U.S. patent application number 12/229883 was filed with the patent office on 2010-03-04 for exercise apparatus in interactive communication with medical service platform.
Invention is credited to Jiunn-Rong Chen.
Application Number | 20100056339 12/229883 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 41726321 |
Filed Date | 2010-03-04 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100056339 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chen; Jiunn-Rong |
March 4, 2010 |
Exercise apparatus in interactive communication with medical
service platform
Abstract
An exercise apparatus in interactive communication with a
medical service platform serves to convert movements of the
exercise apparatus into accessible exercise data and transmit the
exercise data and data about a medical-care-recipient's ID to the
medical service platform.
Inventors: |
Chen; Jiunn-Rong; (Taichung
City, TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
CHARLES E. BAXLEY, ESQUIRE
90 JOHN STREET, SUITE 309
NEW YORK
NY
10038
US
|
Family ID: |
41726321 |
Appl. No.: |
12/229883 |
Filed: |
August 27, 2008 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
482/4 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63B 2230/01 20130101;
G16H 10/60 20180101; A63B 2024/0065 20130101; A63B 2225/50
20130101; A61B 5/11 20130101; A61B 5/0002 20130101; A63B 2230/202
20130101; A61B 5/7465 20130101; A63B 2225/20 20130101; G16H 20/30
20180101; A63B 2230/06 20130101; A63B 24/0075 20130101; A61B 5/6895
20130101; A61B 5/4866 20130101; A61B 5/0205 20130101; A63B 2230/30
20130101; A63B 22/0605 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
482/4 |
International
Class: |
A63B 26/00 20060101
A63B026/00 |
Claims
1. An exercise apparatus in an interactive communication with a
medical service platform, comprising: the exercise apparatus; a
central control system, settled in the exercise apparatus for
dominating operations of software and hardware of the exercise
apparatus; a data conversion unit, coupled with the central control
system and serving to convert movements of the hardware of the
exercise apparatus into storable and transmittable exercise data;
an exercise data storage unit, coupled with the central control
system and serving to store the exercise data; an ID data unit,
coupled with the central control system and serving to acquire and
store identification data of at least one medical-care recipient; a
physiological data unit, coupled with the central control system
and serving to acquire and store physiological data of at least one
medical-care recipient; and a communication unit, coupled with the
central control system and serving to transmit the identification
data, exercise data and physiological data to an external medical
service platform.
2. The exercise apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
exercise apparatus allows the medical-care recipient to actively
operate thereby taking exercise.
3. The exercise apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
exercise data storage unit comprises a built-in record medium
settled in the exercise apparatus.
4. The exercise apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
exercise data storage unit comprises an external record medium.
5. The exercise apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising
an external data input unit that is coupled with the central
control system for receiving data from an external data supply
unit.
6. The exercise apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the
external data supply unit is a portable physiology-monitoring
device.
7. The exercise apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising
a suggestion receiver unit that is coupled with the central control
system for receiving suggestion data from the medical service
platform through the communication unit.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Technical Field
[0002] The present invention relates to an exercise apparatus that
enable an interactive communication between a medical-care
recipient and a medical-service provider. More particularly, the
exercise apparatus of the present invention serves to transmit
exercise data it acquires to a medical service platform of a
medical-service provider and receive suggestion data from the
medical service platform.
[0003] 2. Description of Related Art
[0004] In recent years, more and more researches have been made on
remote home-care services in the attempt to provide medical-care
recipients with more convenient and effective services for health
management and health care by integrating information technology
and communication technology. In Europe, North America, and Japan,
there are many remote home-care systems becoming commercially
available. Theses remote home-care systems are usually designed for
chronic patients and serve to perform long-term physiology
monitoring and transmit signals acquired in the monitoring to
central databases through the Internet for storage and management
so as to be provided later as bases for medical-service-providers'
diagnosis.
[0005] Presently, an interactive physiology detecting system has
been introduced to acquire a medical-care recipient's particular
physiological signals and transmit the physiological signals as
well as the medical-care recipient's identification (ID) data to a
medical service platform so that a medical-service-provider related
to the medical service platform can be updated with the
medical-care recipient's latest health conditions. While the
foregoing system helps for achieving short-range goals of remote
home-care services, namely "controlling and maintaining"
medical-care recipients' "physical health" by medical means, it
unfortunately provides no approach to long-range goals of remote
home-care services, namely "maintaining" and "improving"
medical-care recipients'"physical and mental health".
