination disorders are expressed. Indeed, in most patients, these incontinence and urination disorders are not only present at the extremes, but also mixed in varying proportions.

Since urine storage and discharge are the most basic physiological activities, clinically, urinary incontinence and dysmenorrhea symptoms can suffer from urinary incontinence and the diaper wear caused by urinary incontinence can drastically degrade the quality of life. In addition, when there is a discharge disorder, the urinary overflow in the bladder is often expressed in the form of incontinence. Inadequate discharge can lead to urinary tract infections, such as deep-headed nephritis, and can even lead to kidney damage if chronically advanced.

The most basic method of treating urination disorders is to use a catheter. Although urinary catheter can be placed in the urinary bladder, such as urethral catheterization or lumbar bladder installation, it is reported to be nonphysiological and complications.

Therefore, intermittent catheterization is the method closest to the normal storage and discharge of urine. If the bladder is full, the patient himself inserts a catheter into the urethra and artificially drains the urinary bladder, which is performed 4-6 times a day. If urine is not excreted, urinary incontinence can be prevented from overflowing from the bladder and overcoming discharge disorders. In most patients, applying these methods well in their daily lives can help them overcome urinary incontinence or discharge disorders.

Even in this case, most of the patients are accompanied by a feeling of bladder deficiency, so it is difficult to know when the bladder is filled. People vary greatly in the amount they drink based on their individual lifestyle. In particular, even in the same person, the rate of urine production in the kidneys throughout the day is constantly changing due to fluid intake or physical activity, making it more difficult to predict bladder fullness. Therefore, most spinal cord injuries, which are not necessary for normal people, but who cannot feel bladder fullness, can prevent urinary incontinence and prevent complications such as kidney damage and urinary tract infection due to discharge disorder if they can monitor their bladder fullness at all times. Would be very useful.

Conventionally, the method of measuring the amount of urine in the bladder, 1) to determine the amount of urine directly by draining urine through the urethra into the urinary catheter; The device is in use.

In the latter case, it is not a personal device but is generally used as a laboratory for measuring the bladder volume by examining the ultrasound of the patient's lower abdomen and lying down on the stomach after urination. It is used a lot for purposes. The personal equipment that can be worn on the body may need equipment that can continuously check the residual urine volume even after the time of urination.

Korean Patent No. 10-307085 discloses "Ultrasonic Incontinence Alarm System and Method." According to the registered patent, after calculating the distance between the bladder using the received ultrasonic signal, and includes a content of warning if the distance between the wall of the bladder exceeds the set distance. However, this content also has a limitation as a personal equipment, there is a disadvantage that can not accurately measure the residual urine in that it measures only the distance between the walls.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2007-0031285 also discloses an "ultrasound rate sensor." Ultrasonic urine sensor of the patent is equally arranged in accordance with the expansion direction of the bladder, the ultrasonic urine sensor is characterized in that the urinary bladder to measure the urine in the bladder under the assumption that the bladder expands in the upper direction, that is head It is done. However, this also has the disadvantage of being inaccurate in that the urine is measured by measuring the three-dimensional bladder only by the one-dimensional length element.

The present invention provides a wearable ultrasound measuring apparatus and a measuring method which can continuously measure the residual urine volume while wearing it during daily life of the patient in need of residual urine volume monitoring.

The present invention provides a wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus and measuring method that can reflect the three-dimensional shape and volume of the residual urine volume while using ultrasonic waves.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object of the present invention, a wearable ultrasonic measuring device for measuring the size of the urine region using the ultrasonic wave, a flexible pad, a flexible pad attachable to the body A plurality of first ultrasonic transducers arranged in a first direction at, an inertial sensor disposed adjacent to the first ultrasonic transducer at a flexible pad and installed at at least two or more positions spaced apart from each other, and received from the first ultrasonic transducer The first urine region extracting unit extracts the first urine region in the first direction from the reflected signal, and the size of the first urine region in the first direction using the bending amount of the flexible pad obtained from the inertial sensor. A first urine area correction unit is provided.

