WO2015088180A1

WO2015088180A1 - Stimulation apparatus and method

Info

Publication number: WO2015088180A1
Application number: PCT/KR2014/011799
Authority: WO
Inventors: 이준환
Original assignee: 한국 한의학 연구원
Priority date: 2013-12-11
Filing date: 2014-12-04
Publication date: 2015-06-18
Also published as: KR20150068009A; KR102168756B1

Abstract

A stimulation pad may comprise: a control unit for receiving a signal comprising stimulation information; a drive unit for receiving the received stimulation information and driving a stimulation signal which is an electrical signal; and a transmission unit for transmitting the stimulation signal to a patient's skin as physical stimulation, wherein the physical stimulation uses at least one of acupuncture and moxibustion.

Description

Stimulation device and method

It relates to a stimulation device and method, and more particularly to a device and method that can receive acupuncture or moxibustion treatment according to a program embedded in the stimulation device.

Acupuncture or moxibustion is one of the typical treatment methods for treating patients by delivering physical stimulation directly to the human body. For example, the treatment method using saliva may be a treatment method of fixing the saliva for a predetermined time by penetrating the skin at a specific point on the skin of the patient. In addition, moxibustion is a treatment method for disposing a heating element at a specific point on the skin of a patient for a predetermined time so that heat generated from the heating element is transferred to a specific point.

In one course of treatment, the location of the acupuncture or moxibustion must be set correctly. For example, when acupuncture or moxibustion is placed in the wrong position, treatment efficiency is lowered, and there are problems that may cause side effects to the patient.

In order to be treated with a medical device that exerts physical stimuli such as acupuncture or moxibustion, the patient must visit a medical or oriental hospital equipped with the medical device for treatment. However, it is difficult to frequently visit patients with uncomfortable behavior, and thus, there is a need to develop a device or method for remotely performing acupuncture or moxibustion treatment.

According to one side, the control unit for receiving a signal containing stimulation information; A driver configured to receive the received stimulus information and drive a stimulus signal which is an electrical signal; And a delivery unit configured to transmit a stimulus signal to the skin of the patient as a physical stimulus, wherein the physical stimulus uses at least one of saliva and moxibustion.

According to an embodiment, when the physical stimulus is transmitted to the skin using the saliva, the delivery unit may receive the stimulus signal from the driving unit to protrude the saliva.

According to another embodiment, the transfer unit may protrude the needle using at least one of tension and elastic force.

According to another embodiment, when the physical stimulus is transmitted to the skin using the moxibustion, the transmission unit may generate heat energy to transmit the stimulus signal.

According to an embodiment, the transfer unit may generate the thermal energy using at least one of a heat generation method using exothermic-induced powder, a heat generation method with exothermic-induced liquid, and a heat generation method by electricity.

According to another embodiment, the stimulus information may include at least one of a stimulus signal pattern, a time for delivering the stimulus signal, a cycle of the stimulus signal, and a timing of the stimulus signal.

According to another embodiment, the control unit may change and transmit the stimulus information to the driving unit.

According to the other side, the pad portion consisting of at least one pad attached to the skin of the patient; And a communication unit configured to receive stimulus information about the patient and to transmit the stimulus information to the pad unit, wherein the pad includes: a controller configured to receive a signal including the stimulus information; A driver configured to receive the received stimulus information and drive a stimulus signal which is an electrical signal; And a delivery unit which transmits a stimulus signal to the skin of the patient as a physical stimulus, wherein the physical stimulus uses at least one of saliva and moxibustion.

According to another embodiment, when the physical stimulus is transmitted to the skin using the moxibustion, the transfer unit may generate heat energy to transmit the stimulus signal.

According to another embodiment, according to the stimulation cycle, it may further include a monitoring unit for receiving feedback of the response of the patient, monitoring the improvement of the patient.

According to an embodiment, the communication unit may transmit stimulus delivery candidate position information and receive a stimulus delivery signal or a position adjustment signal.

According to another embodiment, when the communication unit receives the stimulus delivery signal, the delivery unit may deliver the stimulus to the stimulus delivery candidate point.

