Patent Publication Number: US-2005128879-A1

Title: Timer

Description:
BACKGROUND  
      After injury or a prolonged period of inactivity, patients may enter a long process of recovery in order to regain their physical strength, flexibility, and mobility. Upon the advice and with the assistance of a doctor or a physical therapist, these patients may perform series of exercises in order to further this recovery process.  
      Such exercises may be performed with or without an assisting physical therapy device, and these exercises may be performed in a variety of sets and repetitions. Furthermore, the exercise sets may be performed for particular lengths of time. For example, a patient may perform a particular exercise with his right arm for five minutes, then his left arm for another five minutes. Depending on the recommendation of his doctor or therapist, a patient may rest for a period of time in between sets or perform another set immediately. This pattern of exercise and rest time intervals may continue for a specified length of time as well. In the previous example, the patient may perform the exercises for five minutes at a time with each arm, for a total of six sets. Without rest periods, this would correspond to a thirty-minute workout.  
      Among physical therapy devices, some electrical physical therapy devices provide a timing mechanism for assisting a patient in performing his assigned therapy regimen. These electrical devices may operate by direct electrical stimulation of the muscles of a patient for predetermined time intervals or for a total time duration. In such a situation, the patient would not need to perform any sort of adjustment or further action: the device performs the therapy routine to completion without active patient involvement.  
      Other electrical devices, such as a treadmill, may provide an interactive exercise routine for a patient. A treadmill may provide a preprogrammed routine of varying difficulty for a period of time. In this case, the patient responds to the routine presented by the treadmill, but the treadmill is relied upon to provide the exercise routine—for instance, to raise or lower the incline of the treadmill surface or to increase or decrease the speed at which the treadmill surface moves.  
      In many physical therapy situations, though, no electronic automation is provided with a therapy routine or therapy device. For instance, a therapist may provide a patient a static progressive stretch device. In such a case, the therapist may request that the patient perform a series of six pain-free stretches of five minutes each, for a total of thirty minutes of stretching. After each five-minute stretch, the patient may be advised to adjust the range of motion of the device to ensure that the next five-minute stretch remains at the same pain-free level as the previous stretch. In this case, a patient may be asked to perform three thirty-minute stretching sequences each day for a number of days.  
      In order to measure and track these stretches and stretching sequences, the therapist may provide a timer for the patient to use. The timer may be set to a particular duration—such as five minutes—to count down from five minutes to zero minutes, and then, to alarm once it reaches zero. In an example case of a prescribed course of therapy of six stretches of five minutes each, after the first stretch, the patient may pick up the timer, turn off the timer alarm, manually reprogram the timer to five minutes, adjust his physical therapy device, start the timer, and begin a second stretch. The patient would need either to keep an accurate mental tally of the number of stretches he has performed or to have a clock available to provide him with a rough idea of how many stretches he has performed in each stretching session. Particularly for older patients or for those performing more physically demanding therapy exercises, this mental tally may be difficult to maintain and recall accurately.  
      Then, the patient would need to recall how many therapy sessions he has performed in a particular day. For a ten-day therapy regimen of three stretching sessions of six stretches per day, a patient would need to remember the number of sessions performed at least thirty times and remember the number of stretches he has performed at least one hundred eighty times. For longer therapy regimens, these numbers would increase.  
      When the patient returns to his doctor or therapist for a checkup, the doctor or therapist may ask generally whether the patient performed the prescribed course of therapy. The regimen will only be as effective as the patient&#39;s desire to maintain it, and a general question about whether the patient was faithful to the prescribed regimen will likely be answered, “yes,” whether the patient performed all the exercises, forgot a few exercises, or did not perform any of the exercises.  
      This may prove particularly problematic in the situation of on-the-job injury, where workman&#39;s compensation may require that an injured employee follow a prescribed physical therapy regimen in order to be compensated for his injuries. In these situations, thousands of dollars may be at stake over the question of whether or not a patient has performed his prescribed exercises.  
     BRIEF SUMMARY  
      The present invention is defined by the following claims, and nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on those claims.  
      In one embodiment, a timer including at least one switch, an alarm, a display device, and a controller is disclosed. The controller is operative to display a number of completed countdown sequences in response to activation of a switch. The controller is also operative to start a countdown sequence in response to activation of a switch. The controller is further operative to activate an alarm at each of the at least one time interval and at an end of the countdown sequence. The completed countdown sequences display operation may be in response to a different type of switch activation than that of the countdown sequence start operation.  
