Earlier this month the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Samsung that reveals their work on wearable device concepts relating to a smart hazardous suit and/or garments. The smart suit or garments are designed to sense a status and a surrounding environment of the user and cope with a hazardous situation. When a hazardous result is sensed in the user's environment, it communicates such to the wearer and those in that vicinity. The system also includes a built-in emergency center wireless connection to alert authorities of the emergency and status of the user should they be rendered unconscious.
Samsung's Patent Background
Development of human civilization requires research and work to be performed even in dangerous environments such as under water, in a jungle, in a very hot place, in a very cold place, etc. Work is frequently performed even at a scene of a fire or at a scene of a radioactive leak or toxic waste spill.
In these cases, workers are in danger of losing consciousness due to poisonous gases, heat, cold, etc. Since it is difficult for a worker to identify these hazardous elements with the naked eye, the worker does not easily recognize a hazardous situation until the worker is in danger. As such, a majority of workers are unable to clearly view imminent dangers due to smoke, darkness, etc., and thus are unable to rapidly perceive and identify potentially hazardous situations. For these reasons, workers who work in manholes, at fire scenes, with nuclear reactors, etc. frequently lose their lives.
In order to prevent accidents as described above, various types of safety devices are frequently installed at work sites. However, the safety devices are not used at all times, due to lack of manpower, restrictions regarding work speed, unusual work environments, emergency situation, etc. Accordingly, a technology to check a status of a user or a surrounding environment to prevent a danger is required.
Samsung Invents Smart Hazard Apparel and/or Suit
Samsung's general inventive concept generally relates to providing a wearable device and a managing device, and methods of managing a status of a user by using the wearable device and the managing device, and more particularly, to providing a wearable device that a user wears on their body, a managing device to manage a status of the user according to a value sensed by the wearable device, and methods to tie it all together.
The foregoing and/or other features and utilities of Samsung's invention are achieved by providing a wearable device that a user wears on a body including the following: a brainwave measuring sensor to measure a brainwave of the user, an environment information sensor to sense surrounding environment information, a vibrator to generate vibrations, a display device to display a message, a communicator to transmit sensed values of the brainwave measuring sensor and the environment information sensor to an external device and to receive a control signal from the external device, and a controller to control operations of the vibrator and the display device based on at least one of the sensed value of the brainwave measuring sensor, the sensed value of the environment sensor, and the control signal.
If at least one of the sensed values of the brainwave measuring sensor and the sensed value of the environment information sensor meets a preset dangerous condition or a control signal to inform the user of a dangerous state is received, the controller may display a warning message through the display device and control the vibrator to generate the vibrations.
The wearable device may further include an output device to output an informing signal to inform of an existence of the user, such that if a preset event occurs, the controller may control the output device to output the informing signal, and the informing signal may include at least one of a light-emitting diode (LED) flickering signal and an informing sound.
The wearable device may further include a sensor to sense a remaining amount of a medium necessary to allow the user to survive, such that if the remaining amount of the medium is lower than a preset threshold value, the controller may display a warning message through the display device and control the vibrator to generate the vibrations.
The wearable device may further include a timer to count a time, such that if the wearable device is activated, the controller may control the timer to start the counting and, if the counted time reaches a preset limit time, display an informing message through the display device and control the vibrator to generate the vibrations.
The wearable device may further include a first body part that the user wears on a head of the user, and a second body part that the user wears on an upper body part of the user, such that the brainwave measuring sensor may be disposed in the first body part, the vibrator may be disposed in at least one of shoulder and neck positions of the second body part, the display device may be disposed in at least one of a plurality of arm positions of the second body part, and the output device may be disposed on a back of the second body part.
The wearable device may further include a display device to display a message corresponding to a type of the danger.
The wearable device may further include a vibrator to generate vibrations at intensity proportional to a type of the danger.
The wearable device may further include a communicator to transmit sensed values of at least one of the brainwave measuring sensor and the environment information sensor to an external device and to receive a control signal including instructions on how to avoid the danger from the external device, and at least one of a display device and a vibrator to alert the user of the danger.
Samsung's patent FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a structure of a battery provided in a wearable device.
Samsung's patent FIG. 5 is a view illustrating a cross-section structure of the battery of FIG. 4; Patent FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a status managing method performed in a wearable device.
In Samsung's patent FIG. 7 noted below we're able to see is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a user status managing system. The system includes the user status managing system which communicates with a plurality of wearable devices and a managing device #200 which transmits an emergency rescue request to a rescue center #300.
Samsung filed their patent application back in Q4 2013. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time. Hopefully in the next week we'll be posting another report about Samsung's move into wearable computers in clothing, so stay tuned.
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