EP1923033A1 - Device for automatic movement detection of an object - Google Patents

Abstract

The device has a spring system (1) including symmetric strips (3, 3A) provided with upper and lower wings (5, 5A, 6, 6A) that are articulated between them and form an obtuse angle at rest position. The blades are positioned back-to-back at the level of their joints (4, 4A). The wings (5, 5A) are configured to form a housing and the wings (6, 6A) are connected together by a spring forming wire (8) co-operating with a push button (11) that is displaced perpendicular to a pressure sensor (2), till contacting/releasing with/from the sensor.

Description

The present invention relates, in general, to a device for the automatic detection of object movements.

More specifically, the invention relates to a device for the automatic and instantaneous detection of movements of an object relative to a housing containing or likely to contain this object selected from introductions of this object in this empty housing and extractions of this object out of his home.

Nowadays, the management and the reliable and immediate follow-up of any objects can represent a challenge given the diversity of the many objects that are part of everyday life. It is common for firms or firms to be confronted with a real problem of managing their stocks where a multitude of objects of different shapes and sizes may appear, such as, for example, inventories of tools, stocks of spare parts for different devices or others.

For example, today there is no efficient system in a hospital environment for the complete management of drugs, such a system not being marketed. For this reason, this management is practiced at least partially manually.

Since nurses may have access to any type of medication for administration, it is almost impossible to know exactly the nature and quantity of each medication administered to a patient for billing purposes. This situation is all the more real and worrying in emergency circumstances because in ordinary situations it is conceivable that nurses have the possibility to record on a card the medication administered to a patient which constitutes, in all event, a waste of time.

It appears, therefore, highly important to have a hospital drug management system that is fully automated excluding any manual intervention including billing of these drugs to patients. Ideally, this system should automate not only the monitoring of the stock of drugs in local pharmacies but also the recording of the withdrawal of drugs from these pharmacies to a patient.

Thus, this system should be able to reflect any movement likely to accompany a drug to know its exit from a stock or on the contrary its introduction into a stock.

The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the state of the art by proposing a device capable of automatically and instantaneously detect any movement affecting an object in relation to this device, the latter being of simple, rational and flexible application in particular for the management and the automatic follow-up of medicines in hospital environment with a view in particular to the invoicing, of the drugs really administered to a patient.

To achieve this goal, the device of the type indicated above is characterized in that it comprises a spring system comprising two symmetrical lamellae each formed of an upper wing and a wing lower hinged together and forming at rest an obtuse angle, these slats being positioned back to back at their articulation, in that the upper wings are configured to form a housing for the object and in that the lower wings are connected between them by a spring wire which cooperates with a push button adapted to move perpendicularly to a pressure sensor to come into contact with it or to release it.

The spring system which constitutes, essentially the housing accommodating or intended to receive the object, makes it possible to transform the force necessary for the insertion of this object in this housing into a force perpendicular to a pressure sensor and, by even there, in a pressure on this one. This pressure is also independent of the dimensions of the object housed or to accommodate in particular its diameter if it is a cylindrical object.

This spring system is advantageously secured to a support usually a support block in which it is arranged to be fixed preferably removably.

Generally, this block is formed of four longitudinal walls joined by their longitudinal edges thus delimiting a volume devoid of transverse walls of base and vertex. In addition, the opposite upper edges of two of these transverse walls are configured to participate in fixing the spring system within this volume. This attachment is advantageously effected by means of the upper wings of this system and more particularly the upper edges thereof so that the spacing of these upper wings remains constant whether an object is present or not in the housing they form.

Usually, these wings are secured to the walls in question by conventional means, for example by means of tenons. These tenons, derived from the extension of the two upper edges of the upper flanges, cooperate with orifices formed in two opposite walls of the support block or, preferably, with notches formed in the edges of these two opposite walls.

On the other hand, in the volume delimited by the longitudinal walls joined is a tubular portion parallel to these walls and having at least one longitudinal groove generally two grooves. This tubular portion is secured to the walls by means of rigid arms so that these grooves can cooperate by sliding with longitudinal reliefs lining the outer wall of the push button.

Furthermore, the support of the spring system, preferably the support block, is itself secured to a support plate of the pressure sensor so that it is positioned in the extension of the displacement of the push button.

This attachment, which is preferably removable, can be made by any appropriate known means, in particular by means of hooks coming from the lower edges of the support block, these cooperating, by engagement, with orifices formed in the pressure sensor support plate. .

This pressure sensor advantageously corresponds to a device that converts pressure, weight and force into a measurable electrical resistance. The value of this resistance, as well as its sensitivity, can be adapted, as required, by modifying the topology of the sensor and selecting the materials suitable for the specific application envisaged. In addition, this sensor can be used in extreme conditions or special circumstances, for example in the presence of a low pressure and / or a low temperature or on the contrary high or mounting on difficult surfaces.

