EE01407U1 - A device for assessing office worker activity and work environment hazards - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for evaluating the activity and for assessing the occupational exposure of an office worker. The device monitors the physical movement and activity of the carrier and evaluates the risk factors of the physical work environment. Occupational parameters are monitored by air temperature sensor, humidity sensor, light intensity sensor, air quality sensor and human activity is monitored by heart rate sensor, 3-axis accelerator, skin surface temperature sensor and skin conductivity sensor. The parameters measured by the sensors are compared with the normative parameters and the carrier will be alerted if the normative parameters have been exceeded.

Description

TECHNOLOGY FIELD

The invention belongs to the field of electronics and is intended for monitoring the activity of an office worker and assessing the risk factors of the work environment.

STATE OF THE ART

Smart watches are known in the state of the art that measure a person's heart rate, count steps, and calories burned. However, these devices do not evaluate/measure the environment surrounding the wearer.

There are also well-known sports watches that measure a person's activity and that focus mainly on a person's sporting activities such as swimming, running, cycling, hiking. Sports watches assess a person's active activity better than the smartwatches given as examples above, but they also do not assess the physical hazards of the environment surrounding the wearer. In addition, sports watches are expensive.

There are also various medical-purpose smart bracelets known from the state of the art, which are more likely to be designed to monitor a specific health condition, such as epilepsy, blood pressure, or pacemaker function. However, these devices also do not assess the environment surrounding the wearer, and these devices are expensive and still in the development phase.

A known solution for assessing physical hazards in the working environment is the prior art, which distributes building parameters through a central building management system. However, with this solution, the measurement results are generalizable, because the average parameters of the room are measured. In addition, only partial physical hazards are measured, e.g. air temperature, indoor air quality. Such measurement is only possible if a corresponding central management system is installed in the building.

In addition, a solution for assessing physical hazards in the work environment by measuring general lighting is known from the prior art. However, this solution rather controls the switching on/off of lighting based on a time program or the value of a dimmer switch. This solution does not assess the lighting parameters of a person's workplace.

The closest known solution to the state of the art is described in document CN204158366U, 18.02.2015. The said Chinese utility model describes a multifunctional bracelet comprising a housing containing a microprocessor, a body temperature sensor, a pulse sensor, a display and an alarm connected to the microprocessor. The microprocessor is wirelessly connected to a nurse's computer. The said multifunctional bracelet is intended for continuous monitoring and recording of physiological data of a person.

The disadvantage of this bracelet is that it cannot monitor physical data about the person's surrounding environment, such as air temperature, humidity, indoor air quality, and lighting.

ESSENCE OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the present invention is to develop a device whose task is to monitor the physical movement and activity of the device wearer and to assess the physical hazards of the working environment. One of the important foundations of professional and social activity is good health. Unhealthy lifestyles, poor health and early mortality of the working-age population do not allow the full use of the labor potential, affecting the labor supply and employee productivity.

The average working day of a person employed (including weekends) lasts an average of 5 hours and 45 minutes, and during this time, the productivity of the worker is affected by such measurable parameters as air temperature, air humidity, indoor air quality, and lighting, among the physical hazards that threaten the working environment. Exceeding the normal limits of these parameters causes irritation of the nose, throat, and eyes, dryness and redness of the mucous membranes and body, mental fatigue, headache, malaise, and dizziness.

The essence of the present invention lies in the principle of data exchange between various sensors. The parameters of the working environment are monitored by an air temperature sensor, an air humidity sensor, a light intensity sensor, an air quality sensor, and the human activity is monitored by a heart rate sensor, a 3-axis accelerometer, a skin surface temperature sensor, and a skin electrical conductivity sensor. The sensors have been selected to have their own internal memory for storing data, and the stored data is transmitted to the central processor via a two-wire interface. In the case of such a solution, there is no need for additional memory for storing data, and the central processor can be selected with a smaller performance, which in turn saves on the size of electronic components and electricity consumption. The passive near-field data exchange chip is intended for personal data identification in access systems and for storing standard parameters. The standard parameters are the basis for evaluating the measurement results recorded by the technical solution. The parameters stored in the device can be synchronized with the intended application using the Bluetooth data transfer application.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The above and other features and advantages of the invention are described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate preferred embodiments, in which

Figure 1 shows a diagram of the device according to the invention; Figure 2 shows a cross-section of the device; Figure 3 shows a top view of the device; Figure 4 shows the assembly of the device; and Figure 5 shows a block diagram of the operation of the device.

EXAMPLE

Figures 1 to 4 show diagrams of the device according to the invention, where the symbols on the diagram are:

1 - upper section of the wrist-mounted device;

10 - acrylic stick;

12 - red indicator light;

13 - yellow indicator light;

20 - housing;

21 - bottom plate;

22 - bottom plate mounting screws;

23 - outer edge at a 45-degree angle;

24 - battery holder;

25 - battery;

30 - USB connection cable hole;

31 - USB connection cable socket;

32 - battery power negative wire pos.1;

33 - positive battery power wire pos.1;

40 - adjustable strap of the device;

41 - pins for attaching the belt to the body;

42 - fixing hole for the belt fixing pins;

101 - replaceable power supply;

102 - central processor for data collection;

103 - 3-axis accelerometer for motion detection;

104 - Bluetooth BLE for data synchronization;

105 - air temperature sensor;

106 - passive near-field communication chip;

107 - humidity sensor;

108 - light intensity sensor;

109 - air quality sensor;

110 - data exchange bus;

111 - power supply;

2 - lower section of the wrist-mounted device;

201 - skin surface temperature sensor;

202 - pulse, blood oxygen sensor;

203 - skin electrical conductivity (resistance) sensor;

The device consists of three main components, namely a housing 20, which has a 3-axis accelerator 103, a central processor 102, a USB connection cable socket 31, a replaceable power supply 101, Bluetooth BLE 104, an air temperature sensor 105, an air humidity sensor 107, a light intensity sensor 108, an air quality sensor 109, a passive near-field data exchange chip 106. Then there is an adjustable strap 40 and a lower section 2 located in the adjustable strap, resting on the lower half of the wrist, which has a skin temperature sensor 201, a heart rate sensor 202 and a skin resistance sensor 203. The power source of the device is a standard battery 25, which can be replaced after the red indicator light 12 lights up. If possible, a variant is used where the user of the device can use a rechargeable battery instead of the standard battery 25. The battery selection is based on the external dimensions and capacity of the battery. The battery is charged via the USB socket 31. The need for battery charging is also indicated by the red indicator light 12 integrated into the device. The device's power supply 101 supplies the lower 2 and upper 1 sections of the device mounted on the wrist with the necessary energy. Energy is transmitted from the power supply with two wires, first to the upper 1 section of the wrist and then to the lower 2 section of the wrist, using a so-called ribbon cable integrated into the adjustable strap 40 of the device, which in turn consists of two parts: a data communication part 110 and a power transmission part 111. The strap 40 of the device is adjustable using the Velcro principle. The strap is attached to the housing with pins that lock into the corresponding housing openings 42. The device has a Bluetooth BLE data exchange option, through which data stored in the device is downloaded, using a designated application previously installed on the smart device.

The device is designed to be worn on the wrist of the right or left hand. For best results, the device should be attached two fingers' length from the wrist and the strap should be tightened to the correct tension, without the device moving back and forth on the wrist or rotating around the wrist. It is important not to completely cover the device.

To display the data stored in the device and the specified parameters, a dedicated software application must be used. The application can be installed on both a personal computer and a smart device. Using the application, the device user enters the following data when using the device for the first time (the values can also be adjusted later):

1. body weight

2nd gender

3. age

4. working hours (start and end, days of the week)

5. Activation of the NFC chip of the access system (activated if it is possible to activate and register the corresponding device in the workplace access system)

The red 12 and yellow 13 indicator lights installed on the device inform the user, respectively, when the red light comes on, that the battery needs to be replaced, and when the yellow light comes on, about a possible deviation in the measured air parameter values. The limit values for air temperature, humidity, quality and light intensity have been previously entered.

The edges of the device, which are perpendicular to the wrist, are at a 45-degree angle 23. The aim is to perform measurements with the device also in situations where the wearer of the device is wearing, for example, a long-sleeved shirt. The device is additionally equipped with light-transmitting acrylic rods 10. The device records the ambient air temperature and humidity, air quality, and the acrylic rod transmits the intensity of the lighting.

Figure 5 shows a block diagram. When using the device for the first time, the user must enter the working hours, the time the working day starts and ends, and the days of the week on which the working hours are valid 1001. In addition, when setting up the device, it must be determined whether the activity of the device wearer is also monitored outside of working hours. With this option, the device wearer can use the device as an activity monitor, e.g. when exercising. If this option is rejected in favor of this option, the device switches to power saving mode after the end of the working day and remains in this mode until the next cycle of the beginning of the working day begins. When starting this cycle, the battery capacity is first checked and if the capacity is within the permissible limits, the device's various sensors, processors, and cache memory are activated. If the capacity is below the permissible limit, the red indicator light 12 signals the device wearer that the power source needs to be replaced.

The 3-axis accelerator 103 monitors the movement/immobility of the device carrier 1002. If the carrier is detected to be stationary for a certain period of time, a command is given to the light sensor 108 to record the measured value 1003. During this period, the interval for recording the values is more frequent. The recorded values are stored in the internal cache of the light sensor 108 in the first stage. When the cache memory is full or based on a request sent by the central processor, the data is transferred from the cache of the light sensor 108 to the central processor memory. The user of the device can then view the result of the data stored in the central processor memory using a special application.

The values of the sensors monitoring the environmental parameters (air temperature 105, humidity 107, air quality 109) are stored on a similar principle. Only the values of these sensors are stored at a fixed interval throughout the entire permitted operating time. The values measured in the first stage of these sensors are also stored in the internal cache of the sensors, and when the cache is full or based on a request sent by the central processor, the data from the cache of the sensors is transferred to the memory of the central processor CPU 102.

The central processor analyzes the recorded information stream and compares it with the values 1004 specified by the user.

The user of the device can view the result of the data stored in the central processor memory using a special application. Communication between the central processor and the sensors takes place via a two-wire interface, which means that in the first stage the sensors themselves process their stored data, and in the second stage, when the sensor cache is full or based on a command received from the central processor, the information stored in the first stage is transmitted.

Analogous to the operating principle of sensors monitoring the environment, sensors monitoring the activity of the device wearer (skin temperature 201 and electrical conductivity 203, heart rate (PPG) 202) also operate. The sensor values are recorded at a fixed interval throughout the entire permitted operating time. The values measured in the first stage of these sensors are also stored in the internal cache of the sensors, and when the cache is full or based on a request sent by the central processor, the data is transferred from the sensor cache to the central processor memory.

If a continuous exceeding of the specified parameters is detected, a yellow indicator light will light up on the device to inform the user of a potential danger in the working environment 1005. The cycle will last until the end of the working time set by the user 1006. The device will switch to power saving mode, data will not be monitored or saved 1007.

The cycle starts at 1008.

The user of the device can then view the results of the data stored in the central processor's memory using a special application. Communication between the central processor and the sensors is carried out via a two-wire interface.

To replace the power supply of the device, the four fastening screws 22 on the bottom of the housing 20 must be opened, and as a result, the bottom plate 21 of the housing can be removed. By removing the bottom plate 21, the user can access the device's battery 25 and replace the power supply with a new one. The device is assembled in the reverse order. The battery is replaced in a similar way to the battery 25 replacement process.

Claims (5)

1. A device for assessing the activity of an office worker and the hazards of the work environment, wherein the device comprises a housing (20) into which an upper section (1) is integrated and a power supply (101), a 3-axis accelerator (103), a central processor (102), Bluetooth (104) and NFC (106) are connected to the upper section (1); wherein an adjustable length strap (40) is integrated into the housing (20), into which a ribbon cable is integrated for establishing data communication (110) between different components and for supplying power (111) to all necessary components; wherein a lower section (2) is integrated into the adjustable length strap (40), to which a skin temperature sensor (201), a pulse sensor (202) and a skin resistance sensor (203) are connected, characterized in that an air temperature sensor (105), an air humidity sensor (105), an air quality sensor (109) and an illumination sensor (108) are connected to the upper section (1). 2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the power source (101) is a battery (25). 3. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the power source (101) is a battery. 4. Device according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the power supply (101) is associated with an indicator light (12) to indicate that the power supply (101) is empty. 5. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the device is intended to be worn on both the left and right hand.