REMOTE CAREGIVER SYSTEM

A remote caregiver system including a wearable caregiver companion device and a caregiver processing platform. The caregiver companion device includes a band to be worn by a wearer. The band includes a plurality of buttons for actuation by the wearer to assist the wearer with daily life activities. A caregiver may operate a computing device, such as a smart phone or laptop, to remotely interact with the individual via the caregiver companion device.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments described herein generally relate to caregiver systems, and more particularly to a remote caregiver system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Monitoring the elderly is a standard practice throughout much of the world as this population is at an increased risk of injury and/or death. However, most elderly persons seek to maintain their independence and do not want to feel supervised by their younger counterparts yet still may require access to emergency services. Hence it is desirable to provide a way to assist the elderly in everyday living while still allowing them to maintain their independence.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Exemplary embodiments disclosed herein describe a remote caregiver system. The system includes at least one wearable caregiver companion, a network engine and at least one caregiver processing platform. The at least one caregiver companion devices includes a band configured to be worn around a wearer's wrist. The band includes a first strap member and a second strap member. The first strap member includes a plurality of apertures, the second strap member includes a plurality of snap elements. The plurality of apertures and snap elements are attached to one another to securely attach the band to the wearer's wrist. Further, the caregiver companion device includes a controller chip attached to the band for transmitting and receiving signals, the controller chip including at least one processor; at least one sensor for monitoring a vital sign; a network interface for interfacing with a network engine; and a plurality of user interface buttons, wherein each user interface button corresponds to a caregiver service provided by a caregiver processing platform. The at least one caregiver processing platform includes at least one processor; and at least one memory for storing executable instructions, the processor configured to execute the instructions to continuously monitor and process data received from the caregiver companion device; generate content relating to caregiver services to transmit to the caregiver companion device; and to transmit the generated content to the wearable caregiver companion device.

In some exemplary embodiments, the wearable caregiver companion device further comprises a speaker for providing audible messages.

In some exemplary embodiments, the actuation of any of the plurality of user interface buttons causes an audible message to be played.

In some exemplary embodiments, at least one or more of the plurality of user interface buttons correspond to reminders-notifications to the wearer.

In some exemplary embodiments, at least one or more of the plurality of user interface buttons correspond to safety features.

In some exemplary embodiments, the wearable caregiver companion device further comprises a vibrating mechanism to notify the wearer when an incoming message has been received.

In some exemplary embodiments, the at least one sensor monitors the wearer's heart rate.

In some exemplary embodiments, the controller chip sends a message to the caregiver processing platform if the wearer heart rate is detected to be out of range.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The disclosure will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the disclosure are shown. This disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be made to various embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

The present disclosure relates to a remote caregiver system (“the system”). The system allows a caregiver to remotely provide caregiver services to assist an individual with activities of daily living. The caregiver services may include providing medication reminders, appointment reminders, daily health management, monitoring safety issues, contacting a third party (e.g., ambulance, 911, doctor) to assist the wearer when a safety issue arises, etc. The individual may be elderly or ill or simply not in a position to take care of themselves and may require assistance. A caregiver may operate a computing device, such as a smart phone or laptop, which is synched with a caregiver companion device to facilitate interaction between an individual and a caregiver. The individual wears the companion device and the caregiver companion device interacts with the caregiver's computing device using Bluetooth or over the Internet using WIFI.

As illustrated inFIG. 1, the system10includes at least one caregiver companion device12, network engine (i.e., wide area network (WAN))14, and at least one caregiver processing platform16. The caregiver companion device includes a band13intended to be worn around a wearer's wrist. The band13may be made of any water-proof material. For discretion and for easy concealment, the band may have a thin body (i.e., the width should be in the range of 0.5″-0.7″) and a small face (i.e., the length should be in the range of 1.4″-1.7″). The band may be of any color. In a preferred embodiment, the band is black.