Usually, this pressure sensor is managed by an electronic card that performs intermittent or, preferably, permanent scanning. This scanning thus makes it possible to detect the nature of the movements possibly transmitted to the object, namely an introduction into this empty housing, reflecting the presence of this object in this housing, detected by the contacting with this pressure sensor and the extraction out of this housing, translating the absence of object in this housing, detected by the release of a contact with this pressure sensor. This detection then generates motion information that can be managed according to known methods, for example that can be transmitted as needed to a central computer processing unit to be exploited by means of software.

The automatic detection device described above can be used for the detection of movements of an object compatible with the dimensions of the housing intended to accommodate it. Furthermore, this object will be of solid consistency and sufficient rigidity to cause, upon its introduction into this housing or its withdrawal from it, respectively a pressure on the upper wings of the spring system or a release of this pressure .

Various objects meeting these criteria may be envisaged in particular, and without limitation, bottles, vials, tubes, boxes or the like, these being for example glass, metal, rigid plastic material, rigid cardboard or the like and containing for example liquids such as beverages, cosmetics, cleaning agents, cleaning products, crop protection products or other.

According to a particular and preferred embodiment, the objects intended for management, according to the method and device of the invention, are represented by drugs, that is to say pharmaceutical and / or veterinary products, possibly in packaging or by medical or surgical devices or apparatus arranged in a packaging if necessary.

The drugs in question may be in any solid, flexible, semi-solid, liquid pharmaceutical form or in the form of pressurized pharmaceutical preparations.

By way of nonlimiting examples, these different pharmaceutical forms can be chosen from cachet, tablet, soft capsule, dragee, capsule, chewing gum, granule, pill, oral powder, powder for injection, suppository, ovum, transdermal device, poultice, cream, plaster, gel, paste, ointment, eye drops, oral emulsion, otic drop, lotion, mousse, shampoo, syrup, oral or injectable solution, oral suspension, oral liquid, preparation for inhalation in the nebulizer, pressurized or powdered inhaler .

Given their consistency, size or weight not adapted for use according to the invention, most of the galenic forms mentioned above will be arranged in a container that meets the criteria of solidity and rigidity mentioned above, for example a tube, preferably cylindrical .

• • la figure 1 est une représentation schématique d'une coupe frontale A-A d'un système à ressort et d'une plaquette support d'un capteur de pression,
• • les figures 2 et 3 sont des représentations en perspective, respectivement complète et partielle, d'un système à ressort,
• • la figure 4 est une représentation en perspective d'un bloc support,
• • la figure 5 est une représentation en perspective du bloc à la figure 4 supportant un système à ressort.

The invention will be better understood and other objects, features and advantages thereof will appear more clearly in the following explanatory description made with reference to the accompanying drawings given solely by way of examples illustrating various embodiments of the invention. the invention and in which:

• FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a front cut AA of a spring system and a support plate of a pressure sensor,
• FIGS. 2 and 3 are perspective representations, respectively complete and partial, of a spring system;
• FIG. 4 is a perspective representation of a support block,
• • Figure 5 is a perspective representation of the block in Figure 4 supporting a spring system.

As shown in FIG. 1, the device for the automatic, electronic and instantaneous detection of an object with respect to a housing containing it or intended to contain it comprises a spring system 1, also visible in FIG. 2 or partially in FIG. FIG. 3, as well as a pressure sensor 2.

This spring system, a portion of which is equivalent to a housing intended to receive an object, for example a medicine, comprises two strips 3, 3A generally molded from a plastic material of preferably polyoxymethylene (POM). These slats articulated respectively at 4, 4A, form, at rest, an obtuse angle, each of them comprising an upper wing respectively 5, 5A and a lower wing respectively 6, 6A. As is also observed in Figures 2, 3 and 5, the walls of the wings 5, 5A located vis-à-vis, each have a curvature such that the meeting of these two curvatures form a substantially conical volume equivalent to the housing 7 able to accommodate an object such as a single drug. Generally, the dimensions of this housing will be sufficient to receive this drug or a packaging of this drug with a width ranging for example from 9 mm to 25 mm.

On the other hand, the lower wings 6, 6A are interconnected by a wire 8 forming a spring whose ends 9, 9A are bent hook cooperating with the edges of these lower wings through the orifices 10, 10A. This set is completed by a push button 11 for example ABS. This, visible in particular in Figure 2, is integral with the spring 8 and has longitudinal projections 12 diametrically opposed.

The spring system thus produced is secured to a support block shown in FIG. 4 to form the assembly in FIG. 5. This block, delimited by walls 13, parallel in pairs, is generally obtained from a material plastic capable of ensuring very good rigidity to the assembly for example acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).

Referring again to Figure 4, it is observed that the support block is completed by a tubular portion 14, centered in the interior volume of this block and secured by rigid arms 15 to the walls in question. This tubular portion has grooves 16 formed longitudinally and which cooperate by sliding with the reliefs 12 of the push button.

