Methods and systems for detecting unsealed access points in an infant care station

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12414890-B2
Application number	US-202117550809-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2021
Priority date	Dec 14, 2021
Publication date	Sep 16, 2025
Grant date	Sep 16, 2025

Abstract

An infant care station can include sensors to detect an environmental characteristic of the infant care station, an access point to access a microenvironment of the infant care station, and a processor to obtain a sealed measurement for the infant care station with the access point in a sealed position. The processor can also obtain the environmental characteristic from sensors monitoring the microenvironment. Additionally, the processor can determine a difference between the environmental characteristic and the sealed measurement and generate an alert indicating an access point sealing issue based on the difference exceeding a predetermined threshold.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An infant care station comprising:
one or more sensors to detect an environmental characteristic of the infant care station;
access points to access a microenvironment of the infant care station; and
a processing system programmed to:
obtain a sealed measurement for the infant care station with the access points in sealed positions;
obtain the environmental characteristic from the one or more sensors;
determine a difference between the environmental characteristic and the sealed measurement exceeds a predetermined threshold; and
generate an alert indicating an access point sealing issue based on the difference and indicate which of the access points is experiencing the sealing issue.

2. The infant care station of claim 1 , wherein the access points comprise a canopy, a porthole door, an equipment access point, or a combination thereof.

3. The infant care station of claim 1 , wherein the processing system is programmed to transmit the alert to an external computing device or a remote display device.

4. The infant care station of claim 1 , wherein the processing system is programmed to display the alert in a user interface coupled to the system.

5. The infant care station of claim 1 , wherein the environmental characteristic comprises a pressure value, a humidity value, an oxygen value, a temperature control loop value, or a combination thereof.

6. The infant care station of claim 5 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise a pressure sensor, an oxygen sensor, a humidity sensor, a control loop sensor, or a combination thereof.

7. The infant care station of claim 5 , wherein the one or more sensors are coupled to an enclosure of the system, wherein the enclosure supports the microenvironment.

8. The infant care station of claim 1 , wherein the alert comprises an audio feedback, haptic feedback, or visual feedback representing a message that at least one of the access points is unsealed.

9. The infant care station of claim 1 , further comprising an ambient sensor, wherein the ambient sensor is to detect an ambient measurement, and wherein the processing system is programmed to generate a second alert in response to detecting a difference between the ambient measurement and the environmental characteristic that exceeds an ambient threshold.

10. The infant care station of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise a pressure sensor within the microenvironment and the environmental characteristic comprises a pressure value obtained from the microenvironment by the pressure sensor.

Assignees

• Ge Prec Healthcare Llc

Inventors

• Valent Thomas L
• Naik Rajendra

Classifications

• E04H15/32

  Parts, components, construction details, accessories, interior equipment, specially adapted for tents, e.g. guy-line equipment, skirts, thresholds · CPC title

• A61G10/02

  with artificial climate; with means to maintain a desired pressure, e.g. for germ-free rooms (dust-free laboratory rooms B01L1/04; decompression arrangements B63C11/32; arrangements or adaptations in aircraft B64D13/00; air-conditioning in general F24F) · CPC title

• A61G11/009

  with hand insertion windows, e.g. in the walls · CPC title

• A61G11/00 Primary

  Baby-incubators; Couveuses · CPC title