A sleep apnea keeper in a wearable device for Continuous detection and screening during daily life

A sleep apnea keeper in a wearable device for Continuous detection and screening during daily life

We intend to design a fully functional breathing monitor for the purpose of detecting events caused by sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing patterns. This interruption can last a couple seconds, or can be fatal where the patient never regains his or her breath.

We are designing an apparatus that can detect the patients breathing rate, and notify a person monitoring the patient via RF to a handheld monitor. An alarm is sounded at the handheld monitor if the patient’s breathing pattern changes, or halts. We are using pyroelectric sensors (infrared motion detectors) that measure the rate of change of temperature in a given area.

The use of this type of sensor allows us to monitor breathing with absolutely nothing attached to the patient. As well, these sensors are much cheaper then typical breathing monitors available. These features allow us to aim our product at the consumer market where it can be purchased cheaply, and is much less intrusive. Including additional ambient temperature sensors, and a microphone to detect noise, the system can send this information to a portable monitoring device to allow for a fully featured patient monitoring system.