A second urine extracting a second urine region in a second direction from a plurality of second ultrasound transducers arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction and a reflection signal received from the second ultrasound transducer in the flexible pad The apparatus may further include a region extracting unit, and may obtain three-dimensional information about the urine region by using information about the first urine region and the second urine region. If the first direction and the second direction are directions that cross each other, three-dimensional information may be obtained, but may preferably be perpendicular to each other.

In Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2007-0031285, a three-axis acceleration sensor is also mentioned in the "ultrasound rate sensor". However, the three-axis acceleration sensor mentioned in the above-mentioned patent is for recognizing the posture of the patient, to correct the urine value by standing whether the patient is standing (position), sitting (left) or lying (wiwi) will be. For example, the change in length extending in one direction from the left or the vortex may be greater than the mouth position. For reference, in the above-mentioned patent, only one triaxial acceleration sensor may be provided, and it does not need to be disposed adjacent to the ultrasonic oscillation element.

On the other hand, the inertial sensor in the present embodiment is mounted on the flexible pad, and must be provided adjacent to the ultrasonic transducers, and a plurality must be provided. Because, the inertial sensor is to measure the amount of bending of the flexible pad attached to the body curve, to measure the exact shape of the urine region by reflecting the information obtained from the ultrasonic transducer mounted on the soluble pad.

The first urine region extracting unit generates a reflection signal storage unit for storing the reflection signal received from the first ultrasound transducer, a filter signal having a minimum weight having a predetermined bandwidth and a maximum weight provided before and after the minimum weight, and the filter signal A filter generator for generating a filter signal by changing the bandwidth of the convolution operator, a convolution operator for convolutional operation of the reflected signal stored in the reflected signal storage unit and the filter signal generated by the filter generator, and a maximum in the convolution operator It may include a maximum value storage for storing information about the filter signal having a value and the maximum value.

As a result of performing the convolution operation by varying the bandwidth, the first urine region extractor may extract the first urine region by using a filter signal stored in the maximum value storage unit, that is, having the maximum value. In the existing ultrasound equipment, the urine region was extracted by finding the boundary of the bladder, etc. by using the edge detection method without using the convolution operation. However, this conventional method detects edges having a large gradient in the brightness of ultrasonic pixels, and according to these methods, speckle noise of ultrasonic signals despite the non-bladder region. ) Often missed the boundaries of the bladder. Therefore, the conventional edge detection has a problem that the accuracy of the bladder region detection depends on the SNR of the ultrasonic signal.

On the contrary, a filter matching the reflected ultrasonic signal according to the present embodiment is found, and the urine region is extracted using the patch filter. The method using such a filter can accurately extract the urine area without affecting the speckle noise or the poor contact of the ultrasonic transducer.

In detail, the filter generator may set the maximum weight to 1 in the filter signal and the minimum weight to a value obtained by dividing -6000 by the bandwidth. In addition, in the first urine region extractor, the convolution operator may perform a convolution operation by varying a specific point of the filter signal having the maximum value, search for a point where the result of the convolution is the maximum, and maximize the maximum value. A bandwidth corresponding to the minimum weight may be allocated to the first urine region in the filter signal stored in the storage.

The first urine region extractor may generate the first urine region as a binary image, and may quantify the dimensions of the first urine region more simply using the binary image.

The first urine region corrector measures the angle of the first ultrasonic transducer from the inertial sensor and compensates the first urine region of the wearer wearing the wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus according to the angle or posture change of the first ultrasonic transducer. When the flexible pad is attached directly to the patient's body, the flexible pad may be fixed at a different angle depending on the body part of the attached patient. The amount of bending of the flexible pad may vary depending on the shape of the body part or the posture of the wearer, thereby compensating for the size of the bladder or urine area more accurately.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object of the present invention, the measuring method for measuring the size of the urine region using the wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus, a plurality of first ultrasonic waves arranged in the first direction Attaching to the body a flexible pad comprising an inertial sensor positioned adjacent to the transducer and the first ultrasonic transducer at least two spaced apart positions from the reflected signal received from the first ultrasonic transducer Extracting the first urine region in the first direction, and correcting the dimension of the first urine region in the first direction by using the bending amount of the flexible pad obtained from the inertial sensor.

