United States Patent [19J
`Modney
`
`I IIIII IIIIIIII Ill lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll lllll 111111111111111111
`US006014432A
`[11] Patent Number:
`[45] Date of Patent:
`
`6,014,432
`Jan.11,2000
`
`[54] HOME HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
`
`[75]
`
`Inventor: David L. Modney, Fairport, N.Y.
`
`[73] Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester,
`N.Y.
`
`[21] Appl. No.: 09/081,318
`
`[22] Filed:
`
`May 19, 1998
`
`[51]
`
`Int. Cl.7 ............................ H04M 11/00; H04N 7/14;
`A61B 7/04
`[52] U.S. Cl. ......................... 379/106.02; 348/17; 381/67;
`600/300
`[58] Field of Search ............................. 379/37-38, 93.31,
`379/93.33, 93.37, 106.01-106.02, 101.01,
`93.08, 102.01-102.02; 348/14-17, 390;
`600/300, 509, 513; 128/903-904; 381/67,
`320, 106; 704/219-220, 500; 707/10; 375/356
`
`[56]
`
`References Cited
`
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`3,742,938
`3,810,102
`3,898,373
`4,097,691
`4,337,377
`4,428,381
`4,622,979
`4,883,064
`5,321,618
`5,339,821
`5,357,427
`5,467,773
`5,474,090
`
`7/1973 Stern ....................................... 600/500
`5/1974 Parks, III et al.
`.......................... 703/5
`8/1975 Walsh ...................................... 375/356
`6/1978 Ehrlich et al. .......................... 379/444
`6/1982 VanRiper et al. .................. 379/106.02
`1/1984 Hepp ....................................... 600/528
`11/1986 Katchis et al. .......................... 128/904
`11/1989 Olson et al.
`............................ 600/509
`6/1994 Gessman ............................ 379/106.02
`8/1994 Fujimoto ................................. 600/513
`10/1994 Langen et al. .......................... 600/300
`11/1995 Bergelson et al. ...................... 600/522
`12/1995 Begun et al.
`........................... 600/520
`
`5,522,396
`5,539,452
`5,544,649
`5,546,395
`5,550,902
`5,594,786
`5,611,038
`5,666,404
`5,704,364
`5,709,216
`5,867,821
`
`.......................... 600/509
`6/1996 Langer et al.
`7/1996 Bush et al. ................................ 348/17
`8/1996 David et al. .............................. 348/14
`8/1996 Sharma et al. .......................... 704/219
`8/1996 Abbruscato ........................ 379/106.02
`1/1997 Chaco et al. ....................... 379/106.02
`3/1997 Shaw et al. ............................. 348/390
`9/1997 Ciccotelli et al.
`................. 379/106.02
`1/1998 Saltzstein et al.
`... .... ... ... ... ... ... 600/300
`1/1998 Woodson, III ... ... ... .... ... ... ... ... . 600/300
`2/1999 Ballantyne et al.
`...................... 707/10
`
`OTHER PUBLICATIONS
`
`J.L. Crouch et al, Electrocardiograms By Telephone, Bell
`Laboratories Record, Feb. 1966.
`
`Primary Examiner-Curtis A. Kuntz
`Assistant Examiner-George Eng
`Attorney, Agent, or Firm-William F. Naval
`
`[57]
`
`ABSTRACT
`
`A home health care system compnsmg: patient station
`including a first videophone, an electronic imaging assembly
`and a stethoscope assembly, coupled to said first
`videophone, for respectively producing digital image and
`physiological sound signals of a patient, wherein said first
`videophone simultaneously transmits said digital signals
`over a public telecommunications network; and a health care
`provider's station including a second videophone, a video
`display and a sound reproducer, wherein the second video(cid:173)
`phone receives digital signals from the first videophone over
`the public telecommunications network, displays the images
`of the patient on the display, and reproduces the physiologi(cid:173)
`cal sounds of the patient by the sound reproducer.
`
`1 Claim, 3 Drawing Sheets
`
`PATIENT
`STATION
`
`---12 PUBLIC
`TELECOM
`NETWORK
`
`....--14 HEALTH CARE v--16
`PROVIDER'S
`STATION
`
`10_/
`
`Fitbit, Inc. v. Philips North America LLC
`IPR2020-00828
`
`Fitbit, Inc. Ex. 1014 Page 0001
`
`

