Occupant Support Suite and Method for Responding to an Acoustic Signature of a Stand Alone Device

• Main Authors: O'KEEFE CHRISTOPHER R, RECEVEUR TIMOTHY JOSEPH, PENNINGER JASON A, HORNBACH DAVID W
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.02.2013
• Subjects: ALARM SYSTEMS; HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONTECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING ORPROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA; INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTEDFOR SPECIFIC APPLICATION FIELDS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; PHYSICS; SIGNALLING; SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS

An occupant support suite comprises a bed (20) an acoustic sensor (110, 110A) associated with the bed for receiving an acoustic signature (160) corresponding to a stand alone device (150) and a processor (112, 112A) for comparing the signature to a library (116) of reference signatures, and, if the comparison is satisfactory, issuing a notification (208) to the bed, to an off-bed destination (210) or to both. A related method for responding to the acoustic signature comprises receiving (200) the signature, determining if the signature compares satisfactorily (204, 206) to a reference signature and, if so, issuing a notification (208) to an occupant support, to an off-support destination (210) or to both. Another related method for responding to the acoustic signature comprises receiving the signature and causing the occupant support to undergo a change of state from an initial state causally unrelated to the defined condition to a changed state.