The extracting of the first urine region in the first direction may include: storing a reflection signal received from the first ultrasound transducer, a filter having a minimum weight having a predetermined bandwidth and a maximum weight provided before and after the minimum weight Generating a signal, convolutionally computing the reflected signal and the filter signal, and storing information about the filter signal and the maximum value having a maximum result of the convolution operation, wherein As a result of generating a filter signal by changing the bandwidth and performing a convolution operation with different bandwidths, the first urine region may be extracted using a filter signal having a maximum value.

In the step of correcting the dimensions of the first urine area, the angle of the first ultrasonic transducer is measured from the inertial sensor, and the first urine region of the wearer wearing the wearable ultrasonic measuring device according to the angle or posture change of the first ultrasonic transducer. I can compensate it.

According to the wearable ultrasound measuring apparatus and measuring method of the present invention, the patient who needs to monitor the residual urine volume can continuously measure the residual urine volume while wearing it in daily life, but generate a binary image using ultrasonic waves, and the stereoscopic volume of the residual urine volume through the binary image. The shape and volume can be numerically reflected in real time.

In addition, the deformation of the flexible pad may be estimated through the information collected by the inertial sensor to reflect the oscillated ultrasonic progression direction in the urine region, and the correct urine region or the bladder shape may be estimated.

1 is a view for explaining the use of the wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a view for explaining the structure of the wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram illustrating a connection part of the wearable ultrasound measuring apparatus of FIG. 2.
4 is a diagram for describing an envelope of a reflected signal in wearable ultrasound measurement according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a filter signal in wearable ultrasound measurement according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of extracting a urine region using a filter signal and a reflection signal in wearable ultrasound measurement according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a process of finding an optimal filter signal by changing a filter signal in wearable ultrasound measurement according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a reflected signal and a binary image acquired by a wearable ultrasound measuring method according to an exemplary embodiment.
9 is a flowchart illustrating a process of correcting a urine area in consideration of a deformation degree of a flexible pad according to a wearable ultrasound measuring method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited or limited by the embodiments. For reference, in the present description, the same numbers refer to substantially the same elements, and may be described by quoting the contents described in other drawings under the above rules, and the contents repeated or deemed apparent to those skilled in the art may be omitted.

1 is a view for explaining the use of the wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a view for explaining the structure of the wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus of Figure 1, Figure 3 is It is a circuit diagram for explaining the connection of the wearable ultrasonic measuring device.

1 to 3, the wearable ultrasound measuring apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment is a device for measuring a urine region having a three-dimensional shape using ultrasonic waves, and includes a flexible pad 110 that can be attached to a body. A plurality of first ultrasonic transducers 120 arranged in the first direction I in the flexible pad 110 and a plurality of second ultrasonic transducers arranged in the second direction II in the flexible pad 110. 130, the urine region is collected from the reflection signals received from the inertial sensor 140, the first ultrasonic transducer 120, and the second ultrasonic transducer 130, which are installed at five positions of the flexible pad 110. Urine region extraction unit 180 to be extracted, and the urine region correction unit 190 for correcting the size of the urine region by using the amount of bending of the flexible pad 110 obtained from the inertial sensor 140 may be provided. .

In the present exemplary embodiment, the first direction I and the second direction II are oriented at right angles to each other, and the first ultrasound transducer 120 and the second ultrasound transducer 130 may also be vertically arranged. In addition, in the present embodiment, the urine region extracting unit 180 and the urine region correcting unit 190 are reflected signals received from the first ultrasonic transducer 120 and the second ultrasonic transducer 130 by the control device 170. According to another embodiment of the present invention, but according to another embodiment, the first urine region extractor, the second urine region extractor, the first urine respectively connected to the first ultrasound transducer 120 and the second ultrasound transducer 130 The region corrector and the second urine region corrector may be provided separately.