      In another embodiment, a timer is disclosed which has a controller operative to alter the at least one time interval in response to activation of a switch. The controller may also be operative to alter a duration of the countdown sequence or display the number of completed countdown sequences in response to activation of at least one switch. Each of these operations may be dependent upon activation of another switch.  
      In yet another embodiment, a timer is disclosed which has a controller operative to reset the countdown sequence in response to activation of a switch. The controller may also be operative to display a number of completed countdown sequences. The completed countdown sequences display operation may be in response to a different type of activation than that of the countdown sequence reset operation activation. As well, each of the timers disclosed may be used in combination with a physical therapy device, and they may feature an attachment element.  
      Other embodiments are disclosed, and each can be used alone or in combination with one another. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of a timer.  
       FIG. 2  illustrates a front view of a timer.  
       FIG. 3  illustrates a back view of a timer.  
       FIG. 4  illustrates a flow-chart of exemplary timer operation steps.  
       FIG. 5  illustrates a flow-chart of exemplary timer operation steps.  
       FIG. 6  illustrates a flow-chart of exemplary timer operation steps. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
      Turning to  FIG. 1 , it discloses a timer  100  having a controller  102 , an alarm  104 , at least one switch  106 , and a display  108 . The timer  100  may be a self-contained unit, a component in or attached to a larger electronic device, a component in a computer, a remote network-accessible timer, a component part in a physical therapy device, or other type of timer. The timer  100  may, for example, be based on the platform of the Invisible Clock®, available from the Time Now Corporation. The controller  102  may comprise electronic circuitry, program code instructions, a computer, data storage media, or other devices or code that may control timer operation. The alarm may comprise any number of alarms, such as an audible alarm, a visual alarm, a vibrating alarm, a computer alarm, a program code-generating alarm, or other alarm. The alarm  104  may produce an indicator, such as an audible beep or ring, a spoken message, an audible song, a flashing light, a steady light, vibration, a written message, a Braille message, a pop-up window, a program code output, a computer data output, or other indicator. The at least one switch  106  may comprise at least one push button, pull button, twisting knob, keypad, flippable switch, touch-sensitive pad, squeeze handle, motion detector, heat sensor, remote control switch, computer-operated switch, remote network switch, dial, joystick, other device, or any combination thereof. The display  108  may comprise a liquid-crystal display, a television, a computer monitor, a manual display, a remote network display, or other display.  
      Turning to  FIG. 2 , it discloses a front view of an exemplary timer  200 . The timer  200  has a housing  202  which may come in a variety of sizes, for example, two inches by one and one-half inches. The housing  202  in the embodiment shown is rectangular with rounded edges, but the housing  202  may have rounded or pointed edges and may be circular, a polygon shape, or some other shape. The timer  200  has a display  204  and four buttons  206 ,  208 ,  210 ,  212 . In the embodiment of  FIG. 2 , button  206  is a “START ” button, button  208  is a “RESET” button, button  210  is a “DURATION” button, and button  212  is an “INTERVAL” button. Though four buttons are used in this example, any number or combination of switches may be used to implement a timer.  
      In this example, the start button  206  may be pressed once to turn on the timer. The start button  206  may also be pressed once to start a countdown sequence or to pause a countdown sequence in progress. At any time during the countdown sequence or after it has ended, the reset button  208  may be pressed to reset the countdown sequence. In this example, if the start button  206  is pressed and held for ten seconds, a number of completed countdown sequences will be displayed on the display  204 . In this embodiment, during this display, the number of completed countdown sequences may be reset to zero by pressing the reset button  208 . As an additional feature during this display, the start button  206  may be pressed and held for five more seconds to save the number of completed countdown sequences at that point in time. The timer  200  may indicate such a saving by displaying the word “SAVED” on the display  204 . As well, the timer  200  may automatically save the number of completed countdown sequences in a variety of ways including, for example, using a RAM chip, a battery, or some other device. Particularly, these variety of ways may allow the timer  200  to retain the number of completed countdown sequences—or other timing feature information—even if the timer should lose its power source or have its power interrupted, such as if a timer battery were removed.  