According to another embodiment, when the communication unit receives the position adjustment signal, the transfer unit may adjust the stimulus transfer candidate point based on the received position adjustment signal.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the stimulus is applied to the master robot through the monitoring unit, the pad unit may transmit the physical stimulus to the skin corresponding to the portion where the stimulus is applied to the master robot.

According to an embodiment, the monitoring unit may compare the improvement of the patient according to the first stimulation cycle and the improvement of the patient according to the second stimulation cycle, and the driving unit may adjust the stimulation intensity according to the comparison.

According to another embodiment, the feedback may include a measurement value or a questionnaire questionnaire value obtained by measuring the biometric information of the patient.

According to another embodiment, the biometric information may include at least one of a pulse number and a body temperature of the patient.

According to another aspect, the control unit receives a signal including the stimulation information; A driving unit receiving the received stimulus information to drive a stimulus signal which is an electrical signal; And transmitting, by the delivery unit, a stimulus signal to the skin of the patient as a physical stimulus, wherein the physical stimulus uses at least one of saliva and moxibustion.

According to yet another aspect, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for performing the method.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a stimulation pad according to an exemplary embodiment.

2 is an exemplary view showing in detail a stimulation pad for stimulation using a needle, according to an embodiment.

3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a stimulation device according to an exemplary embodiment.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a stimulation method according to an exemplary embodiment.

Hereinafter, some embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it is not limited or limited by these embodiments. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements.

The terminology used in the following description has been selected as widely used as possible in the present invention in consideration of the functions in the present invention, but may vary according to the intention or custom of the person skilled in the art, the emergence of new technologies and the like.

In addition, in certain cases, there are terms arbitrarily selected by the applicant for the sake of understanding and / or convenience of description, and in this case, detailed meanings thereof will be described in the corresponding description. Therefore, the terms used in the following description should be understood based on the meanings of the terms and the contents throughout the specification, rather than simply the names of the terms.

The stimulation pad 100 may include a controller 110, a driver 120, and a transmitter 130.

The controller 110 may receive a signal including stimulus information. The stimulus information may include at least one of a stimulus signal pattern, a time for delivering the stimulus signal, a cycle of the stimulus signal, and a timing of the stimulus signal. For example, the controller 110 may receive a signal including stimulus information through the communication unit as described below in more detail. The communication unit may be disposed outside the stimulation pad, and thus, although not shown in FIG. 1, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the communication unit may also be implemented to be included in the stimulation pad 100.

Meanwhile, the stimulus signal pattern may correspond to the pattern of the physical stimulus, and the time for transmitting the stimulus signal may correspond to the time information at which the physical stimulus is output. In addition, the period of the stimulus signal may correspond to the output period of the physical stimulus when the physical stimulus is periodically output, for example, the timing of the stimulus signal may correspond to the output timing of the physical stimulus.

The driver 120 may receive the received stimulus information and drive a stimulus signal that is an electrical signal. The stimulus information input from the controller 110 may be information having a preset data format. For example, when the controller 110 receives a signal including stimulus information through the communication unit, the signal including stimulus information may include a data format based on a predetermined communication protocol format. The driver 120 may extract stimulus information from a signal including stimulus information. However, it will be apparent that the extraction of the stimulus information is designed to be changed so that the controller 110 can be performed. The driver 120 may drive an electrical signal based on intellectual extraction or stimulus information extracted by the controller. Herein, the electrical signal may be a signal which may directly cause physical movement or heat generation of the device. The electrical signal may be preset according to the type of the transmitter 130, and the driver 120 may be programmed or manufactured to drive the preset electrical signal.

The delivery unit 130 may transmit the stimulus signal to the skin of the patient as a physical stimulus. The physical stimulus may be using at least one of saliva and moxibustion. The transmitter 130 may generate a physical stimulus corresponding to the stimulus signal, which is an input electrical signal, and output the physical stimulus to the skin of the patient.