According to the present embodiment, the control device 170 may be connected to the ultrasonic transducer and the inertial sensor of the flexible pad 110 through the connection part 150. The control device 170 may include a urine region extracting unit 180 and Urine region correction unit 190 may be functionally included. That is, the reflected signal due to the ultrasonic transmission may be received by the first ultrasonic transducer 120 and the second ultrasonic transducer 130, and the first ultrasonic transducer 120 and the second ultrasonic transducer 130 The received reflection signal is converted into a binary image by the urine region extracting unit 180 of the control unit 170 through the connection unit 150, and the control unit 170 is a flexible pad measured by the inertial sensor 140. An angle of 110 or an angle of the ultrasonic transducers may be calculated to reflect the angle in the binary image, thereby measuring the actual three-dimensional shape or volume.

1 and 2, the flexible pad 110 may be provided in the form of a cross or a wide pad as a structure attachable to a body, and may be formed using a material such as silicon. In the present embodiment, the flexible pad 110 is provided in a cross shape, and may form a portion to be attached using a gel pad to be temporarily attached to a body.

Eight first ultrasonic transducers 120 may be mounted in the horizontal axis of the flexible pad 110, that is, in the first direction I, and in the second direction II along the vertical axis of the flexible pad 110. Eight second ultrasonic transducers 130 may also be mounted. In addition, five inertial sensors 140 may be embedded at the end and the center of the flexible pad 110. The inertial sensor 140 may also be electrically connected to the connection unit 150.

For reference, in the present exemplary embodiment, the first ultrasound transducer 120 and the second ultrasound transducer 130 are linearly arranged along the horizontal axis and the vertical axis, respectively, so that the horizontal image and the vertical image may be measured. However, in other embodiments, only one row of ultrasonic transducers may be provided, in which case an inertial sensor may be provided at at least two points to measure the flexure of the flexible pad and to correct the angular change of the ultrasonic transducers.

The control device 170 includes a urine region extracting unit 180 and a urine region correcting unit 190, and the urine region extracting unit 180 generates a filter signal as shown in FIG. The filter generator 184 may include a convolution calculator 186 for a convolution operation and a maximum value storage 188. The urine region extractor 180 generates a filter signal having an optimal bandwidth by using the reflected signals received from the first and second ultrasonic transducers 120 and 130, and then stores the maximum value storage unit 188. Can be compared to the reflected signal using the filter signal for virtually all bandwidths, and as a result, the filter signal having the maximum value can be stored, and the filter signal for binary image formation of the final urine region can be extracted. have.

Referring to FIG. 3, a connection unit 150 for connecting the transducer and inertial sensor of the flexible pad 110 to the control device 170 may be provided. The connection part 150 may be installed in the same or separate housing as the control device 170.

As a circuit diagram for the connection unit 150, the first ultrasonic transducer 120 and the second ultrasonic transducer 130 may include a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a T / R switch, and a MUX (16 to 8). It can be connected to the control unit 170, the microcontroller (MCU) can control the low noise amplifier (LNA), variable gain amplifier (VGA) and A / D converter (ADC) of the eight channels by SPI communication, Using the information obtained from the inertial sensor 140, the degree of bending or deformation of the flexible pad 110 may be estimated and transmitted to the FPGA through universal asynchronous receiver / transmitter (UART) communication.

The FPGA can perform envelope detection through Hilbert transform of the reflected signal coming into the low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) signal. The FPGA may transmit the envelope-shaped reflection signal and the degree of bending of the flexible pad 110 to the controller 170. The controller 170 may transmit the reflected signal and the degree of deformation of the flexible pad 110 through the collected signal. Accurately estimate the amount of residual urine in the urine area.

