Patent ID: 7457652

Claim:
A system comprising a sensor and a monitor for sensing at least one physiological characteristic of a patient, the sensor being connectable to a monitor that estimates a physiological characteristic from signals detected by the sensor, the sensor comprising: a detector for detecting the signals from the patient which are indicative of the physiological characteristic; a memory connected with the sensor, said memory being physically located on one of a sensor body, sensor cable, sensor connecting plug or a sensor adapter module, and said memory being configured to store data defining at least one sensor signal specification boundary for the detected signals, the sensor signal specification boundary being indicative of a quality of the signals and an accuracy of the physiological characteristic estimated from the signals by the monitor, wherein the sensor signal specification boundary includes limits for an AC modulation component and DC component of the signals; and means for providing access to the memory to allow transmission of the data defining the at least one sensor boundary to the monitor; wherein the monitor determines to display or not display the estimate of the physiological characteristic based on the signals and their relationship relative to a plurality of sensor signal specification boundaries and to a plurality of monitor boundaries preprogrammed into the monitor.