`

`

`

`

`

`' ' ~
`)
`SPEAKER/
`HEADPHONE
`
`CAMERA
`
`...... -
`
`-
`
`-
`
`-
`
`I
`110--- STETH
`- -- PROCESS ! " - - - - - - -
`
`)
`
`I
`
`112-- RETRANSMIT
`HIGHER RES.
`
`84--
`
`DISPLAY
`
`86
`
`108
`
`STETH
`DATA
`CONTROL
`VIDEO
`AUDIO
`
`I
`
`I
`
`VIDEO-
`PHONE
`
`PUBLIC
`._ TELECOM
`NETWORK
`
`>-
`
`STANDARD
`TELEPHONE
`> 81
`
`1;s
`
`EXTERNAL 1/0
`DEVICES
`
`d •
`r:JJ.
`•
`~
`~ .....
`~ = .....
`
`~
`~
`?
`"'""
`"'"" ~
`N
`C
`C
`C
`
`'JJ. =(cid:173)~
`~ ....
`0 ....,
`
`~
`
`~
`
`0--,
`
`.... = ~
`"'-'
`....
`"'-' ~
`N
`
`1 NElWORK •
`55....-- .._!N~R~E_J:
`COMPUTER
`MEMORY
`
`92.,......
`
`1
`
`DATE/TIME
`CLOCK
`
`MODEM 11
`RS-232 ~
`L--
`PARALLEL
`PORT
`
`-
`
`i-90
`
`--104
`
`-
`
`--102
`
`I
`
`94..-
`
`IRDA
`INTERFACE
`
`BATTERY
`
`I
`
`LAPTOP
`KEYBOARD
`
`96--
`
`FLOPPY
`DISK
`
`HARD DISK
`WINDOWS
`95/98
`9~ EXTERNAL 106
`120 .,......_ POWER
`
`LAPTOP
`MOUSE
`
`~1--100
`
`FIG. 4
`
`Fitbit, Inc. v. Philips North America LLC
`IPR2020-00828
`
`Fitbit, Inc. Ex. 1014 Page 0004
`
`