4 is a diagram illustrating an envelope of a reflected signal in a wearable ultrasonic measurement according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a filter signal in a wearable ultrasonic measurement according to an embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of extracting a urine region using a filter signal and a reflection signal in a wearable ultrasound measurement according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a wearable ultrasound measurement according to an embodiment of the present invention. Is a view for explaining a process of finding an optimal filter signal by changing a filter signal in FIG. 8 is a view for explaining a reflected signal and a binary image obtained by the wearable ultrasonic measurement method according to an embodiment of the present invention to be.

Ultrasound has the specified that the acoustic impedance can be reflected and diffracted at different media boundaries. Referring to FIG. 4, when the ultrasound is oscillated toward the bladder, the reflected ultrasound signal may be received by the first ultrasound transducer 120 or the second ultrasound transducer 130.

Looking at the reflection signal obtained through the first ultrasonic transducer 120, the longer the reflected position is, the longer the time to reach the first ultrasonic transducer 120 may be. Thus, assuming that the ultrasound is oscillated at the abdominal surface, the ultrasound may pass in order of fat, muscle, urine, and other organs, and may be reflected at each location to reach the first ultrasound transducer 120.

For reference, since urine is the same medium as water, it can be said that there is almost no reflected wave, and the urine region can be extracted by using the fact that the reflected wave hardly occurs in the bladder in which the urine is located.

Referring to FIG. 5, the filter signal 160 may be used as a method of using a match filter instead of edge detection. As shown, the filter signal 160 may include a minimum weight min having a predetermined bandwidth and a maximum weight max provided before and after the minimum weight min.

For reference, since the size of the urine region is flexible, the interval of the minimum weight min of the filter signal 160, that is, the bandwidth may be changed and a convolution operation may be performed for all intervals. To this end, first, a filter signal having a minimum spacing is generated, and the reflection signal and the filter signal are convolved, the result is compared with the previous value, and when the value is relatively large, the new value can be stored in the maximum value storage unit 188. have.

After increasing the interval of the minimum weight min, a convolution operation is performed using the reflected signal and the filter signal whose interval is changed, and it is determined whether the maximum value is the maximum value and the maximum value is stored in the maximum value storage unit 188. Information about the filter signal having a and the maximum value can be stored.

After the convolution operation is performed for all intervals, the urine region extractor 180 may extract the depth of the urine region for the corresponding channel by calling a filter signal stored in the maximum value storage unit 188. The result of the convolution operation may be the maximum when the interval of the minimum weight min coincides with the urine region, and the maximum weight is given to the fat layer, muscle, and other organ regions, for example, 1. Of course, the minimum weight in the filter signal can be set to -6000 / (bandwidth).

In addition, the convolution calculator 186 in the first urine region extractor 180 may further measure the position of the urine region by varying a specific point of the filter signal having the maximum value. That is, the convolution operation can be performed by changing a specific point, search the point where the convolution result is the maximum, and allocate the bandwidth corresponding to the minimum weight in the filter signal stored in the maximum value storage unit to the urine region. can do. Again, the specific point of the filter signal is preferably an intermediate point of the region having the minimum weight, but is not necessarily limited thereto.

In order to find an optimal match filter, an RF form reflection signal is obtained from the ultrasonic transducer, and the obtained reflection signal may apply a lowpass filter for removing high frequency noise. Convolutional operation is performed by changing the bandwidth of the minimum weight, extracting and comparing the maximum value among the calculation results obtained for the substantially sufficient bandwidth, selecting a filter signal having the maximum value, and selecting the middle of the filter signal. The result of convolving the point with the same filter signal is located at the point where the maximum value is seen.

The position at which the corresponding reflected wave is reflected may be derived from the time information of the reflected signal, and the bandwidth providing the maximum value at the position providing the minimum weight and the maximum value among the filter signals may be specified and allocated to the urine region.

In this process, the reflection signals obtained by the first ultrasound transducer 120 and the second ultrasound transducer 130 may be received for each channel (see FIG. 8A), and the first ultrasound transducer 120 may be used. ) And the second ultrasound transducer 130 may be determined to obtain a binary image of the urine region in the horizontal and vertical directions (see FIG. 8B). Even when comparing the existing B-mode image shown in FIG. 8 (c) with the naked eye, it can be seen that the binary image accurately corresponds to the urine area, and the width, height and depth of the urine area are digitized to compare numerically or volume. It is very easy to estimate.

