Abstract:
A simplified physiological measurement device utilizes a general port to receive power from an external electronic device and to transmit the signals obtained from physiological measurements to the external electronic device for calculation and display. Thereby, the mechanisms and electronic elements of the physiological measurement device can be obviously simplified, and the operational convenience can also be greatly promoted.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to a physiological measurement device, particularly to a physiological measurement device, which utilizes a general connecting port to obtain power, display, and calculation service provided by an external electronic device.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Owing to the high material living standard of the modern society, the opportunity that modern people get a disease of civilization has greatly increased. According to some reports, the morbidity of hypertension has reached as high as one-fifth among adults over forty years old. Hypertension will harm brain, heart and kidney; for example, hypertension will incur brain vascular sclerosis, which is apt to bring about the hemorrhage or block of a blood vessel and result in apoplexy; hypertension may also incur ventricular hypertrophy, heart failure or angina pectoris, and a serious sufferer may die of myocardial infraction; and hypertension may also incur renal arterial sclerosis or uremia. Therefore, frequent blood pressure monitoring is very important and helpful to health.  
         [0005]     Generally, the conventional blood pressure meters not only have the functions of measurement, calculation and display but also have batteries to provide power. If the conventional blood pressure meter can also be powered by alternating current simultaneously, it further needs a transformer. Therefore, the conventional blood pressure meters are often too bulky and heavy to carry about. Due to the built-in calculation and display functions, the fabrication cost of the conventional blood pressure meters is also high.  
         [0006]     With the advance of science and technology, many function-integration computers, PDA&#39;s (Personal Digital Assistant) and potable communication devices (such as mobile phones) are emerging. As the abovementioned electronic devices have to implement their functions, all of them should have calculation, display functions and power-supply elements. In comparison with the abovementioned electronic devices, it is found that there is some functional commonness between a general blood pressure meter and the abovementioned electronic devices.  
         [0007]     Under the tendency of fabricating slim and lightweight portable electronic products, how to decrease the elements of a physiological measurement device but maintain the basic functions thereof has become an important subject. Besides, the convenience of operation and the future usableness of measurement data are also important factors in designing a physiological measurement device.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     One of objects of the present invention is to provide a physiological measurement device to simply the design of physiological measurement devices, wherein calculation, display and power-supply units are transferred to another electronic device, such as a personal computer, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and a portable communication device, which can be electrically coupled to the physiological measurement device, so that the quantity of the elements and the complexity of the circuits may be reduced.  
         [0009]     Another object of the present invention is to provide a physiological measurement device to increase the usage flexibility of the measurement data of physiological measurement devices, wherein the physiological measurement device of the present invention has a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port connecting with a USB cable to transmit the measurement data to an external electronic device in real time for subsequent processing, calculating and displaying.  
         [0010]     To achieve the abovementioned objects, an embodiment of the present invention proposes a physiological measurement device, which utilizes a signal cable to connect with an external electronic device and comprises: a signal detection unit, contacting a living body, and detecting an analog physiological signal of the living body; a signal conversion unit, coupled to the signal detection unit, receiving the analog physiological signal, and transforming the analog physiological signal into a digital physiological signal; and a Connecting port, coupled to the signal detection unit and the signal conversion unit, receiving power from an external electronic device via the signal cable to provide power for the signal detection unit and the signal conversion unit, and outputting the digital physiological signal to the external electronic device via the signal cable. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram schematically showing the system of the physiological measurement device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0012]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram schematically showing the system of the physiological measurement device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0013]     Refer to  FIG. 1 a  block diagram schematically showing the system of the physiological measurement device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the physiological measurement device  10  includes: a register unit  102 , a signal detection unit  103 , a signal conversion unit  104 , and a connecting port  105 . The signal detection unit  103  contacts a living body and detects an analog physiological signal of the living body, such as blood pressure (including hypertension and hypotension), cardiac pulsation, oxygen in blood, and body temperature. The signal conversion unit  104  is coupled to the signal detection unit  103  to receive the analog physiological signal detected by the signal detection unit  103  and transform the analog physiological signal into a digital physiological signal. In one embodiment, the signal conversion unit  104  includes an A/D (analog/digital) converter. The connecting port  105  is coupled to the signal detection unit  103 , the signal conversion unit  104  and a signal cable  30  to receive power via the signal cable  30  to provide power for the signal detection unit  103  and the signal conversion unit  104  and output the digital physiological signal of the signal conversion unit  104  to an external electronic device  20  via the signal cable  30 . It is noted that the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the connecting port  105 . Any connecting port in a general communication protocol may be configured to a port in the present invention. Furthermore, the connecting port applied to the present invention may have a specific controller on one terminal.  