The band includes a first strap member and a second strap member. The first strap member includes a plurality of apertures18and the second strap member includes a plurality of snap elements19which are configured to attached to the plurality of apertures. The size of the band may be adjusted by attaching more or less of the plurality of snap elements to the plurality of apertures. Once the snap elements19and the apertures18are attached, the band13is securely attached to the wearer's wrist. The band13includes a housing unit11positioned at the center of the band. The first strap member and the second strap member are positioned at opposite ends of the housing unit. The housing unit stores/encloses other components of the caregiver companion device12. The housing unit includes the small face and a plurality of buttons attached at each side of the housing.

Further, the caregiver companion device12includes a controller chip (located inside housing unit11), at least one sensor (located inside housing unit11), a network interface (i.e., the hardware that connects the device12to the wide area network (i.e.,14) and that connects/pairs the device with Bluetooth—located inside housing unit11), a speaker (23), a vibrating mechanism (located inside housing unit11), a battery charging element (located inside housing unit11), a plurality of user interface buttons (located along the sides of the housing unit11) such as, medication reminder button15, appointment reminder button17, heart rate button18, date and time button25, alerts button26and help button27), and a plurality of user operating buttons, such as, WIFI button21, Bluetooth button22, and vibrating mode switch28.

The controller chip transmits and receives signals and processes data. The controller chip includes at least one processor. The at least one sensor may monitor a vital sign of the wearer, such as, for example, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. The caregiver companion device12may include a heart rate sensor for monitoring the wearer's heart rate. When the device detects a heart rate that is abnormal (i.e., not in a healthy range for the wearer), the controller chip sends an alert to the caregiver processing platform16.

In another exemplary embodiment, the caregiver companion device12includes a fall detection sensor for detecting when the wearer has fallen. The controller chips sends an alert to the caregiver processing platform when a fall is detected. In another exemplary embodiment, the caregiver companion device includes a motion sensor for determining if the wearer has been sedentary. The controller chip would cause a message (e.g., telling the wearer to stand) to be spoken to the wearer if it was determined that the wearer has been sedentary.

The speaker23may include any suitable speaker. The caregiver companion device12uses the speaker as the primary form of communication with the wearer. Some of the intended wearers of the device12are elderly people and blind individuals, both of which may find text messages difficult/impossible to read. In a preferred embodiment, the speaker is a loud speaker. This allows effective use of the device by individuals who have hearing challenges, such as elderly people. However, in some alternative embodiments, the caregiver companion device may include a display screen for displaying information.

The vibrating mechanism vibrates the caregiver companion device12to notify the wearer that an incoming message has been received. The vibrating mechanism may be implemented using any suitable vibrators, such as a vibrating motor. Once the device12vibrates, the speaker will announce a message to the wearer, such as, for example, “new medication added”, or “new alert added”, and the wearer can retrieve the incoming message by depressing the corresponding user interface button on the housing unit.

The caregiver companion device12includes a battery charging element for charging the device. Any suitable charging element may be used. In a preferred embodiment, the charging element is a magnetic charger located on the backside of the housing unit which may be charged with a charging pad.

In another alternative embodiment, the caregiver companion device12may include a camera for capturing a real time image of the wearer. The controller chip may transmit the image to the caregiver processing platform16.

The caregiver companion device12includes a plurality of user interface buttons which each correspond to a caregiver service (e.g., reminders/notifications/safety measures) provided by a caregiver via caregiver processing platform16. The plurality of user interface buttons may be implemented in different colors. Alternatively, the plurality of user interface buttons are black. At least half of the plurality of user interface buttons are each located on the right side and the left side respectively of the housing unit at predefined positions, such as, for example, position1, position2, position3, position4, position5and position6, etc.

As noted, the plurality of user interface buttons may include medication reminder button15, appointment reminder button17, heart rate button18, date and time button25, alerts button26and help button27. The medication reminder button when depressed will cause an audio message to be played, such as, for example, “take your aspirin at 9 am.” The appointment reminder button when depressed will cause an audio message to be played, such as, for example, “you have a doctor's appointment tomorrow at 10 am.” The heart rate button when depressed will cause an audio message to be played, such as, for example, “your heart rate is 60 bpm”. The date and time button when depressed will cause an audio message to be played indicating the current date and time, such as, “today is January 1st and the time is 9 am.” The alerts button when depressed will cause one or more messages sent by the caregiver to be plated, such as, for example, “don't forget to lock the door”. The help button when depressed for ten (10) seconds will send an alert to the caregiver indicating that the individual needs assistance.