Through the above process, the width, height, and depth of the urine region corresponding to the obtained horizontal and vertical directions can be extracted, and the volume of the urine region can be estimated according to the given information. The process of finding the filter signal having the maximum value according to the convolution operation can reduce the error due to noise compared to the conventional method using the edge detection.

Specifically, in the conventional ultrasound apparatus, the method using edge detection was used, and the urine region was extracted by finding the edge of the bladder as a method of finding an edge. However, this conventional method detects edges having a large gradient in the brightness of ultrasonic pixels, and according to these methods, speckle noise of ultrasonic signals despite the non-bladder region. ) Often missed the boundaries of the bladder. Therefore, the conventional edge detection has a problem that the accuracy of the bladder region detection depends on the SNR of the ultrasonic signal.

On the contrary, it is characterized by finding a filter signal matching the reflected ultrasonic signal according to the present embodiment and extracting an optimal urine region using the filter signal. The method using such a filter can accurately extract the urine area without affecting the speckle noise or the poor contact of the ultrasonic transducer.

9 is a flowchart illustrating a process of correcting a urine area in consideration of a deformation degree of a flexible pad according to a wearable ultrasound measuring method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 9, the flexible pad 110 may be attached to the abdomen of the body in a curved state. Therefore, if the reflection signal obtained through the flexible pad 110 in close contact with the convex belly is used as it is, the volume of the urine area can be measured more than it actually is, which causes the error in the urine area estimation result. Can be.

Therefore, the change in the angle of the ultrasonic transducer can be detected by the plurality of inertial sensors 140 to correct the urine area error. From the plurality of inertial sensors 140, the degree of bending of the flexible pad 110 or the angle change of the ultrasonic transducers may be detected, and the change of the posture of the wearer may be detected therefrom.

In addition, the inertial sensor 140 may also use the direction angle information of the one positioned at both ends and the middle, and the direction angle of the ultrasonic transducers in between may estimate the direction angle through the interpolation technique. .

The controller 170 may correct the error of the urine region obtained from the matched filter signal by using the information obtained from the inertial sensor 140, and obtain the width, height, and depth of the corrected value. In addition, the residual urine volume may be calculated by reflecting the weight α according to the wearer's posture.

As described above, although described with reference to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, those skilled in the art various modifications and variations of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention described in the claims below I can understand that you can.

100: wearable ultrasonic measuring device 110: flexible pad
120: first ultrasonic transducer 130: second ultrasonic transducer
140: inertial sensor 150: connection
170: control device 180: urine region extraction unit
190: urine region correction unit 195: monitor

Claims (18)