         [0014]     The spirit of the present invention is to utilize the existing components and functions of general external electronic devices  20 , such as a power supply and a processor, to support the physiological measurement device  10  and reduce the volume and cost of the physiological measurement device  10 . The physiological measurement device  10  may be a blood pressure meter, an oximeter, a clinical thermometer, a blood glucose meter, or a combination of them. The physiological measurement device  10  may be fixed to the arm, the wrist, or the finger for measuring. The external electronic device  20  may be a personal computer, a PDA, or a portable communication device and generally has a power-supply unit  201 , an operation-processing unit  202 , a storage unit  203 , a display unit  204 , and a connecting port  205 . The connecting port  205  may be connected to the connecting port  105  of the physiological measurement device  10  via the signal cable  30 , and the power-supply unit  201  of the external electronic device  20  can supply power, such a 5 V DC power, to the physiological measurement device  10  via the signal cable  30 . The operation-processing unit  202  of the external electronic device  20  may also utilize the signal cable  30  to send instructions to the signal detection unit  103  of the physiological measurement device  10  and instruct the signal detection unit  103  to execute a measurement process. The operation-processing unit  202  of the external electronic device  20 , such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), may also utilize the signal cable  30  to receive the digital physiological signal of the physiological measurement device  10 ; the operation-processing unit  202  processes the received digital physiological signal and then presents the calculation results on the display unit  204  and stores the calculation results in the storage unit  203  (such as a memory).  
         [0015]     Below, a blood pressure measurement is used to exemplify the present invention. The signal detection unit  103  of the physiological measurement device  10  may further include: a pump module and a sensor module (not shown in the drawings); two connecting ports  105  and  205  are interconnected via the signal cable  30 , and the external electronic device  20  instructs the pump module to pump air until a preset pressure is reached, and then the air is gradually released, and the sensor module begins to detect a series of pulsations of the blood pressure. What the physiological measurement device  10  of the present invention needs to do are only collecting the analog physiological signal and transforming the analog physiological signal into a digital physiological signal. Then, the digital physiological signal is transferred to the external electronic device  20  via the signal cable  30 . Therefrom, the external electronic device  20  takes over the succeeding tasks, and the digital physiological signal will be processed, analyzed and displayed by the external electronic device  20 . According to those discussed above, the external electronic device  20  has to possess some basic components to implement the required functions; contrarily, the physiological measurement device  10  is intended to be simple, slim, lightweight, and low-cost as much as possible. Therefore, the present invention utilizes the connecting ports, such as USB port, and the signal cable, such as a USB signal cable, to integrate the physiological measurement device  10  and the external electronic device  20  and utilizes the existing components of the external electronic device  20  to provide the power, calculation and display services required by the physiological measurement device  10 , so that the volume and fabrication cost of the physiological measurement device  10  can be obviously reduced. Besides, the detected physiological data can be stored in the external electronic device  20  for future use.  
         [0016]     Refer to  FIG. 2 a  block diagram schematically showing the system of the physiological measurement device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In comparison with the first embodiment shown in  FIG. 1 , the physiological measurement device  10  of the second embodiment further comprises an electricity-storage unit  106 , such as a storage capacitor. When the physiological measurement device  10  receives power from the external electronic device  20  via the signal cable  30  and the connecting port  105 , the electricity-storage unit  106  can also be charged. Once the external electronic device  20  suddenly stops power supply because of some irresistible factor, the physiological measurement device  10  can still execute measurements via the power of the electricity-storage unit  106 .  
         [0017]     According to those described above, the physiological measurement device, which embodies the spirit of the present invention, may be a blood pressure meter, a clinical thermometer, or a blood glucose meter, and the physiological measurement device of the present invention has a general connecting port functioning as an I/O port, which receives required power and outputs detected physiological signals. The power-supply, processing/calculating, and display components, which the conventional physiological measurement device must possess, may be omitted in the physiological measurement device of the present invention. Thus, the physiological measurement device of the present invention is slim, lightweight and low-cost. Further, in the present invention, the detected physiological signal can be transmitted to an external electronic device in real time; and the user can utilize the external electronic device to process the physiological data and then display the processed physiological data. The user may also utilize the external electronic device to store the physiological data so that he can flexibly use the physiological data later.