The wearer may place the device in silent mode by depressing the date and time button for ten seconds. In the silent mode, audio messages are not played. By default, after two hours the device returns to its default state of playing audio messages. When the device resumes active mode, the device12will alert the wearer of any updated or incoming messages that were received while the device was in silent mode.

In operation, during setup of the caregiver companion device12, audio instructions will play from the speakers informing the wearer how to use the device12. The plurality of user interface buttons will be explained and the position of each user interface button on the housing unit will be explained, such as, for example, medication reminder button is located at position1, appointment reminder is located at position two, and heart rate button is located at position three. The positions of the buttons will be explained, such as, for example, position one (1) is the first button located on the top left side of the housing unit. Position two (2) is the button immediately below position one and position three (3) is the button immediately below position two.

In another alternative embodiment the caregiver companion device12may include a plurality of user operating buttons, such as, WIFI button21, Bluetooth button22, and vibrating mode switch28. The WIFI button may be depressed to manually activate a WIFI connection. The Bluetooth button22may be depressed to manually activate a Bluetooth connection with another device. The vibrating mode switch28may be manually activated to place the caregiver companion device12into vibrate mode.

The network engine14may include any one of or a combination of multiple different types of networks, such as, cable networks, the Internet, wireless networks, and other private and/or public networks. In some instances, the network engine14may include cellular, Wi-Fi, or Wi-Fi direct.

The caregiver processing platform16includes at least one processor and at least one memory for storing executable instructions. The processor is configured to execute the instructions to continuously monitor and process data received from the caregiver companion device, to generate content relating to caregiver services to transmit to the caregiver companion device and to transmit the content to the caregiver companion device.

The memory can include anyone or combination of volatile memory elements (e.g., random access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc.)) and nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape, CDROM, etc.). Moreover, the memory device may incorporate electronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. In the context of this document, a “non-transitory computer-readable medium” can be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: a portable computer diskette (magnetic), a random access memory (RAM) (electronic), a read-only memory (ROM) (electronic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM, EEPROM, or Flash memory) (electronic), and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD ROM) (optical). The processor may include one or more of microprocessors, graphics processors, coprocessors, etc.

A caregiver may remotely interact with the individual by synching a computing processing device, such as, for example, a laptop, tablet or smart phone to the caregiver companion device12. The caregiver must first download a software application (i.e., computer executable instructions) to the computing processing device to perform the synching. Once downloaded, the processor may synch to the caregiver companion device12using the software application, WIFI and/or Bluetooth. The software application prompts the caregiver to input medication reminders, appointment reminders, heart rate parameters, the date and time, and any other notifications that the caregiver would like to provide to the individual (wearer). The inputted information is transmitted to the caregiver companion device and stored therein. As noted, by depressing one of the plurality of user interfaces buttons, an audio message corresponding to the associated information will be played to the user. The caregiver can continuously interact with the caregiver companion device12and the caregiver may provide updates at any time.

Generally, computer-executable instructions form software component(s) which may include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and the like that perform particular functions or implement particular abstract data types. The software component may be coded in any of a variety of programming languages. An illustrative programming language may be a lower-level programming language such as an assembly language associated with a particular hardware architecture and/or operating system platform. A software component comprising assembly language instructions may require conversion into executable machine code by an assembler prior to execution by the hardware architecture and/or platform.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate from the foregoing description that the broad techniques of the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in a variety of forms. Therefore, while the embodiments of this invention have been described in connection with particular examples thereof, the true scope of the embodiments of the invention should not be so limited since other modifications will become apparent to the skilled practitioner upon a study of the drawings, specification, and following claims.