Principal Investigator: H.F. Machiel Van der Loos, PhD Project Staff: Hisato Kobayashi, PhD; Joel Ford, MSME; Joe Norman, MSME; and Ying Tai, MSME Project Category: Other - 2001 Objective: The purpose of the SleepSmart project is to develop an unobtrusive vital signs monitoring system for Assisted Living Facilities. Each bed has a mattress pad with embedded sensors for unobtrusive monitoring of position, movement, heart and breathing. Networked together, the controllers of these mattress pads can notify the staff if a sleeping person has left the bed, or has abnormal heart or breathing rhythms. Research Plan: SleepSmart is a thin mattress pad with an array of integrated sensors, measuring position, temperature, and movement of the person sleeping on it. There are no wires attached to the body, and the person is not aware of the presence of the SleepSmart pad. A modular design with passive sensors on flexible strips sewn into the pad is a cost-effective implementation using conventional materials and assembly processes. The development is complete; clinical trials to validate the software design still need to be done. Work Accomplished: SleepSmart has five main subsystems that are all essential to the overall purpose of the device. They are (1) the mattress pad and controller, (2) the real-time analysis software, (3) the interface software, and (4) the network and master console. The real-time software, based on the theory of wavelet transformations, transforms the data from the time domain to the event and/or frequency domain. This module extracts breathing and heart rate. Another module extracts information such as body temperature, position and movement, mattress pressure, and can be extended to extract episodes of snoring and bruxism. The user interface software generates a record every 5 seconds on the person’s status. Event detection algorithms sound an alert if any states or combinations of states exceed preset thresholds. A master console runs a web- browser, receives periodic patient updates and is informed of any alerts. Expected Outcome: A patent application has been filed, and there have been discussions with potential manufacturers. No licenses have yet been granted. Clinical trials will require additional funding. An additional application for this technology involves a home-use product designed to provide sleep quality information to an individual with a non life-threatening sleep disorder. The system would be able to correlate the effect of lifestyle and sleeping environment upon the quality of sleep over a period of weeks or months. This information can then be used by the individual to improve sleep and thereby quality of life over time in a more cost-effective manner than current clinical polysomnography techniques. Funding Source: PAIRE (R&D Contract from National Trust Ltd.) Funding Status: Completed |