According to one embodiment, in the case of delivering a physical stimulus to the skin of the patient using the saliva, the delivery unit 130 may receive a stimulus signal from the drive unit 120 to protrude the saliva. In the present embodiment, the stimulus information may be information indicating the salient degree of the saliva. In addition, the driving unit 120 may generate the stimulus signal corresponding to the degree of protrusion of the saliva by checking the stimulus information. The driver 120 may output a stimulus signal corresponding to the degree of protrusion of the needle to the transfer unit 130, and the transfer unit 130 may protrude the needle to the extent of protrusion based on the input stimulus signal.

The needle may be embedded in the pad part and protrude when the stimulus signal is input from the driving part 120. The protrusion may exert a physical stimulus in a pre-set manner on the device.

For example, the preset method may include at least one of a salient protrusion pattern, a time when the saliva protrudes, a salient period of saliva, and a salient timing of saliva.

In addition, the transmission unit 130 may protrude the needle using at least one of the tension and elastic force.

According to another embodiment, when the physical stimulus is transmitted to the skin of the patient by using the moxibustion, the delivery unit 130 may generate heat energy to transmit a stimulus signal.

In the method of using moxibustion, the transfer unit 130 generates heat energy using at least one of a heat generation method using exothermic-induced powder exothermic-induced powder, a heat generation method with exothermic-inducing liquid, and a heat generation method by electricity. It may be a method.

In addition, the controller 110 may change and transmit the stimulus information to the driver 120. For example, the stimulation pad 100 may be programmed to operate according to a physician's prescription. When the patient improves on the prescription of the medical person, the operation of the stimulation pad 100 may be changed. For example, the pad 100 may further include a user interface unit (not shown). The user interface unit (not shown) may be provided with a user input window or button. Here, the input window or button may be a means for inputting a user command for manipulating the operation of the pad 100. A user may manipulate an operation of the pad 100 by inputting a user command to a user interface unit (not shown). Therefore, the controller 110 may transmit the stimulus information to the driver 120 based on the modified stimulus information.

The stimulation pad 100 may include a cover 210, a storage 220, and an attachment 230. The lid 210 may contain components of the stimulation pad 100.

The storage unit 220 may include a needle or a heating element. When the storage unit 220 includes a needle, the needle may be stored in the basic mode without protruding the needle outward. The needle may be located in the storage unit 220 and then protrude out of the attachment unit 230 in the case of the treatment mode in which the delivery unit 130 receives the stimulus signal from the driving unit 120. Accordingly, it may be possible for the user to attach the pad 100 first, and to implement a configuration in which the saliva protrudes during the treatment.

Meanwhile, the stimulation pad 100 according to another embodiment may display a needle or stimulation candidate point that protrudes from among a plurality of needles. For example, the stimulation pad 100 generates a visual display means at the cover point 210 corresponding to the protruding saliva so that the patient can determine at which point the saliva is applied.

On the other hand, the stimulation pad 100 may display the stimulation candidate point. In this case, the position information on the stimulation candidate point may be delivered to the operator side terminal remotely. The operator may determine at which point of the patient the needle will be applied based on the received location information. The operator may manipulate the operator side terminal to transmit the stimulus transmission signal or the position adjustment signal to the stimulation pad 100.

Here, the stimulus delivery signal may be a signal for delivering a stimulus to a corresponding stimulation candidate point. In addition, the position adjustment signal may be a signal for adjusting the position of the stimulus candidate point. The operator can move the stimulus candidate point to the desired position. In addition, the stimulation pad 100 may generate a visual display means corresponding to the stimulation candidate point to inform the patient that the point where the needle is applied has moved.

After the operator moves the stimulus candidate point, the operator may manipulate the operator side terminal to transmit the stimulus transmission signal remotely. The stimulation pad 100 may receive a stimulus transmission signal from an operator-side terminal, and transmit a stimulus to a stimulation candidate point.

