Beginning at NYU in Jan 2013 within the context of a Patents Translation course delivered online, this blog seeks to uncover the patents that rock our daily lives....
The Eko CORE digital stethoscope attachment, an invention originally filed in 2015, in the utility patent application US2015257728 titled Stethoscope, Stethoscope Attachment and Collected Data Analysis Method and System, was designed to enable clinicians to convert their favorite analog stethoscopes into digital ones (1). The conversion from analog to digital not only enabled such prized features as sound amplification, noise cancelation, visualization of heart sounds on a dedicated app; storage, replay and sharing of recordings, it also opened up the possibilities of remote auscultation and diagnosis for underserved populations. Finally, if the attachment were designed in kid-friendly ways (e.g.; if it were to look like a butterfly), it was also anticipated that the Eko CORE digital attachment would then create a far friendlier experience for pediatric patients.
Five years later, within the unprecedented context of the COVID 19 pandemic, the Eko CORE digital attachment has generated renewed interest. Indeed, since the attachment is easily detached from the tubing and ear-pieces of a conventional stethoscope, the Eko CORE also arises as a device that enables safe auscultation in 5 easy steps, as shown in
the below video. Five easy steps comprising:
Detaching
the Eko CORE from the conventional stethoscope tubing.
Pairing
the Eko CORE with a mobile device such as a smartphone.
Pairing
wireless earbuds to a mobile device such as a smartphone.
Inserting the Eko CORE into a single-use protective sleeve, and the wireless
earphones behind a mask or other personal protective equipment (PPE).
Proceeding with safe auscultation of the patient, with sound streaming wirelessly in real time, via Bluetooth® connection, to the smartphone, and from the smartphone to the wireless earbuds.
Although
the Thinklabs One wireless electronic stethoscopes were released in 2003, seventeen years prior to the COVID 19 pandemic,
for all the reasons that make digital auscultation unquestionably superior to
conventional auscultation, the devices are now also proven life-saving devices. Life-saving for front-line professionals,
working within the context of the hazardous and contagious situations of the
COVID 19 pandemic. Situations where professionals are required to wear hazmat
suits, or other sorts of personal protection equipment (PPE), such as hoods,
face masks and face shields. Indeed, use of a wireless stethoscope, such as the
ThinkLabs One, effectively prevents breaking the protection afforded by PPE
equipment. Thanks to wireless functionalities, it is also possible to safely auscultate in an isolation room while
streaming data to a triage room in real-time, or to auscultate at bedside,
while streaming to a professional in another room.Likewise, it is possible to auscultate in one location, and to stream sounds at a far greater distance within the context of telemedicine.
In fact,
ThinkLabs One stethoscopes are marketed as the “smallest and most powerful
stethoscopes in the world”, considering the versatility and inclusiveness of
their design. Sounds can be amplified 100x, not only to capture and filter heart, lung
or blood pressure sounds in unprecedented ways, even through clothes or in chaotic ER environments, but
also to enable use for professionals with hearing loss. Auscultatory sounds can
even be streamed to programmable Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids. Thinklab One
stethoscopes are also powerful enough to be used with disposable protective
sleeves for each patient.
Many patents are associated with the Thinklabs One electronic stethoscope. However, the core invention of the Thinklabs One electronic stethoscope —the invention that made it possible to capture, selectively filter, and amplify, body sounds electronically with very little distortion, thereby setting it apart in a class of its own— is the capacitative Electromagnetic Diaphragm (EmD) invention. An invention that directly uses capacitance variation to transduce sounds from the body into electronic signals, without the use of a prior art microphone mounted behind the stethoscope diaphragm, or the use of a prior art piezo-electric crystal sensor connected to the stethoscope diaphragm. This invention is recited in US6498854, titled Transducer for sensing body sounds, a utility patent granted on December 24, 2002.
In the
inventor’s own words:
“I investigated various sensor methods and had
many failures, as you'd expect in research. But one method performed
beautifully - using capacitive sensing, where the diaphragm acts as one plate
of a capacitor. It's really tricky getting such circuits to work well,
but I was working in my garage in the middle of winter.” (Clive Leonard Smith, Thinklabs Founder, One designer and inventor)
The
abstract of this invention is included below, together with the patent Figure 8. The patent Figure 8 schematically represents the conductive
stethoscope diaphragm 2, in contact
with the patient’s body, forming a capacitance with a second plate 3; one or both plates comprising
permanently charged material, thus creating an electrical field 80 between them, without relying on DC charging. The diaphragm 2 is mounted to the stethoscope housing, using a mounting clamp 9, made of rubber, to prevent vibrations, from the housing, to reach the surface of the diaphragm 2.
An acoustic-to-electrical transducer for sensing body sounds is disclosed. The
transducer comprises a capacitive sensor, whereby a stethoscope diaphragm forms
one plate of a capacitor, with the second plate of the capacitor being
co-planar to the diaphragm. The capacitance of the two plates varies with the
distance between them, said distance being modified by motion of the diaphragm
in response to sound pressure. The sensor, circuitry, manufacturing methods and
improvements are disclosed.[Abstract US6498854]
An image of the elegant ThinkLabs One electronic stethoscope is also included above. The Thinklabs One electronic stethoscope looks different from a conventional acoustic stethoscope, with none of the bulky tubing or earpieces. Frequency amplification, corresponding to low pitch heart sounds captured with the bell of a conventional stethoscope, as well as the higher pitch lung sounds captured by the diagram of a conventional stethoscope, is selected using a dedicated filter button on the perimeter of the Thinklabs One. An Alt (toggle) button enables users to switch filters for the purposes of toggling between their favorite two frequencies. For example, the Alt button is used for toggling between a preferred filter to capture low pitch heart sounds, and a preferred filter to capture high pitch lung sounds. Two additional buttons (plus and minus) on the periphery of the Thinklabs One enable adjustment of the volume.
In 2018,
observers were already predicting more robots everywhere, whether in kitchens, restaurants, warehouses, or surgery rooms (Marston, 2018; About Da Vinci). Within the
context of the COVID-19 pandemic, robots are in even greater demand, for reasons
not entirely unforeseen. For example, robots have long been used for performing
tasks dangerous to humans, such as working in radioactive environments, in deep
space or deep in the ocean, and for fire-fighting (Matthews, 2018; Iborra et al., 2003). Thus, it comes as no huge
surprise that robots, which never get sick, might now
be sought for working in the highly contagious situations of the COVID 19 pandemic (Albrecht, April 24, 2020). At
the end of the day, what is interesting is the diversity of ways in
which robots are indeed becoming increasingly instrumental, within the specifically
unprecedented context of the COVID 19 pandemic.
For
example, the demand for food delivery robots, is increasing. For shuttered
restaurants, permitted only to retain “take-out” activity, delivery robots
expand the client base to similarly shuttered clients. Likewise, for the newly
mandated “socially-distant modes of interaction”, delivery robots reduce both
interactions among humans, and the number of people in contact with food (Albrecht, May 13, 2020). If delivery
robots solved “the last-mile delivery problem” (i.e.; an estimated 41% of the logistics costs for moving goods) prior to the pandemic (Dolan, 2018), they now solve the last
mile with bonuses. Robots are far easier to control for sanitation than human hand-washing, or the absence of fever and symptoms. Indeed, robots are in. More than welcome, they
are a blessing. On the upside of drastic “stay-at-home” orders, sidewalks are
now clear of pedestrians, which also facilitates robot navigation.
Kiwibots are an example of a robot-based food-delivery
system that charmed campuses, prior to the pandemic. Kiwibots
were not only cute because they delivered burritos or pizza from participating
restaurants and stores, with a wink and a smile -- right to your
doorstep or location. The company Kiwi
Campus Inc., developed a business model that relied on robotics-loving
student groups to scale up the delivery service at new campuses.
Robotics-loving students themselves, originally hailing from The University of the Andes in Bogota, Columbia, the Kiwi Campus Inc., founders,Felipe Chávez Cortés, Jason Oviedo and Sergio Pachón, now based at UC Berkeley, banked on others with the same aspirations, keeping
the whole enterprise in the hands of people who were truly enthusiastic and
committed. As a result, the company was managing 10,000 deliveries a day, in
2019, just two years after its inception (Coldeway, 2019). Now, as campuses are closed, the company continues to expand, partnering
with Ordermark the online ordering management company for restaurants, and Shopify, a cloud-based multichannel
commerce platform for small and medium-sized companies, both having agreed to include on
their platforms, an option for a Kiwibot fleet, delivering food and goods. New partnerships for Kiwibots that are now being launched in the San José, California, downtown and Buena Vista areas (Korosec, July 2020).
Kiwibots
are semi-autonomous vehicles, which
means that they rely on sophisticated sensor technology to navigate sidewalks on their itineraries, in coordination
with a team of human teleoperators, based in Bogota, Columbia. The supervising bogotanos manage all of the Kiwibot sidewalk crossings, for example, and are on standby to respond to any emergencies that might arise (McDonald, 2019). Such a team of teleoperators was included because autonomous kiwibots were not quite 100% safe, which was not good enough, according to the company (Coldeway, 2019).
Below, a Youtube
video, showing A day in the life of a kiwibot, from the perspective of the robot.
A visualizing functionality also available to customers, using the kiwibots app for tracking their deliveries.
If you are
in downtown San José,
for one reason or another, remember to keep an eye out for one of the cute Kiwibots, which might be sharing
sidewalks for delivering their payload to happy customers!
In the finest tradition of modern and post-modern dance, where the exploration of even the most dislocated body movement becomes medium of expression, or where grace and elegance might be found in everyday movement, dancers on lockdown are performing from their homes. Inspired by the most mundane tasks, such as drying your hair, sweeping, and cooking, dancers are practicing and creating in very tight spaces, completely unsuited for dancing, and the propulsion needed for movement-mediated expression.
Despite lockdown orders, social distancing, and canceled theatre programs, dance troupes worldwide, for example in Russia, Europe, Africa, the US and Canada, are safely continuing to perform, The dancers are continuing to create together, exploring new possibilities, showing how they are coping with their new locked-down working conditions, alternatively expressing the new normal. Choreographies on lockdown are thus produced, enabled through cellphone videos of individual performances, in turn, edited, mixed, and composed—enough to continue kindling the spirits of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham.
The below-referenced, freely available, Youtube performance videos capture a few more modern and post-modern choreographies on lockdown. Choreographies that have prevailed over the assault of the SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) pandemic.
“Millions of mothers* all over the world embarked on a journey of
parenthood in the world as it was. They now must prepare to bring a life into
the world as it has become – a world where expecting mothers are afraid to go
to health centres for fear of getting infected, or missing out on emergency
care due to strained health services and lockdowns,” said Henrietta Fore,
UNICEF Executive Director. “It is hard to imagine how much the coronavirus
pandemic has recast motherhood.”
Note
The birth of 116 million babies for an order of magnitude, according to estimates for the 9-month period extending from March 11, 2020, the date on which the pandemic was officially declared, through to December 16, 2020.
In part due
to the shortage of ventilators, both Italy and the United States have resorted
to the use of less-invasive helmet respirators to support critically ill
COVID19 patients, under specific conditions. Prior to the pandemic, such devices
were demonstrated more effective than face masks respirators, relative to their
effectiveness in delivering higher PEEP (positive end-expiratory pressure) levels
within the lungs, and potentially preventing endo-tracheal ventilation. The
results of this research are found in two clinical trials studies, carried out
by pneumology researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine
(Patel et al, 2016, 2018). Currently, within the COVID 19 pandemic, the helmets
are also suspected far safer than mask respirators, since they incidentally appear to effectively prevent viral particles from escaping into the air, thus reducing
ambient risks of contamination for healthcare providers.