[0006] A fact has been proven by medical researches that
appropriate and effective active exercise is constructive to
disease recovery, and maintenance as well as promotion of physical
and mental health. However, as for home-care applications,
information about medical-care recipients' exercise conditions is
still not accessible. Hence, a need exists for an active means to
acquire information about medical-care recipients' exercise
conditions and even to urge medical-care recipients to finish
certain exercise loads, thereby achieving the ends of "maintaining"
and "improving" medical-care recipients' physical and mental
health.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] One objective of the present invention is to propose an
exercise apparatus in interactive communication with a medical
service platform, wherein the exercise apparatus is capable of
recording exercise data about items, durations, speeds, load
levels, exercise items, energy expenditure of a medical-care
recipient, and transmitting the recorded exercise data and the
medical-care recipient's identification data to the medical service
platform related to a medical-service provider so that medical
staff of the medical-service provider are informed of the
medical-care recipient's latest exercise states. The exercise
apparatus is also capable of receiving suggestion data from the
medical-service provide thought the medical service platform.
[0008] Another objective of the present invention is to propose an
exercise apparatus in interactive communication with a medical
service platform, wherein while the exercise apparatus is
communicated with the medical service platform, the medical service
platform is enabled to acquire exercise data of a medical-care
recipient from the exercise apparatus and the medical-care
recipient's identification data, and timely issue suggestions for
improving or maintaining the medical-care recipient's health in a
form of a text message for the medical-care recipient to read, so
that a medical-service provider can provide the medical-care
recipient with updated professional suggestions and assistance.
[0009] Another objective of the present invention is to propose an
exercise apparatus in interactive communication with a medical
service platform, wherein when the exercise apparatus is applied to
remote home-care, it is possible to actively acquire a medical-care
recipient's exercise state and even to urge the medical-care
recipient to fulfill a predetermined exercise load, so as to
"maintain" and "improve" the medical-care recipient's physical and
mental health.
[0010] To achieve these and other objectives of the present
invention, the exercise apparatus in interactive communication with
a medical service platform comprises the exercise apparatus, a
central control system, settled in the exercise apparatus for
dominating operations of software and hardware of the exercise
apparatus, data conversion unit, coupled with the central control
system and serving to convert movements of the hardware of the
exercise apparatus into storable and transmittable exercise data,
an exercise data storage unit, coupled with the central control
system and serving to store the exercise data, ID data unit,
coupled with the central control system and serving to acquire and
store identification data of at least one medical-care recipient, a
physiological data unit, coupled with the central control system
and serving to acquire and store physiological data of at least one
medical-care recipient, and a communication unit, coupled with the
central control system and serving to transmit the identification
data, exercise data and physiological data to an external medical
service platform.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The invention as well as a preferred mode of use, further
objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by
reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative
embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing,
wherein:
[0012] FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of hard ware of the
subject matter of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0013] Referring to FIG. 1, an exercise apparatus in interactive
communication with a medical service platform according to the
present invention comprises the exercise apparatus 40, a central
control system 42, a data conversion unit 41, an exercise data
storage unit 10, an ID data unit 30, a physiological data unit 33,
an external data input unit 37, an alarm unit 36, a communication
unit 31, and a suggestion receiver unit 35.
[0014] The exercise apparatus 40 is substantially an exercise
device for a medical-care recipient to actively operate, such as a
spinning bike. Alternatively, the exercise apparatus 40 may be an
exercise device for a medical-care recipient to take passive
exercise, such as a gymnastic bicycle that mechanically drives a
medical-care recipient's legs to perform reciprocal movements. The
exercise apparatus 40 also may include a pedometer that counts each
step a person takes or a video game console that is connected with
a multimedia electronic device and trains players' limbs, such as
Wii, and Wii Fit.
[0015] The central control system 42 is settled in the exercise
apparatus 40 for dominating operations of software and hardware of
the exercise apparatus 40.
[0016] The data conversion unit 41 is coupled with the central
control system 42 and utilized microprocessors as well as programs
to convert movements of the hardware of the exercise apparatus 40
into storable and transmittable exercise data. The exercise data
may be including, but not limited to, information of exercise
items, exercise durations, exercise speeds, exercise distances or
accumulative loads, etc.
[0017] The exercise data storage unit 10 is coupled with the
central control system 42 and serves to store the aforementioned
exercise data. The exercise data storage unit 10 may comprise
built-in recording media (such as hard discs and memories), or
external recording media (such as USB-interface flash
memories).
[0018] The ID data unit 30 is coupled with the central control
system 42 and serves to acquire and store identification data of at
least one medical-care recipient. The identification data may be
comprising, but not limited to, the medical-care recipient's name,
gender and date of birth.