2 is a conceptual diagram particularly illustrating a case where the needle protrudes. As shown in Figure 2, the end of the needle, that is, acupuncture may be made to penetrate the skin of the user in a relatively pointed form. On the other hand, the other part of the needle connected from the acupuncture may be implemented in the form of a curve as shown in FIG. In addition, the portion having a curved shape of the needle may have elasticity. The aggression opposite end of the needle may be connected to the stimulator. A stimulus signal may be input from the stimulator. More specifically, the stimulator may transmit an electrical signal or a physical signal to the saliva, thereby determining whether the saliva is protruding / non-protruding. For example, the stimulator may transmit a physical signal of attraction to the saliva. That is, the stimulator may attract the needle, the acupuncture may also be located inside the storage unit 220. Alternatively, the stimulator may transmit a physical signal of repulsive force to the saliva. That is, the stimulator may push out the needle, and the acupuncture may also be located outside the storage unit 220 to protrude.

When the stimulation pads are attached to the human body and operate, the stimulation pads may release anesthetics applied to the skin of the human body. Before the saliva protrudes, the stimulation pad can cause anesthesia to penetrate the human skin.

According to one embodiment, the stimulation pad may be attached to the human body. In addition, the stimulation pads may be in the form of clothes that the patient can wear. The stimulation pad may be made of a flexible material.

The stimulation device 300 may include a pad unit 310 and a communication unit 320. The pad part 310 may be attached to the skin of the patient. The pad part 310 may be composed of a plurality of pads. The communication unit 320 may receive stimulus information about the patient and transmit the stimulus information to the pad unit 310.

According to an embodiment, the medical person may transmit the patient's information to the communication unit 320. Prescriptions for patients may also be included in the information. An external communication unit (not shown) on the medical side may transmit prescription information to the communication unit 320, and the communication unit 320 may transmit to the pad unit 310.

That is, the communication unit 320 may also transmit and receive stimulus information about the patient with the pad unit 310, and transmit the prescription information transmitted by the medical person to the communication unit 320 to the pad unit 310.

When the communication unit 320 transmits and receives stimulus information or prescription information about the patient, it may be wired or wireless. In addition, the environment in which the stimulation device 300 operates may be a communication environment using a smartphone or the web.

The pad may include a controller 110, a driver 120, and a transmitter 130. The controller 110 may receive a signal including stimulus information. The driver 120 may receive the received stimulus information and drive a stimulus signal that is an electrical signal. The delivery unit 130 may transmit the stimulus signal to the skin of the patient as a physical stimulus.

According to one embodiment, when the pad delivers a physical stimulus to the skin of the patient using the saliva, the delivery unit 130 may receive a stimulus signal from the drive unit 120 to protrude the saliva.

According to another embodiment, when the pad transmits a physical stimulus to the skin of the patient using moxibustion, the transfer unit 130 may generate heat energy to transmit a stimulus signal.

In addition, the stimulation device 300 may further include a monitoring unit 330 for monitoring the improvement of the patient. The monitoring unit 330 may receive feedback of the patient's response according to the stimulation cycle.

The monitoring unit 330 may display the patient's improvement according to the first stimulation cycle and the patient's improvement according to the second stimulation cycle. The monitoring unit 330 may compare each improvement. The driver 120 may adjust the stimulus intensity according to the comparison.

According to an embodiment, the feedback may include at least one of a measurement value and a questionnaire questionnaire value for measuring biometric information of the patient. The biometric information may include at least one of a pulse number and a body temperature of the patient. The biometric information may include not only pulse and body temperature but also other information indicative of the patient's state of health. In addition, the questionnaire questionnaire value may be a way that the medical staff directly asks the patient. When the medical team prescribes the prescription according to the patient's answer, the controller 110 may change the stimulus information and transmit the stimulus information to the driver 120.

According to one embodiment, a medical practitioner may prescribe a patient for treatment using physical stimulation. The patient may attach the pad part 310 to a place designated by a medical person. The medical person may input the type, time, interval, duration, etc. of the treatment stimulus to the communication unit 320. The driver 120 may generate a stimulus based on the input information. The delivery unit 130 may deliver a physical stimulus to the skin of the patient.

According to one embodiment, when the physical stimulus is a saliva, the saliva is embedded in the storage portion may protrude as the stimulus starts according to the stimulus signal to apply the saliva stimulus.

According to another embodiment, when the physical stimulus is moxibustion, thermal energy may be generated using the principle of a pocket stove.

According to another embodiment, the stimulation device may utilize the principle of a master-slave robot. Specifically, a patient or a doctor can apply acupuncture to a position where acupuncture is to be stimulated using a master robot (such as a human model robot). Then, the slave robot (stimulation pad or pad portion) can apply saliva to the skin of the patient correspondingly.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the patient or doctor applies the needle to the master robot through the monitoring unit 330, the communication unit 320 may transmit the position information of the needle to the pad unit. The pad part 310 may apply the saliva to the skin (or the affected part) of the patient corresponding to the position where the saliva is applied to the master robot.

In operation 410, the controller 110 receives a signal including stimulus information.

In operation 420, the driver 120 receives the received stimulus information and drives the stimulus signal, which is an electrical signal.

In operation 430, the transmission unit 130 transmits the stimulus signal to the skin of the patient as a physical stimulus. The physical stimulus may be using at least one of saliva and moxibustion.

According to one embodiment, in the case of delivering a physical stimulus to the skin using the saliva, the transmission unit 130 may receive a stimulus signal from the drive unit 120 to protrude the saliva.

According to another embodiment, in the case of delivering physical stimulation to the skin using moxibustion, the delivery unit may generate heat energy to transmit a stimulus signal.

The method using moxibustion may be to use at least one of a heat generation method by the exothermic-induced powder, a heat generation method by the exothermic-induced liquid, and a heat generation method by electricity.

The apparatus described above may be implemented as a hardware component, a software component, and / or a combination of hardware components and software components. For example, the devices and components described in the embodiments may be, for example, processors, controllers, arithmetic logic units (ALUs), digital signal processors, microcomputers, field programmable arrays (FPAs), It may be implemented using one or more general purpose or special purpose computers, such as a programmable logic unit (PLU), microprocessor, or any other device capable of executing and responding to instructions.

The processing device may execute an operating system (OS) and one or more software applications running on the operating system. The processing device may also access, store, manipulate, process, and generate data in response to the execution of the software.

For convenience of explanation, one processing device may be described as being used, but one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processing device includes a plurality of processing elements and / or a plurality of types of processing elements. It can be seen that it may include. For example, the processing device may include a plurality of processors or one processor and one controller. In addition, other processing configurations are possible, such as parallel processors.

The software may include a computer program, code, instructions, or a combination of one or more of the above, and configure the processing device to operate as desired, or process it independently or collectively. You can command the device.

Software and / or data may be any type of machine, component, physical device, virtual equipment, computer storage medium or device in order to be interpreted by or to provide instructions or data to the processing device. Or may be permanently or temporarily embodied in a signal wave to be transmitted. The software may be distributed over networked computer systems so that they may be stored or executed in a distributed manner. Software and data may be stored on one or more computer readable recording media.

The method according to the embodiment may be embodied in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer means and recorded in a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the media may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the embodiments, or they may be of the kind well-known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts.

Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and magnetic disks, such as floppy disks. Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like.

Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the embodiments, and vice versa.

Although the embodiments have been described by the limited embodiments and the drawings as described above, various modifications and variations are possible to those skilled in the art from the above description. For example, the described techniques may be performed in a different order than the described method, and / or components of the described systems, structures, devices, circuits, etc. may be combined or combined in a different form than the described method, or other components. Or even if replaced or substituted by equivalents, an appropriate result can be achieved.

Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the claims below but also by the equivalents of the claims.

