Patent ID: 6546813
Filing Date: 2003-04-15
Classification: A43B,A61B,B60N,B60R,G01G,G01L,G06K

Abstract:
A system for sensing status of a patient in a bed comprising:a replaceable laminar sensor on said bed; said laminar sensor having a plurality of force sensing elements distributed two-dimensionally throughout said sensor; processing apparatus responsive to forces sensed by said sensor for forming a spatially-weighted sum of the forces sensed by said sensor to provide a distribution of the forces throughout said laminar sensor, said processing apparatus including a near-bed processor and a central processor in communication with said near-bed processor through a communication link; said processing apparatus providing an indication over time of a patient status in response to said weighted average; wherein said communication link is a wireless link having interfaces at said near-bed processor and said central processor.