System and method for providing medical attention

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11075992-B2
Application number	US-201615222574-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 28, 2016
Publication date	Jul 27, 2021
Grant date	Jul 27, 2021

Abstract

Ameliorative actions are taken using a system equipped with sensors and equipment for attending to a patient. Operation of the system is controlled at a remote site or alternatively at the location of an injury. Injury assessment and the patient's affective and/or cognitive state may be facilitated through the analysis of data obtained by the sensors.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating an unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:
obtaining, by the unmanned aerial vehicle, location information indicating a location, the unmanned aerial vehicle comprising:
a payload including one or more materials for forming a polymer foam;
a dispenser for dispensing the one or more materials in the payload; and
one or more sensors;

flying the unmanned aerial vehicle to the location;
identifying a target individual requiring stabilization at a position within the location using the one or more sensors, wherein the target individual is a patient;
detecting, using the one or more sensors, a condition of the target individual requiring stabilization;
obtaining physical characteristics data relating to the patient based on an output of the one or more sensors,
determining whether a limb of the patient is injured based on the physical characteristics data;
determining an amount of the one or more materials of the payload to be dispensed on the limb of the patient based on the physical characteristics data;
determining a pattern in which the one or more materials of the payload are to be dispensed on the limb of the patient by analyzing the physical characteristics data and a type of the physical characteristics data;
dispensing the one or more materials for forming the polymer foam on the target individual to form a foam structure while maneuvering the unmanned aerial vehicle to define a shape of the foam structure and causing the formation of the foam structure according to the pattern by maneuvering the unmanned aerial vehicle while dispensing the one or more materials, the maneuvering being based on an analytics model, wherein the dispensing the one or more materials is based on a determination that the limb is injured; and
discontinuing the dispensing the one or more materials in the payload once the amount of the one or more materials of the payload have been dispensed.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physical characteristics data is based on digital images of the limb.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the digital images include external features of the limb.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the digital images include internal features of the limb.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein at least one of the sensors is an acoustic sensor, further including detecting sounds at the location using the acoustic sensor, analyzing the detected sounds using speech recognition software, and actuating the dispenser based on the analysis of the detected sounds by the speech recognition software.

6. The method of claim 1 , further including:
obtaining the visual sensor information of the foam structure from the one or more sensors during the forming of the foam structure, detecting a completion of the foam structure based on the visual sensor information, and discontinuing forming the foam structure based on the visual sensor information.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the detecting the completion of the foam structure is based on one or more of a volume of the dispensed materials and an analysis of the digital images.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the limb of the patient is injured further comprises using a neural network classification to diagnose a particular injury from the physical characteristics data.

9. The method of claim 1 , further including transmitting signals including the visual sensor information from the unmanned aerial vehicle to a remote site, displaying one or more visual images based on the visual sensor information at the remote site, and controlling the unmanned aerial vehicle from the remote site based on the one or more visual images.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Erickson Thomas David
• Pickover Clifford A
• Vukovic Maja
• Weldemariam Komminist

Classifications

• B64U2101/55

  for life-saving or rescue operations; for medical use · CPC title

• B64U2101/45

  for releasing liquids or powders in-flight, e.g. crop-dusting · CPC title

• H04L67/52

  specially adapted for the location of the user terminal · CPC title

• G16H20/13

  delivered from dispensers · CPC title

• A61F5/05841

  for the limbs (A61F5/05816, A61F5/05833 take precedence) · CPC title