Patent ID: 9320665
Filing Date: 2016-04-26
CPC Classification: A61B,A61G

Claim Text:
1. A method of assessing the risk of a patient developing a pressure ulcer, wherein the patient is supported on a support surface, a pressure sensing interface is placed between the patient and the support surface, and the pressure sensing interface has a plurality of sensels, the method comprising the steps of: periodically receiving, by a processor, pressure signals indicative of pressure values from the plurality of sensels associated with the pressure sensing interface, the plurality of sensels arranged in a two-dimensional grid; processing, by the processor, the pressure signals to obtain the pressure values; using a machine vision technique, by the processor, to process the obtained pressure values in order to identify a plurality of body zones of the patient and to assign a set of sensels from the plurality of sensels to each body zone in the identified plurality of body zones of the patient, the machine vision technique tracking the plurality of body zones over time, the tracking comprising adjusting which of the plurality of sensels is included in the set of sensels assigned to each body zone in the identified plurality of body zones of the patient; separately for each body zone of the identified plurality of body zones, based on the set of sensels assigned to the body zone: