KR20020011730A - Mobile communication terminal comprising ecological information measuring module - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A mobile communication terminal including a bio-information measuring module is provided to transmit personal body information and bio-information to a remote place through the mobile communication terminal, thereby using accurate bio-information and processing information fitting to individual body and bio characteristics. CONSTITUTION: A communication terminal module(110) receives wireless signals for converting the wireless signals into voice and/or character signals and converts voice and/or character signals into wireless signals for transmitting the wireless signals. A bio-information measuring module(100) includes a body fat measuring part(120) measuring body fat amount of a human body and a heart rate measuring part(150) measuring heart rate of the human body. The bio-information measuring module(100) is separated from the communication terminal module(110) or is integrated with the communication terminal module(110). An interface(85) controls data exchange between the communication terminal and the bio-information measuring module.

Description

Mobile communication terminal comprising biometric information measuring module TECHNICAL FIELD

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable communication terminal, and more particularly, to a portable terminal having a structure in which a biometric information measuring module capable of measuring body fat or heart rate of a human body is built in or detachably coupled to a biometric measuring module. It relates to a communication terminal.

A communication terminal, such as a PCS phone or a cellular phone, is a communication device that can be carried by an individual and can communicate with a remote party by exchanging information through voice. The exchange of information using such a mobile communication terminal includes voice information exchange through a human voice and simple text information exchange using a keypad attached to the mobile communication terminal.

As the spread of portable communication terminals has been expanded with the development of information and communication technology, if information other than voice or text information, such as user's body information or biometric information, can be exchanged through the portable communication terminal, new contributions to information technology will be made. You can do it. In particular, in the industrial field using physical information or biometric data, biometric information of individual individuals at a distance can be used, thereby providing more accurate and scientific information to information users.

It is an object of the present invention to measure biometric information and to transmit and receive it via a portable communication terminal.

Another object of the present invention is to be able to produce and provide more accurate and personalized information in the field of processing and producing information using biometric information.

1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a portable communication terminal including a biometric information measuring module according to the present invention.

2 is an internal block circuit diagram of a portable communication terminal according to the present invention.

Figure 3 is a block circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the body fat measurement unit of the biometric information measuring module according to the present invention.

Figure 4 is a block circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the heart rate measuring unit of the biometric information measuring module according to the present invention.

Figure 5 is a block circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the heart rate measuring unit of the biometric information measuring module according to the present invention.

Figure 6 is a block circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the body fat measurement unit of the biometric information measuring module according to the present invention.

Figure 7 is a block circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the heart rate measuring unit of the biometric information measuring module according to the present invention.

<Description of Major Symbols in Drawing>

10: Song Department

12: receiver

14: LCD

16: keypad

18: antenna

20: battery

30, 85: interface

50, 52: electrode

100: biometric information measurement module

110: portable communication terminal module

120: body fat measurement unit

150: heart rate measurement unit

In the portable communication terminal according to the present invention, the portable communication terminal receives a wireless signal, converts it into a voice and / or text signal, converts the voice and / or text signal into a wireless signal, and transmits the measured body fat amount of the human body. It includes a biometric information measuring module having a body fat measuring unit and a heart rate measuring unit for measuring the heart rate of the human body. The biometric information measurement module may be used in combination with the communication terminal module in a detachable form or may be integrally formed with the communication terminal module.

Example

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a portable communication terminal including a biometric information measuring module according to the present invention.

The portable communication terminal includes a transmitter 10 and a receiver 12 as a user interface for exchanging information through voice, and includes a screen display unit 14 and a keypad 16 such as an LCD that can exchange character information. ). The keypad 16 is also used by the user to operate or control the portable communication terminal. The exchange of information in the portable communication terminal can be accomplished by the transmission and reception of wireless data via the antenna 18. The battery 20 may be charged while supplying power to an internal circuit of the portable communication terminal. The keypad 16 is a user interface for wireless communication and input of user's body information, and may include a scroll button, a numeric pad, and the like. The screen display unit 14 displays numbers, letters, or graphics on the data input by the user, and the data displayed therein may include the user's body information and the biometric information measurement result. The screen display unit 14 may display guide data for explaining how a user measures biometric information.

The interface 30 controls data exchange with a portable communication terminal and an external electronic device, for example, a removable biometric information measuring module according to the present invention. Electrodes 50a, 50b, 50c, 50d are attached to the corners of the body of the portable communication terminal. This electrode is an electrode for measuring the user's biometric information.

Such a mobile communication terminal is, for example, an information providing system disclosed in Patent Application No. 2000-39254 entitled "Nutrition and / or Health Information Providing System and Method Using Biological Information," filed July 10, 2000 by the present applicant. And information providing methods.

2 is an internal block circuit diagram of a portable communication terminal according to the present invention. The portable communication terminal is largely composed of a communication terminal module 110 and the biometric information measuring module 100. The biometric information measuring module 100 may be embedded in the portable communication terminal, or may be externally configured to be detached from the portable communication terminal. It is also possible to make them (ie, detachably join). The biometric information measuring module 100 includes a body fat measuring unit 120 and a heart rate measuring unit 150, which will be described later.

The communication terminal module 110 includes a duplex 60, a transmitter comprising a power amplifier 62, a DA 64, an up mixer 66, an automatic gain controller 68, and a low noise amplifier 70. Low noise amplifier), a down mixer 72 (UpMixer), and an automatic gain controller 74. The communication terminal module 110 also includes an analog baseband processor 76, which is a mixed-signal integrated circuit that transmits and receives a digital baseband signal into an analog intermediate frequency signal. Function The mobile station modem 78 included in the communication terminal module 110 can provide low power consumption and a relatively small compilation code size and exhibit a data processing speed of 86.4 kbps or more. The MSM modem 78 is, for example, CDMA. An integrated circuit capable of performing all digital baseband processing. The MSM modem 78 is connected to the receiver 12 and the transmitter 10 through a codec 80 and to a static random access memory (SRAM) 82 and a flash memory 84.

The communication terminal module 110 and the biometric information measuring module 100 exchange signals with each other through the interface 85.

3 shows an example of a body fat measurement unit constituting the biometric information measurement module 100 according to the present invention.

In general, methods for measuring body fat include an underwater measurement method, potassium method, gas diffusion method, DEXA method and the like. Underwater measurement measures the body fat using the average specific gravity of the human body by submerging in water and weighing in and out of the water, and the potassium method measures the amount of potassium in the whole body, It is a method of inverting the amount of fat by estimating the amount of tissue, and the gas diffusion method sends the subject into a box of a constant capacity containing a gas that is harmless to the human body, and the concentration of gas in the box increases according to the change. It's a way to measure a person's volume. DEXA method is a method of using the human body bone inflammation (bone mass) using a small amount of X-rays. However, such a method requires a very high level of skill, requires complicated operation using an expensive apparatus, and takes a long time to measure, thereby causing a problem in practicality.

On the other hand, a more convenient body fat measurement method is a sebaceous method that calculates the body fat percentage according to its thickness by picking up the upper arm and the scapula into the body fat inheritance; There is a near-infrared method that measures near-infrared rays on the brachial muscle and measures the reflected light of fat, analyzes the spectrum, and measures body fat. However, this method assumes an even distribution of the muscles of the human body and has a disadvantage in that the deviation is large depending on the measurer.

In an embodiment of the present invention, body fat is measured by using the impedance method. Body fat measurement by impedance method is characterized by simple measuring device, safe and short measuring time over a wide range of objects, and no special technique or procedure for measuring. Impedance method uses the principle that the electrical conductivity in the body is proportional to the amount of water and electrolyte in the body. Restricted tissues (fat-free tissues) contain a lot of water (72% to 73% including electrolyte) and are easy to conduct electricity. However, since adipose tissue contains little moisture, the tissue itself is insulated and does not carry electricity. The impedance method is to measure the electrical resistance in the body and derive the body fat percentage using this principle. The partial method calculates the fat percentage of the entire body by measuring from the soles and soles of the body, that is, part of the body, the back of the hand without the stratum corneum, The improved partial method for calculating fat percentage by partial measurement on the back of the hand, and the systemic method for measuring on the back of the hand and foot.

The body fat measuring unit 120A according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 3 applies the high frequency constant current generated by the high frequency constant current circuit 122 to the user's human body through the electrodes 50a, 50b, 52a, and 52b. The high frequency constant current circuit 122 may include, for example, a fixed voltage oscillator generating a 50 sine wave and a voltage / current converter that converts it to a constant current of, for example, 800 kHz. The electrode to which the high frequency constant current is applied is attached to, for example, the main body of the portable communication terminal and is in close contact with the body part of the subject.

The voltage value detected through the electrodes 50a, 50b, 52a, 52b in close contact with the body of the subject is amplified by the amplifier 124, for example, a differential amplifier, and rectified by the rectifier 126. Rectifier 126 includes a filter, such as a low pass filter (LPF), and may waveform-shape the rectified signal. The output of the rectifier 126 is amplified once more by the main amplifier 128 and then converted into a digital signal by the AD converter 130 and input to the interface 85.

The digital signal input through the interface 85 is transmitted to a processor (not shown) inside the communication terminal module 110, and the processor detects the current value I applied by the high frequency constant current circuit 122 and the object under test. The electrical impedance (Z = V / I) of the subject is calculated using the voltage value (V). The processor calculates the body fat amount of the subject by using body information (height, weight) data of the subject input through the keypad 16 and the calculated electrical impedance of the subject. The calculation of the body fat amount is based on the calculation result of the body density, and the body specific gravity (BD) can be obtained as shown in Equation 1 below.

Body specific gravity (BD) = C-K`WWZ / H2 + K``Z (Equation 1)

(Where C is a constant, K`, K, is a proportional factor, W is weight, Z is impedance, H is height)

In Equation 1, the coefficients K` and K`` are obtained statistically by experiment, and the K`` · Z term is a term for correcting the effect of the impedance change on the body specific gravity.

Body fat can be calculated by, for example, the following formula (2).

Body fat (%) = (4.57 / BD-4.142) 100 (Equation 2)

The body fat calculated by the processor is displayed on the screen through the display 14 and transmitted through the antenna 18 of the portable communication terminal.

4 is a block circuit diagram illustrating an example of a heart rate measuring unit constituting a biometric module according to the present invention. In FIG. 4, the heart rate measuring module 150A includes a voltage measuring unit 152, an amplifier 154, a pulse shaper 156, and a pulse counter 158.

When the electrodes 50a and 50b of the voltage measuring unit 152 attached to the main body of the portable communication terminal are brought into close contact with a body part of the subject, for example, the right hand and the left hand, voltage fluctuation due to the heartbeat of the subject can be obtained. This voltage variation is amplified by an amplifier, for example a differential amplifier 154. The amplified voltage change signal is converted into a pulse signal by the pulse shaper 156. The pulse signal is counted in pulse counter 158 to obtain a heart rate. The output signal of the pulse counter 158 is input to the interface 85 as a digital signal. The pulse counter 158 may be configured as a separate circuit or may be configured as part of an internal circuit of the processor of the communication terminal module.

The processor displays the calculated heart rate on the display 14 and transmits it through the antenna 18. In this embodiment, the electrode of the voltage measuring unit 152 uses some of the voltage measuring electrode used in the body fat measurement process described with reference to FIG. In this case, the heart rate measurement module is stopped while the body fat measurement module is in operation, and the body fat measurement module is stopped by the processor of the communication terminal module 110 while the heart rate measurement module is in operation.

5 is a block diagram showing a configuration according to another embodiment of the heart rate measuring unit according to the present invention. The same reference numerals are used for the same components as in Fig. 4, and detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted. The heart rate measuring unit 150B of FIG. 5 uses a pressure sense 160. The pressure sensor 160 detects a pulse according to the heartbeat of the subject and converts the pulse into an electrical pulse. The converted pulse signal is calculated by the pulse counter 162 and input to the interface 85 as a digital signal. This embodiment is advantageous in that it is portable because only one sense needs to be used instead of two or more separate electrodes.

6 is a block circuit diagram of another embodiment of a body fat measurement unit constituting a biometric information measurement module according to the present invention. The same components as those in Fig. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. 6 illustrates a body fat measurement unit when the biometric information measurement module 100 is detachably coupled to the portable communication terminal module 110, that is, when the biometric information measurement module is detachably configured. The signal converted by the AD sensor 130 is processed by the microprocessor 132 of the biometric information measuring module to calculate the body fat. The calculation of body fat can be obtained by the microprocessor 132 by a program written to execute Equation 1 described above. Body fat data is input from the microprocessor 132 to the communication module 134. The communication module 134 is, for example, a serial communication module or an RS232 communication module. The signal from the communication module 134 transmits the biometric information data to the portable communication terminal module 110 through the interface 30.

7 is a block circuit diagram of another embodiment of a heart rate measuring unit constituting a biometric information measuring module according to the present invention. The same components as those in Figs. 4 and 5 are denoted by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted. 7 shows a heart rate measuring unit when the biometric information measuring module 100 is detachably coupled to the portable communication terminal module 110, that is, when the biometric information measuring module is detachably configured. The output data of the pulse counter 158 is input to the microprocessor 160, and the output is input to the mobile communication terminal module 110 through the communication module 162 and the interface 30.

The communication module 134 of FIG. 6, the microprocessor 132 of FIG. 6, and the microprocessor 160 of FIG. 7 may be implemented as one component, and may also be implemented as one component of the communication module 162. It can be easily understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains. In addition, the pulse counter 158 of FIG. 7 may be implemented as a separate integrated circuit device or may be implemented by an internal circuit of the microprocessor 160.

According to the present invention, it is possible to transmit personal body information and biometric information of a person to a long distance through a portable communication terminal. Therefore, more accurate biometric information can be used in an industrial field using biometric information, and it is possible to process and produce information that is suitable for an individual's body and biological characteristics.

Claims (3)

A communication terminal module for receiving a wireless signal and converting the voice and / or text signal into a voice signal and / or converting the voice and / or text signal into a voice signal; And a biometric information measuring module having a body fat measuring unit measuring a body fat amount of a human body and a heart rate measuring unit measuring a heart rate of a human body. The portable communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the biometric information measurement module is connected to the communication terminal module so as to be separated from the communication terminal module. The portable communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the biometric information measuring module includes a body fat measuring unit.