`

`6,014,432
`
`1
`HOME HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
`
`FIELD OF THE INVENTION
`
`This invention relates in general to home health care
`systems and relates more particularly to a home health care
`system in which video images and physiological data of a
`patient are digitally transmitted from a patient's video phone
`to a remote video phone of a health care provider over a
`public telecommunication network (telephone system).
`
`s
`
`10
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`
`2
`These systems are disadvantageous for one or more of the
`following reasons.
`1. The physiological data is transmitted as analog signals
`which are susceptible to noise and signal degradation result(cid:173)
`ing in corruption of the transmitted data.
`2. Visual images of the patient are not transmitted.
`3. The system is expensive, inconvenient, and/or ineffi(cid:173)
`cient.
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`According to the present invention, there is provided a
`solution to these problems.
`According to a feature of the present invention, there is
`provided a home health care system comprising: patient
`station including a first videophone, an electronic imaging
`assembly and a stethoscope assembly, coupled to said first
`videophone, for respectively producing digital image and
`physiological sound signals of a patient, wherein said first
`videophone simultaneously transmits said digital signals
`over a public telecommunications network; and a health care
`provider's station including a second videophone, a video
`display and a sound reproducer, wherein the second video(cid:173)
`phone receives digital signals from the first videophone over
`the public telecommunications network, displays the images
`of the patient on the display, and reproduces the physiologi(cid:173)
`cal sounds of the patient by the sound reproducer.
`
`ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECT OF THE
`INVENTION
`
`The invention has the following advantages.
`1. Physiological data of a patient are transmitted digitally
`over a public telecommunication network, minimizing deg(cid:173)
`radation and corruption of the data. The health care provider
`can thus provide a more reliable diagnosis of the patient.
`2. Visual images of the patient are digitally transmitted
`simultaneously with the physiological data, thus enhancing
`communication between patient and health care provider,
`and optimizing proper diagnosis.
`3. The home health care system is cost effective, uses
`public telecommunication networks, such as the public
`telephone network, and is convenient to both patient and
`health care provider.
`4. The patient's physiological sounds are stored at the
`patient station at full resolution, but are initially transmitted
`to the health care provider's station in a compressed format.
`Because the data compressor is selectively controllable to
`compress data at different compression ratios, the health care
`provider can command the patient station to retransmit the
`physiological data at a lower compression ratio, thus pro-
`ducing higher quality sound.
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a home health care system
`according to the present invention.
`FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a patient's station of the
`system of FIG. 1.
`FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a preferred stethoscope sound
`processing circuit.
`FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a health care provider's
`station of the system of FIG. 1.
`
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`INVENTION
`Referring now to the figures, there is shown a preferred
`embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a block
`
`30
`
`35
`
`There exists a need for a home health care system in
`which both images and physiological data of a patient at
`home can be examined by a health care provider ( doctor, 1s
`nurse) at a remote location. The relentless pressure to reduce
`costs in the health care industry requires more efficient use
`of a health care professional's services. Although office
`visits are typical, many patients are either too ill, disabled,
`or too remote from a health care professional's office to be 20
`able to avail oneself of an office visit. As a result, home
`health care systems have been proposed that allow trans(cid:173)
`mission of physiological data of a patient at home to a health
`care professional at a remote locate over a public telecom(cid:173)
`munication network, such as the public telephone system. 2s
`The following patents and publication disclose various home
`health care systems using the common telephone to transmit
`physiological data of a patient, such as body sounds pro(cid:173)
`duced by a stethoscope, electrocardiogram (EKG) signals,
`blood pressure, artificial heart valve clicks, etc.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,902, issued Aug. 27, 1996, inventor
`Abbruscato.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,821, issued Aug. 23, 1994, inventor
`Fujimoto.
`U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,064, issued Nov. 28, 1989, inventors
`Olson et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,691, issued Jun. 27, 1978, inventors
`Ehrlich et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,938, issued Jul. 3, 1973, inventor 40
`Stern.
`U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,979, issued Nov. 18, 1986, inventors
`Katchis et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,381, issued Jan. 31, 1984, inventor
`Hepp.
`U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,102, issued May 7, 1974, inventors
`Parks III, et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,404, issued Sep. 9, 1997, inventors
`Ciccotelli et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,090, issued Dec. 12, 1995, inventors
`Begun et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,618, issued Jun. 14, 1994, inventor
`Gessman.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,427, issued Oct. 18, 1994, inventor 55
`Langen et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,773, issued Nov. 21, 1995, inventors
`Bergelson et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,396, issued Jun. 4, 1996, inventors
`Langer et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,364, issued Jan. 6, 1998, inventors
`Saltzstein et al.
`U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,377, issued Jun. 29, 1982, inventors
`Van Riper et al.
`J. L. Crouch et al, Electrocardiograms By Telephone, Bell
`Laboratories Record, February 1966.
`
`45
`
`50
`
`60
`
`65
`
`Fitbit, Inc. v. Philips North America LLC
`IPR2020-00828
`
`Fitbit, Inc. Ex. 1014 Page 0005
`
`

