Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
In 2019, Owlet® Baby Care Inc., also launched the Owlet® Band, a prenatal garment enabling to monitor the unborn child’s heart rate, using miniaturized electrocardiogram (ECG) technology, as well as mother health data, using additional miniaturized sensors.
The Owlet® Band invention aims to supplement regular prenatal care with a mother and fetal health monitoring system, ultimately designed to gather vital sign data that may prevent stillbirths. For example, monitoring of the mother’s blood flow or pressure may serve to detect changes, and signs of preeclampsia, a potentially dangerous condition for both mother and fetus.
The Owlet® Band invention, recited in the US patent application US20170281087A1 titled Fetal health monitoring, comprises a band garment designed to cover the belly of the pregnant mother. The band garment comprises 4 miniaturized sensor modules in direct contact with the skin on the mother’s belly. Specifically, one or several sensor modules may be configured to comprise: accelerometer sensors able to detect mother and fetus movement, a pulse oximeter able to measure the blood oxygen level of the mother and/or blood flow or pressure, one or two ECG electrodes to measure the fetus’ heartbeat, alternatively a Doppler sensor able to measure the fetus’s heartbeat, or one or two ultrasound sensors to measure the duration of contractions and the fetus heartbeat, a microphone, a thermometer, or any other number of possible sensors. The sensor modules are removable to enable laundering of the garment.
The Owlet® Band invention aims to supplement regular prenatal care with a mother and fetal health monitoring system, ultimately designed to gather vital sign data that may prevent stillbirths. For example, monitoring of the mother’s blood flow or pressure may serve to detect changes, and signs of preeclampsia, a potentially dangerous condition for both mother and fetus.
The Owlet® Band invention, recited in the US patent application US20170281087A1 titled Fetal health monitoring, comprises a band garment designed to cover the belly of the pregnant mother. The band garment comprises 4 miniaturized sensor modules in direct contact with the skin on the mother’s belly. Specifically, one or several sensor modules may be configured to comprise: accelerometer sensors able to detect mother and fetus movement, a pulse oximeter able to measure the blood oxygen level of the mother and/or blood flow or pressure, one or two ECG electrodes to measure the fetus’ heartbeat, alternatively a Doppler sensor able to measure the fetus’s heartbeat, or one or two ultrasound sensors to measure the duration of contractions and the fetus heartbeat, a microphone, a thermometer, or any other number of possible sensors. The sensor modules are removable to enable laundering of the garment.
The invention also comprises a transmitter module suited to receive the collected sensor data and to send it via WIFI or Bluetooth® to a computer or mobile computing device, such as a telephone. The transmitter module is even suited to transmit data directly to hospital-based health data monitoring systems, thus saving time, otherwise used to reconnect the mother to the hospital equipment. The transmitter also includes means of encrypting all the data transmitted.
The processing algorithms of the sensor modules are designed to separate the data captured. For example, the algorithms are able to separate the captured mother’s heartbeat data from the fetus heartbeat data. The processors are also designed to enable storage of data for subsequent analysis of patterns. For example, fetus movement data is processed across time to determine fetus position.
The abstract of this invention is included below, together with the patent Figure 1. The drawing shows a front perspective view of an embodiment of the invention 100, on an exemplary belly 110 of a pregnant mother 130. The invention comprises the belly-covering garment 140, able to hold the removable sensor modules 140 (a-d), in direct contact with the skin on the mother’s belly.
A system for monitoring fetal health data and mother health data comprises a belly - covering garment that is configured to at least partially cover a belly and to hold one or more sensor modules directly adjacent to the belly. One or more sensor modules disposed within the belly - covering garment. The one or more sensor modules comprise a pulse – oximeter sensor that gathers pulse oximetry data from the mother through contact with the belly. The one or more sensor modules also comprise an accelerometer sensor that gathers movement data from the mother. Additionally, the one or more sensor modules comprise a fetal sensor that gathers health data from a fetus within the belly. [Abstract US20170281087A1]
References
CES 2019
https://www.ces.tech/About-CES.aspx
Owlet®
https://owletcare.com/