The story
of the American helmet respirators is enchanting as they are manufactured in
what has been described as a small “mom and pop” company in Texas, called
Sea-Long Medical Systems, LLC (Cavazuti, McFadden & Schapiro, April 1, 2020). A company that was fulfilling just a few dozen orders per week,
prior to the pandemic, which now produces 50,000 helmet respirators per week,
thanks to donation of staff, equipment and supplies. In collaboration with the
original University of Chicago researchers on helmet respirators, the company’s
ramped-up production of helmet respirators has also been tailored to the COVID
19 pandemic conditions. Indeed, the Sea-Long helmet respirators are now
equipped with viral filters, and direct oxygen hookups to the hospital supply
lines, instead of hookup to ventilators, which are currently in such high
demand. Sea-Long Medical Systems also appears as a proud company that has stood
fast on their pricing at $166 per helmet, prior to the pandemic, refusing to
gouge prices during the pandemic, while reserving quotas for Italy, with a generous sense of
purpose.
The story
of the Italian helmet respirators is far more dramatic, since it was under the
horrendous conditions of peak pandemic, in Bergamo, the epicenter of the
outbreak in Northern Italy, that the use of helmet respirators was
reported to the rest of the world (Bostok & Secon, March 22, 2020).
Reporting that showed, via live footage, the use of helmet respirators on rows
of patients, together with commentary on the daily thousand-fold increases in
caseloads, and spiraling hundred-fold death rates. International
communication, arising amidst the uncontained spread of the virus in
Northern Italy, which included warnings to the rest of the world, to heed the
severity of the situation. In fact, the understanding, mid-March 2020, was that
Italy was experiencing everyone’s potential future.
The Italian
helmet respirator is a patented invention recited in the US utility
patent US7677245B2,
titled Helmet for artificial respiration, awarded on March 16 2010. For the purposes of resolving the risks of infection
related to invasive artificial ventilation via tracheal tubes or tracheotomy
cannulas, this invention offers means of non-invasive ventilation (NIV). The
inventive NIV means comprise a transparent helmet with
comfortable means of securing airtightness, via a flexible membrane. Compared
to existing respirator helmets, this invention also offers means of interfacing
with other diagnostic and therapeutic machines of the ICU. The NIV
helmet invention is also designed as a cost-effective device that is easy to
use.
The patent Figure 1 included here shows an
embodiment of the artificial ventilation helmet 10 worn by a patient. The helmet 10 comprises a flexible plastic container 12 with a transparent front portion 14, allowing the patient to see through. The lower part of the
container 12 is connected to a
collar with a rigid ring 15. A large
horizontal opening 31, secured with
coupling elements 32such as a zipper, welded to the container 12, enables quick access to the patient
from the lower front part of the container 12. An internal membrane (unrepresented in Fig
1) presses against the zipper from the inside, to maintain an airtight cavity
inside the helmet 10, when the
opening is closed. When the opening 31
is unzipped, the helmet 10 can also
be pulled back like a hood. The rigid ring 15,
on the front of the collar, is equipped with a number of ISO-Standardized accessory fittings 17, and airtight cavity inlets 18. The rigid ring 15 thus provides an
interface with a number of outside machines for ventilation, therapy and/or
diagnostics, under operating conditions. The airtight inlets 18, equipped with caps 19 and internal airtight membranes, are used for access to the patient inside the helmet 10, for example for insertion of
feeding tubes. When not in use the fittings 17 are equipped with a cap 21. Specifically, one of the fittings 17 might be equipped with an extension
element 23 for a central venous
catheter (CVC) already in place for a patient. Figure 1 depicts the extension element 23 as a number of tubes 24, branching out from a CVC inserted in the patient, each tube 24, in turn, equipped with male and
female connection tips 25 of the “Luer-lock”
type, so that the same number of tubes branching from the CVC can be extended
externally. Finally braces 28,
attached to the collar ring 15 with
a hook 27, are used to secure the helmet 10 in place on the patient head, preventing
pressure inside thecontainer cavity 12, to lift the helmet 10.