[0019] The physiological data unit 33 is coupled with the central
control system 42 and serving to acquire and store physiological
data of at least one medical-care recipient. The physiological data
may contain the medical-care recipient's heartbeat rate of the time
the medical-care recipient operates the exercise apparatus 40. The
physiological data may also contain measuring results of a portable
physiology-monitoring device, such as the medical-care recipient's
body height, body weight, BMI, blood pressure value, and blood
sugar value. The physiological data may further contain at least
one disease information.
[0020] The external data input unit 37 is coupled with the central
control system 42 and serves to receive data from an external data
supply unit 50. The external data supply unit 50 may be any of a
variety of media capable of data storage, such as computers, flash
memory sticks and portable physiology monitoring devices. The
central control system 42 distributes the data to the ID data unit
30 and the physiological data unit according to formats of the data
provided by the external data supply unit 50.
[0021] The alarm unit 36 is coupled with the central control system
42 and serves to monitor the medical-care recipient's heartbeat
rate of the time the medical-care recipient operates the exercise
apparatus 40 and give an alarm message when the heartbeat rate goes
beyond a predetermined range so as to warn the medical-care
recipient.
[0022] The communication unit 31 is coupled with the central
control system 42 and serves to transmit the above-mentioned ID
data, exercise data and physiological data to an external medical
service platform 32 through a known wired or wireless communication
system or network system.
[0023] The suggestion receiver unit 35 is coupled with the central
control system 42 and serves to receive a text message from the
medical service platform 32 through the communication unit 31 and
display the text message in a screen 11 provided on the exercise
apparatus 40. The text message refers to suggestions from computers
or staff of the medical service platform 32 for improving or
maintaining the medical-care recipient's health.
[0024] In the following description, a spinning bike is taken as an
example to illustrate the exercise apparatus of the present
invention. The spinning bike comprises the exercise data storage
unit 10, the screen 11, the ID data unit 30, the communication unit
31, the physiological data unit 33, the suggestion receiver unit
35, the alarm unit 36, the external data input unit 37, the data
conversion unit 41, the central control system 42 and the external
data supply unit 50.
[0025] Computers, flash memory sticks, and portable physiology
monitoring device may provide a medical-care recipient's
identification data (name, gender and age), physiological data
(body height, body weight, BMI, blood pressure value, blood sugar
value and disease information) to the ID data unit 30 and
physiological data unit 33 through the central control system 42
and external data input unit 37 for the ID data unit 30 and
physiological data unit 33 to store the data.
[0026] When the medical-care recipient uses the spinning bike to
take exercise, the central control system 42 and data conversion
unit 41 convert rotational movement of a tread track of the
spinning bike into storable and transmittable exercise data
(exercise items, exercise durations, exercise speeds, exercise
distances or accumulative loads) and the central control system 42
can further use the data (body height, body weight) stored in the
physiological data unit 33 as bases to calculate energy the
medical-care recipient expends on the present exercise. The
exercise data and energy expenditure are stored in the exercise
data storage unit 10.
[0027] The communication unit 31 transmits the exercise data
recorded in the exercise data storage unit 10, the identification
data recorded in the ID data unit 30, and the physiological data
recorded in the physiological data unit 33 to the medical service
platform 32.
[0028] The medical service platform 32 receives and stores the
physiological data, identification data, and exercise data so that
computers or staff thereof are enabled to access and analyze the
data and then give out a suggestion for improving or maintaining
the medical-care recipient's health in a form of a text message or
a voice message.
[0029] The communication unit 31 and the suggestion receiver unit
35 then serve to receive and store the suggestion from the medical
service platform 32 for the medical-care recipient's reference.
[0030] Moreover, the spinning bike is equipped with a heartbeat
monitor that keeps monitoring the medical-care recipient's
real-time heartbeat rate during the medical-care recipient's
exercise on the spinning bike. When the detected heartbeat rate
goes beyond a preset threshold range, the alarm unit 36 gives out
an alarm to warn the medical-care recipient.
[0031] The exercise data related to the spinning bike may be also
stored in some external record media such as USB-interface flash
memory sticks so that the exercise data can be transmitted to other
computers or electronic storage devices.
[0032] The present invention proposes an exercise apparatus in
interactive communication with a medical service platform serves
and is applicable to a remote home-care application. The present
invention implements an active means to acquire medical-care
recipients' exercise states and is even capable of urging the
medical-care recipients to fulfill predetermined exercise load,
thereby "maintaining" and "improving" the medical-care recipients'
physical and mental health.
[0033] Although the particular embodiment of the invention has been
described in detail for purposes of illustration, it will be
understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that numerous
variations will be possible to the disclosed embodiment without
going outside the scope of the invention as disclosed in the
claims.
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