      Turning to  FIG. 3 , it discloses a back view of an exemplary timer  300 . The timer  300  has a housing  302 . An attachment element  304  is secured to the back of the housing  302 . The attachment element  304  may be used to attach the timer to another object, such as a wall, countertop, or shelf, an article of clothing or a wristband, or a physical therapy device or other device. The attachment element  304  may comprise, for example, Velcro, an adhesive material such as adhesive putty or adhesive tape, or a belt clip or other type of clip. The physical therapy device may be, for example, a static progressive stretch device, as described above. A battery compartment  306  is located within the housing  302  and has a battery cover (not shown) and battery (not shown). Inside the battery compartment  306  of this embodiment is a flippable switch  308 . An exemplary use of the flippable switch  308  is to allow or disallow alterations to a timer countdown sequence in response to the activation of the flippable switch  308 . The flippable switch  308  may, for example, be located on the housing  302  or be located within the housing  302 . This particular embodiment illustrates the configuration where the flippable switch  308  is located within the housing  302 .  
      Turning to  FIG. 4 , it discloses a sequence of operation steps  400  of a timer, such as the timer  100  of  FIG. 1 . First, at least one switch is activated in step  402 . In response to the activation of step  402 , a controller starts a countdown sequence in step  404 . The end of the countdown sequence may correspond to a round number of minutes, such as thirty minutes, or any other length of time. The countdown sequence may also comprise at least one time interval. The at least one interval may be a single interval, such as a fifteen minute interval, or a plurality of intervals, such as five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five minute intervals. In step  406 , the controller activates an alarm at each of the at least one interval. Finally, at step  408 , the controller activates an alarm at the end of the countdown sequence.  
      An exemplary sequence of the operation steps  400  may proceed as follows: First, a start switch is activated. In response to the activation of the start switch, a controller starts a countdown sequence. The countdown sequence used here may be of thirty minutes in length, with intervals at five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five minutes. The controller directs activation of an alarm at each of the five-minute intervals, and then, the controller directs activation of an alarm at thirty minutes, the end of the countdown sequence. These alarms may comprise any of a variety of alarms. For example, the controller may activate a single beep at each of the at least one interval and may activate a continuous series of beeps at the end of the countdown sequence. In one embodiment, the controller may activate the continuous series of beeps until the start switch is activated or a particular amount of time has passed.  
      Turning to  FIG. 5 , it discloses a sequence of operation steps  500  for an exemplary timer of the present invention. These operation steps  500  may, but are not required to, follow the operation steps  400  of  FIG. 4 . In response to the end of a countdown sequence, the controller increments a counter in step  502 . In this example, the counter is an internal feature of the controller and maintains a number of completed countdown sequences. Step  504  discloses the activation of at least one switch. In response to the activation of step  504 , the controller displays the number of completed countdown sequences on a display device in step  506 . After this, at least one switch is activated in step  508 . In response to the activation in step  508 , the controller resets the countdown sequence in step  510 . In an exemplary embodiment, this reset may be indicated on the timer display and accompanied by an audible indicator, such as a beep. The reset of step  510  may also comprise readying the timer and controller to start another countdown sequence.  
      While the step  502  of incrementing a counter may be performed in response to the end of a countdown sequence, the incrementing step  502  may also be performed in response to the passing of a predetermined portion or amount of the countdown sequence. For instance, the counter may increment after one half or one quarter of the countdown sequence has passed or after five or ten minutes of the countdown sequence has passed. This may allow an individual patient who is unable to complete the full countdown sequence to receive credit for a good faith effort. Depending on the habits or needs of the patient or user population, a credit duration may be set, at which credit is given for a substantially completed countdown sequence. This credit duration may be expressed as a percentage of the duration of the countdown sequence or as a particular amount of time. In an exemplary embodiment, the credit duration may be set by doctor or therapist. In this way, those users or patients who start and quickly reset the timer—in the hopes that the timer will increment merely in response to the reset—will be thwarted in their efforts to deceive their doctor or therapist. Even so, use of a credit duration, or modification of a credit duration by a doctor or therapist, is not required of the timer.  