In the wearable ultrasonic measuring device for measuring the size of the urine region using the ultrasonic wave,
A flexible pad attachable to the body;
A plurality of first ultrasonic transducers arranged in a first direction in the flexible pad;
An inertial sensor disposed at at least two positions spaced apart from each other and adjacent to the first ultrasonic transducer in the flexible pad;
A first urine region extracting unit which extracts a first urine region in the first direction from the reflection signal received from the first ultrasound transducer; And
And a first urine region corrector configured to correct the dimension of the first urine region in the first direction by using the amount of bending of the flexible pad obtained from the inertial sensor. The method of claim 1,
Extracting a second urine region in the second direction from the plurality of second ultrasonic transducers arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction and the reflection signals received from the second ultrasonic transducer in the flexible pad Wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus further comprises a second urine region extraction unit. The method of claim 2,
The wearable ultrasound measuring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first direction and the second direction are perpendicular to each other. The method of claim 1,
The first urine region extracting unit,
A reflection signal storage unit storing the reflection signal received from the first ultrasonic transducer;
A filter generator for generating a filter signal having a minimum weight having a predetermined bandwidth and a maximum weight provided before and after the minimum weight, and changing the bandwidth of the filter signal to generate the filter signal;
A convolution calculator configured to convolution the reflected signal stored in the storage unit and the filter signal generated by the filter generator; And
And a maximum value storage unit configured to store information about a maximum value and a filter signal having the maximum value in the convolution calculator.
Wearing ultrasound measuring apparatus, characterized in that for extracting the first urine region using the filter signal having the maximum value stored in the maximum value storage unit as a result of the convolution operation by changing the bandwidth. The method of claim 4, wherein
The filter generating unit sets the maximum weight to 1 in the filter signal, and sets the minimum weight to a value obtained by dividing -6000 by the bandwidth. The method of claim 4, wherein
In the first urine region extractor, the convolution operator performs a convolution operation by varying a specific point of the filter signal having the maximum value, searches for a point at which the convolution result is maximum,
Wearable ultrasound measuring apparatus, characterized in that for allocating the bandwidth corresponding to the minimum weight in the filter signal stored in the maximum value storage unit to the first urine region. The method of claim 6,
Wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus, characterized in that the specific point of the filter signal is an intermediate point. The method of claim 4, wherein
The first urine region extracting unit generates the first urine region as a binary image, wherein the wearable ultrasound measuring apparatus. The method of claim 1,
The first urine region corrector measures the angle of the first ultrasonic transducer from the inertial sensor and compensates the first urine region of the wearer who wears the wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus according to the angle or posture change of the first ultrasonic transducer. Wearable ultrasonic measuring apparatus characterized in that. In the measuring method for measuring the size of the urine region using a wearable ultrasonic measuring device,
Attaching to the body a flexible pad comprising a plurality of first ultrasonic transducers arranged in a first direction and an inertial sensor positioned adjacent to the first ultrasonic transducer and at least two spaced apart positions from each other; ;
Extracting a first urine region in the first direction from a reflection signal received from the first ultrasound transducer;
And correcting the dimension of the first urine region in the first direction by using the amount of bending of the flexible pad obtained from the inertial sensor. The method of claim 10,
Providing a plurality of second ultrasonic transducers arranged in the second direction crossing the first direction to the flexible pad,
Wearable ultrasonic measurement method, characterized in that for extracting and correcting the dimensions of the second urine region in the second direction from the reflected signal received from the second ultrasonic transducer. The method of claim 11,
The first and second directions may be perpendicular to each other. The method of claim 10,
The extracting of the first urine region in the first direction may include:
Storing the reflected signal received from the first ultrasound transducer;
Generating a filter signal having a minimum weight having a predetermined bandwidth and a maximum weight provided before and after the minimum weight;
Convolution calculating the reflected signal and the filter signal; And
Storing a filter signal having a maximum value as a result of the convolution operation and information on the maximum value;
Generate the filter signal by changing the bandwidth of the filter signal,
Wearing ultrasound measuring method, characterized in that for extracting the first urine region using the filter signal having a maximum value as a result of the convolution operation by varying the bandwidth. The method of claim 13,
The wearable ultrasound measuring method of claim 1, wherein the maximum weight is set to 1 in the filter signal, and the minimum weight is set to a value obtained by dividing -6000 by the bandwidth. The method of claim 13,
A convolution operation is performed by varying a specific point of the filter signal having the maximum value, a search is performed at a point at which the result of the convolution is maximum, and finally the minimum weight in the filter signal having the maximum value. The wearable ultrasound measuring method of claim 1, wherein the corresponding bandwidth is allocated to the first urine region. The method of claim 15,
The specific point of the filter signal is a wearable ultrasonic measurement method, characterized in that the intermediate point. The method of claim 13,
In the extracting of the first urine region, the wearable ultrasound measuring method of generating the first urine region as a binary image. The method of claim 10,
In correcting the dimensions of the first urine region,
And measuring the angle of the first ultrasonic transducer from the inertial sensor and compensating for the first urine area of the wearer wearing the wearable ultrasonic measuring device according to the angle or posture change of the first ultrasonic transducer. Ultrasonic Measurement Method.

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