The abstract of the respirator helmet invention is included below, together with a picture of a
marketed helmet, in a demonstration.
A helmet for artificial respiration without the aid of tracheal
tubes comprises a container body (12),
having at least a transparent portion (14)
and in which a patient’s head can be housed, and a collar for air-tight
application to the patient’s neck, which consists of at least a rigid ring (15, 15"), equipped with a series
of gas administration connection and accessory holder fittings (17), said rigid ring (15,15') being the only part of the
helmet (10) connected to the outside when operating, wherein
an opening (31) is present on the
container body (12) for rapid access
to the patient, which is substantially hermetically closed by rapid coupling
elements (32). [AbstractUS7677245B2]
References
Bostok, B and H. Secon (March 22,
2020) - Critical coronavirus patients in Italy are being treated with
bubble-shaped containers over their heads. Here's what they do. Business
Insider
Easton, J. and M. Wood (March 25,
2020) Helmet-based ventilation is superior to face mask for patients with
respiratory distress. University of Chicago Medicine.
Patel MD, B.K., Wolfe MD, K.S., Pohlman MSN, A.S., J.B. Hall MD and J.P. Kress MD (2016) Effect of noninvasive ventilation delivered by helmet vs. face mask on the rate of endotracheal intubation in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2016; 315(22):2435-2441. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.6338 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2522693 Patel MD, K.D., Wolfe MD, K. S., Pohlman MSN, A.S., Hall MD, J. B., and J. P. Kress, MD (2018) Effect of noninvasive ventilation delivered by helmet vs. face mask on the rate of endotracheal intubation in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome: A randomized clinical trial. Crit Care Med. 2018 Jul; 46(7): 1078–1084. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000003124 Sea-Long Medical Systems, LLC https://www.sea-long.com/
Now that pandemic curves of infection and
death rates are decelerating in many cities, counties, states, and nations,
government authorities are phasing in the re-opening of economies and daily
activity. However, France’s phased re-opening plan announced by the Prime Minister
on April 28, 2020 (Philippe, 2020), exhibited much caution, clearly shattering all illusions of
an immediate "return to(old)normalcy", prior to lockdown, more than 10 weeks ago.
Indeed, the phased re-opening of France’s economy
and of the life of its citizens, scheduled to begin on May 11, was prefaced with a clear understanding that the virus had not disappeared, that no cure or vaccine
currently exists, and that only the most restrictive lockdown measures were
being lifted, in an attempt to prevent a second outbreak of infections that could
slam the healthcare system, already weakened by the first outbreak. An
understanding that clearly refused to undermine the severity of the current outbreak, which has claimed 27,425 lives(1), in France alone, and where a steady
toll of approximately 200 deaths is still posted daily--even if this number appears falsely insignificant
compared to the tenfold accelerating rates that were posted previously.
Thus, ITRW (in the real world), considering
a virus that is assumed still lurking, the absence of a cure or vaccine
immunity, and regional disparities in the severity of outbreaks, the following is an example of how
re-opening currently plays out, for small places of public gathering, and cultural
benefit. Succinctly, this the new "new normal", post lockdown.
The (scientific) Illusions Museumin Paris, one of France’s newest small
museums, reopened on May 11, 2020. Launched on Dec. 22, 2019, and closed on
March 14 as part of the lockdown measures to mitigate the spread of COVID 19,
The Illusions Museumunlocked its doors under the strictest safety protocol. A protocol that includes:
Internet reservations for a time-slotted visit with no
more than a total of 70 patrons at any given time, visiting the museum
Distribution and mandatory use of face masks
Social distance specified via floor markings throughout the museum
Installation of plexiglass shields for
viewing the 70 scientific exhibits
Disinfection routines for the premises throughout
the day
Multiple touchless hand-gel sanitizer stations, and
Tap payment for
transactions at the museum
The image below shows one of the disinfection
routines carried out by museum staff, wearing hazmat gear, at The Illusions Museum.