`

`6,014,432
`
`25
`
`30
`
`3
`diagram of the main components of a home health care
`system of the invention. As shown, home health care system
`10 includes a patient station 12, a health care provider's
`station 16, and a public telecommunication network 14
`connecting stations 12 and 16. Network 14 can, for example, 5
`be the public telephone network, cellular phone network,
`ISDN, Ethernet, Intranet, Internet, or any other network
`capable of transmitting digital signals between stations 12
`and 16.
`In general, each of stations 12 and 16, is provided with a
`videophone which is connected to network 14. The patient
`station is located at a patient's venue, such as, the patient's
`home. The health care provider's station is located at the
`provider's venue, such as a doctor's or nurse's office, a
`hospital, or the like. As will be described in more detail later
`the patient's station includes a stethoscope which is used b;
`the patient to produce physiological sounds of the patient.
`The physiological sounds relate to the cardiovascular and
`respiratory systems of the patient. The sounds are digitized
`and transmitted by station 12 over network 14 to station 16,
`where they are reproduced and examined by the health care
`provider. Images of the patient are simultaneously transmit(cid:173)
`ted over network 14 to enhance the examination and diag(cid:173)
`nosis of the patient.
`Referring now to FIG. 2, there will be described a
`preferred embodiment of patient station 12. As shown,
`station 12 includes a first videophone 18, a processor 20, and
`a stethoscope 22. Videophone 18 is a standard videophone
`(e.g., an 8x8 VCS0/55) which sends and receives audio and
`video as digital data over a standard public telephone
`network 14, or the like. Coupled to videophone 18 are
`camera 24 for capturing images of a patient, a standard
`telephone 26, and a video display 28 for displaying images,
`graphics and data. Processor 20 includes a stethoscope
`processing circuit 30 for converting patient physiological
`sounds picked up by stethoscope 22 into compressed digital
`data transmitted by videophone 18 over network 14 to
`station 16.
`As shown in greater detail in FIG. 3, stethoscope pro(cid:173)
`cessing circuit 30 includes a transducer 32 for converting the
`physiological sounds into analog signals, a volume and filter
`section 34, an analog to digital converter 36 for converting
`the analog signals to digital data, and a recirculating buffer
`memory 38 controlled by direct memory access controller
`(DMA) 40. Buffer memory 38 stores many seconds of the
`raw high quality digital physiological sounds data. The
`digital data is compressed by a tunable loss audio compres(cid:173)
`sor 42. If the health care provider at station 16 wishes to
`listen to high quality audio at a later time, the recirculating
`buffer memory 38 can be accessed to recompress the digital 50
`data at a different loss level ( compression ratio) to produce
`higher quality audio. The new data is retransmitted. The
`compressed digital data is stored in a first-in-first-out (FIFO)
`memory 44. The data from memory 44 is sent to a data
`channel of videophone 18. The data is then transmitted over 55
`network 14 to station 16 along with digital images of the
`patient.
`Referring again to FIG. 2, processor 20 also includes an
`input/output (1/0) 46, bus 48, memory 50, hard drive 52 for
`storing an operating system, programs, and data, CPU 54, 60
`keyboard 56, and mouse 58. Processor 20 can be powered by
`an internal battery or an external power source 60. Other
`devices can be connected to processor 20 for transmission of
`other patient physiological data. These devices include
`blood pressure device 62, patient thermometer 64, weight 65
`scale 66, Sp02 finger sensor 68, peak flow meter 70, and
`room temperature device 72. The values produced by these
`
`4
`devices are digitized by processor 20 and sent by video(cid:173)
`phone 18 over network 14 in a videophone data channel.
`Station 12 also includes audio output (speaker) 74 and local
`stethoscope output 76 (headphones).
`Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown in greater detail
`station 16. As shown, station 16 includes a second video(cid:173)
`phone 80 connected to network 14. Videophone 80 is
`connected to a standard telephone 81 and to a laptop type
`computer 82 by audio, video, and data/control links. Com-
`10 puter 82 includes display 84, modem 86, optional network
`interface 88, optional RS-232 interface 90, computer
`memory 92, IRDA interface 94, floppy disk drive 96, hard
`disk drive 98 (storing an OS such as WINDOWS 95/98),
`laptop mouse 100, laptop keyboard 102, parallel port 104,
`15 battery 106, date/time clock 108, steth processor 110,
`retransmit higher resolution command control 112. Con(cid:173)
`nected to computer 82 is a camera 114 (which can also be
`connected to video phone 80), sound reproducer (speaker,
`headphones) 116, external 1/0 devices 118 (external mouse,
`20 external keyboard, external RS-232 link, external printer),
`and external power 120. Units 80 and 82 can be housed in
`the same case or be housed in separate but connected cases.
`The digital image(s) and digital stethoscope data are
`received in the data channel of second videophone 80. The
`digital stethoscope data is sent to steth processor 110 of
`computer 82 (e.g., video phone data channel is sent to a IIC
`serial output port, the II C serial data is converted to a
`RS-232 serial stream of data, the RS-232 serial stream of
`data is sent to a RS-232 port of computer 82, and stored in
`memory 92, the memory is read into steth processor 110.
`Steth processor 110 converts the digital stethoscope sound
`data to analog data by a digital-to-analog converter. The
`analog signal is amplified, sent to a power amplifier and then
`to sound reproducer 116 for the health care provider to hear
`the stethoscope sounds. The digital images are converted
`and displayed on display 84.
`If a user desires a higher quality audio sound, the user will
`actuate control 112 to send a command to the data channel
`40 of second videophone 80. The first videophone 18 will
`receive the command over the data channel from video(cid:173)
`phone 80, adjust the loss ratio of compressor 42 (FIG. 3),
`recompress the stethoscope sound data in buffer memory 38
`to a higher quality sound data and retransmit the stethoscope
`45 sound data from videophone 18 to videophone 80 over
`network 14. The user at station 16 hears the higher quality
`stethoscope sounds by sound reproducer 116.
`The invention has been described in detail with particular
`reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it
`will be understood that variations and modifications can be
`effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.
`
`35
`
`PARTS LIST
`
`PARTS LIST
`
`10 home health care system
`12 patient station
`14 public telecommunication network
`16 health care provider's station
`18 first videophone
`20 processor
`22 stethoscope
`24 camera
`26 standard telephone
`28 video display
`30 stethoscope processing circuit
`32 transducer
`
`Fitbit, Inc. v. Philips North America LLC
`IPR2020-00828
`
`Fitbit, Inc. Ex. 1014 Page 0006
`
`