Claims

A control unit which receives a signal including stimulus information;

A driver configured to receive the received stimulus information and drive a stimulus signal which is an electrical signal; And

A delivery unit that transmits a stimulus signal to a skin of a patient as a physical stimulus, wherein the physical stimulus uses at least one of saliva and moxibustion;

Stimulation pad comprising a.
The method of claim 1,

When the physical stimulus is transmitted to the skin using the saliva, the delivery unit receives the stimulus signal from the drive unit and protrudes the saliva.
The method of claim 2,

The transfer part, the magnetic pole pad protruding the needle using at least one of tension and elastic force.
The method of claim 1,

When the physical stimulus is delivered to the skin using the moxibustion, the transfer unit generates heat energy to transfer the stimulus signal.
The method of claim 4, wherein

The transfer unit may generate the thermal energy by using at least one of a heat generation method using exothermic-induced powder, a heat generation method with exothermic-induced liquid, and a heat generation method by electricity.
The method of claim 1,

The stimulus information is,

A stimulation pad comprising at least one of a stimulus signal pattern, a time for delivering the stimulus signal, a cycle of the stimulus signal, and a timing of the stimulus signal.
The method of claim 5,

The control unit,

A stimulation pad that changes the stimulus information and transmits the stimulus information to the driver.
A pad unit comprising at least one pad attached to a skin of a patient; And

A communication unit for receiving stimulus information about the patient and transmitting the stimulus information to the pad unit;

The pad,

A control unit receiving a signal including the stimulus information;

A driver configured to receive the received stimulus information and drive a stimulus signal which is an electrical signal; And

A transmission unit for transmitting a stimulus signal to the skin of the patient as a physical stimulus, wherein the physical stimulus is using at least one of saliva and moxibustion

Stimulation device comprising a.
The method of claim 8,

When the physical stimulus is transmitted to the skin using the saliva, the delivery unit receives the stimulus signal from the drive unit to protrude the saliva.
The method of claim 8,

When the physical stimulus is delivered to the skin using the moxibustion, the delivery unit generates heat energy to transfer the stimulus signal.
The method of claim 8,

According to the stimulation cycle, the stimulation device further comprising a monitoring unit for receiving feedback of the response of the patient, monitoring the improvement of the patient.
The method of claim 8,

And the communication unit transmits stimulus delivery candidate position information and receives a stimulus delivery signal or a position adjustment signal.
The method of claim 12,

And the delivery unit delivers the stimulus to the stimulus delivery candidate point when the communication unit receives the stimulus delivery signal.
The method of claim 12,

And the transmission unit adjusts the stimulus transfer candidate point based on the received position adjustment signal when the communication unit receives the position adjustment signal.
The method of claim 11,

And applying a stimulus to the master robot through the monitoring unit, wherein the pad unit transmits the physical stimulus to the skin corresponding to the portion where the stimulus is applied to the master robot.
The method of claim 11,

The monitoring unit,

Comparing the improvement of the patient according to the first stimulation cycle with the improvement of the patient according to the second stimulation cycle,

The driving unit, the stimulation device to adjust the stimulation intensity in accordance with the comparison.
The method of claim 11,

The feedback is,

Stimulation device comprising a measured value or a questionnaire questionnaire measurement value measuring the biometric information of the patient.
The method of claim 17,

The biometric information,

A stimulation device comprising at least one of a pulse rate and a body temperature of the patient.
Receiving, by the control unit, a signal including stimulus information;

A driving unit receiving the received stimulus information to drive a stimulus signal which is an electrical signal; And

The delivery unit transmitting a stimulus signal to the skin of the patient as a physical stimulus, wherein the physical stimulus uses at least one of saliva and moxibustion;

Stimulation method comprising a.
The method of claim 19,

When the physical stimulus is delivered to the skin using the saliva, the delivery unit receives the stimulation signal from the drive unit to protrude the saliva.
The method of claim 20,

The transmission unit, the stimulation method for projecting the needle using at least one of tension and elastic force.
The method of claim 19,

When the physical stimulus is delivered to the skin using the moxibustion, the delivery unit generates heat energy to deliver the stimulation signal.
The method of claim 22,

The transfer unit is a stimulation method for generating the heat energy using at least one of a heat generating method by a heat generating powder, a heat generating method by a heat generating liquid and a heat generating method by electricity.
24. A computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for performing the method of any one of claims 19 to 23.