      The activation of step  504  may be any type of activation. For example, one type of activation may be an activation of a single switch for a brief period of time—e.g., a quick button press and release. Another type of activation may be an activation of a single switch for a predetermined time interval—e.g., a button press for five seconds. A further type of activation may be an activation of a single switch in a sequence—e.g., three quick button press and releases or a quick button press and release followed by a button press for three seconds. Yet another type of activation may be an activation of a plurality of switches in unison for a brief period of time—e.g., a quick press and release of two buttons. An additional type of activation may be an activation of a plurality of switches in unison for a predetermined time interval—e.g., a press of two buttons for five seconds. Yet a further type of activation may be an activation of a plurality of switches in a sequence—e.g., a quick press and release of a first button followed by a quick press and release of a second button, a series of quick press and releases of any number of buttons, or a series of quick press and releases interspersed with button presses of several seconds. In an exemplary timer of the present invention, different types of activations may be used to trigger different responses in the timer. For instance, the step  504  activation may be an activation of a single switch for a predetermined time interval, while the step  402  activation may be an activation of a single switch for a brief period of time.  
      Turning to  FIG. 6 , it discloses a series of operation steps  600  for an exemplary timer of the present invention. These steps  600  may, but are not required to, follow the steps  400 ,  500  of FIGS.  4  or  5 . A first switch activation is performed in step  602 . In step  604 , a second switch activation is performed. In response to the second switch activation  604  and the first switch activation  602 , the controller changes a duration of a timer countdown sequence in step  606 . Next, in step  608 , a third switch activation is performed. In response to the third switch activation  608  and the first switch activation  602 , the controller alters at least one interval of the countdown sequence in step  610 . Further, in step  612 , a fourth switch activation is performed. In response to the fourth switch activation  612  and the first switch activation  602 , the controller alters the credit duration of the timer in step  614 .  
      In each of these switch activations  602 ,  604 ,  608 ,  612 , any combination of one or more switches may be used. For instance, the different switch activations may be performed on distinct switches, performed on the same switches in a variety of activations and sequences of activation, or performed on the same switches at different times—such as during a programming mode or a menu programming mode.  
      An example of the operation of steps  600  may be implemented as follows: The first switch activation  602  may be activation of a first general activation switch, such that the first general activation switch must be activated in order to start a programming mode during which certain timing features may be changed. For example, this first general activation switch may be implemented as flip switch  308 , as discussed above. Alternately, a plurality of switches may serve to perform the first switch activation, such that the activation of a plurality of switches in unison for a predetermined time interval may cause the timer to enter the programming mode.  
      In this way, a patient would not accidentally perform first switch activation  602 —and thereby allow certain timing features to be changed—while the timer is in use. As well, the first general activation switch may be placed so that the patient is not able to easily locate or access the switch, such that the patient may not be able to alter desired treatment timing features.  
      In the example of  FIG. 6 , the timing features to be altered are the countdown sequence duration, the interval timing within the countdown sequence, and the credit duration. Thus, when step  604 , step  608 , or step  612  are performed, the controller changes the respective duration or interval only if first switch activation  602  has occurred. First switch activation  602  may be, for example, a singular activation or a continuing one. For instance, in a singular first switch activation  602 , a user may press and release a button—either quickly or for a predetermined time interval—to enter the programming mode. Then, the user may make a desired alteration. Afterwards, the timer may automatically resume a normal operation mode, during which alterations may not occur, or a user may need to press a button to return to the normal mode from the programming mode. Or, in a continuous first switch activation  602 , a user may, for example, activate a switch by flipping it from a normal operation mode setting to a programming mode setting. Then, the user may make the desired alterations, after which the user flips the switch from the programming mode setting back to the normal operation mode setting.  
      As a further alternative, first switch activation  602  may generate a menu programming mode that provides a user-friendly interface for altering the time interval, countdown sequence duration, credit duration, or other timing feature. Such a menu may include an ability to scroll—in response to switch activation—between the timing features able to be altered. For example, a fifth and sixth switch activation may provide scrolling up and down, respectively, of menu options. This menu may include an indication on the display  204  of the particular feature to be altered at that time, such as a letter or word associated with the feature, a number associated with the feature, or another indication specific to the feature on the display  204  or the timer  200 .  
      Even so, the first switch activation  602  is not a required part of the timer of the present invention, and this step  602 , if included, may be executed and responded to in a variety of ways, a few of which were mentioned above. Further, steps  604 ,  606 ; steps  608 ,  610 ; and steps  612 ,  614  may be performed exclusively, performed in any order, or each performed with or without the functionality of the first switch activation  602 . For example, a timer of the present invention may only have the functionality of the second switch activation  604  and not the third switch activation  608 . The features shown in  FIG. 6  may be included, in any of the variety of ways mentioned above, with any of the other features disclosed in this specification, as well.  
      It is to be understood that changes and modifications to the embodiments described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and are contemplated. It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.