`

`5
`-continued
`
`PARTS LIST
`
`34 volume and filter section
`36 analog to digital converter
`38 recirculating buffer memory
`40 direct memory access controller (OMA)
`42 tunable loss audio compressor
`44 first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory
`46 input/output (l/0)
`48 bus
`50 memory
`52 hard drive
`54 CPU
`56 keyboard
`58 mouse
`60 external power source
`62 blood pressure device
`64 patient thermometer
`66 weight scale
`68 finger sensor
`70 peak flow meter
`72 room temperature device
`74 audio output (speaker)
`76 local stethoscope output
`80 second videophone
`81 standard telephone
`82 laptop type computer
`84 display
`86 modem
`88 optional network interface
`90 optional RS-232 interface 90
`92 computer memory
`94 !RDA interface
`96 floppy disk drive
`98 hard disk drive
`100 laptop mouse
`102 laptop keyboard
`104 parallel port
`106 battery
`108 date/time clock
`110 steth processor
`112 retransmit higher resolution command control
`114 camera
`116 sound reproducer
`118 external l/0 devices
`120 external power
`
`6,014,432
`
`6
`
`What is claimed is:
`1. A health care system comprising:
`
`5
`
`10
`
`15
`
`20
`
`25
`
`30
`
`35
`
`a patient station including a first videophone, an elec(cid:173)
`tronic imaging assembly and a stethoscope assembly,
`coupled to said first videophone, for respectively pro(cid:173)
`ducing digital image and physiological sound signals of
`a patient, wherein said first videophone simultaneously
`transmits said digital signals over a public telecommu(cid:173)
`nications network;
`a health care provider's station including a second
`videophone, a video display and a sound reproducer,
`wherein said second videophone receives said digital
`signals from said first videophone over said public
`telecommunications network, displays said images of
`said patient on said display, and reproduces said physi(cid:173)
`ological sounds of said patient by said sound repro(cid:173)
`ducer;
`wherein said stethoscope assembly includes a transducer
`for transducing physiological sounds of a patient into
`analog signals, a converter for converting said analog
`signals into raw digital physiological sound data, a
`recirculating buffer memory for storing said raw digital
`physiological sound data, a digital data compressor for
`compressing said raw digital physiological sound data
`by a compression ratio that is selectable over a range of
`compression ratios, and a memory for storing said
`compressed physiological sound data, wherein said first
`videophone transmits said compressed data over said
`network to said second videophone; and
`wherein said health care provider's station includes a
`control for commanding said compressor at said
`patient's station to compress said raw digital physi(cid:173)
`ological sound signals at a lower compression ratio into
`newly compressed digital sound data to produce higher
`quality sound, and to retransmit said newly compressed
`data over said network for reproduction at said health
`care provider's station.
`
`* * * * *
`
`Fitbit, Inc. v. Philips North America LLC
`IPR2020-00828
`
`Fitbit, Inc. Ex. 1014 Page 0007
`
`