As shown schematically in Figure 1, the spring system overhangs a wafer 17, for example stainless steel and a thickness of about 2 mm. This plate provides support for the pressure sensor 2 positioned in the extension of the tubular portion 14. This pressure sensor is fixed, for example by gluing to the support plate, which is covered in its entirety with a film 18 of about 1 mm of a protective material, for example silicone.

The value of the resistance of this sensor, during a contact with an object, for example a medicine, is of the order of 1500 Ω and more than 10 000 Ω in the absence of contact, which makes it possible to perform a flawless detection of this object.

Referring in particular to Figure 2, it is also observed that the edges of the upper wings of the spring system are extended, on either side, four posts 19 which are adapted to fit into notches 20 practiced at upper edges of two parallel walls of the support block.

As also appears in FIG. 4, the upper and lower edges of the support block also have hooks 21 and 22, respectively: the hooks 21 are provided for fixing identification plates of the object making its denomination appear. or a color code relating thereto, the hooks 22 are intended to engage in notches (not shown) formed in the wafer 17.

The pressure sensor 2 is dependent on an electronic card (not shown) capable of scanning. This card is composed of input / output ports managed by a microcontroller and a communication port. In fact, this card performs this scan in less than 0.5 seconds and with a low power consumption (less than 50mA), which allows to obtain an almost instantaneous response during the extraction of an object, for example a drug out of its housing or when re-introducing such an object into a housing to cause contact with this sensor. Moreover, a backup memory makes it possible to keep all the contacts or releases of contacts with the pressure sensor even in the event of a malfunction of a computer processing unit in connection with it or a communication break with it.

In light of the above, it is understood that the introduction of an object into the housing 7, for example an ampoule of an injectable solution, causes the spacing of the lamellae 5 and 5A secured to the support block via studs 19 and notches 20. This spacing generates a vertical force on both ends of the spring 8 at the hooks 9 and 9A. Simultaneously, the spring echoes this force in a vertical force on the push button 11 on which it is placed. This pressure, for example of the order of 15 newtons, is always constant and maximum since this push button is held by a stopping point to avoid exerting too much pressure on the pressure sensor and thus risk of weaken. The push button then moves in the direction of the pressure sensor 2 until it comes into contact with it, which causes the emission of an electrical pulse translating this introduction movement and, consequently, the presence of this object in the housing.

Conversely, the removal of an object from its housing 7 causes the coming together of the lamellae 3 and 3A, secured to the support block, due to the release of the spring tension 8 and simultaneously that of the push button contact 11 with the pressure sensor 2. This push button then moves away from this sensor causing the emission of an electrical pulse translating this withdrawal movement and, consequently, the absence of this object in the housing.

These electrical pulses, which constitute information of movements of these objects, can be transmitted, as necessary, via an electronic card and for example a Wi-Fi network, to a computer processing unit for their exploitation by appropriate software.

Claims (10)

Device for the automatic and instantaneous detection of movements of an object relative to a housing containing or likely to contain this object chosen from introductions of this object in this empty housing and extractions of this object out of its housing, characterized in that it comprises a system (1) comprising two spring slats (3, 3A) which are symmetrical each formed of an upper wing (5, 5A) and a lower wing (6, 6A) hinged together and forming at rest an obtuse angle, these lamellae being positioned back to back at their articulation (4, 4A), in that the upper wings are configured to form a housing (7) for the object and in that the lower wings are connected between them by a wire (8) forming a spring which cooperates with a push button (11) adapted to move perpendicularly to a pressure sensor (2) to come into contact with it or to release it. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the spring system is secured to a support block. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the support block is formed of four longitudinal walls (13) joined by their longitudinal edges delimiting a volume in which there is a tubular portion (14) parallel to these walls and having at least one groove (16) longitudinal, this tubular portion being secured to the walls by means of rigid arms (15). Device according to claim 3, characterized in that the longitudinal grooves cooperate by sliding with longitudinal protrusions (12) lining the outer wall of the push button. Device according to one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that the upper wings of the spring system are provided with tenons (19) which cooperate with openings in two opposite walls of the support block or with notches (20) made in the edges of these two opposite walls. Device according to one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that the lower edges of the support block are provided with hooks (22) for engaging in notches in a plate (17) supporting the pressure sensor. Device according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the pressure sensor is managed by an electronic card which carries out the permanent scanning. Device according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the introduction of an object into the housing (7) causes the spacing of the strips (3, 3A) secured to the support block and the development of a force on the ends of the spring (8) which echoes the latter on the push button (11) inducing the movement thereof in the direction of the pressure sensor (2) until it comes into contact with it, which causes the emission of an electrical pulse. Device according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the removal of an object from the housing (7) causes the joining of the strips (3, 3A) secured to the support block inducing the breaking of the contact of the push button ( 11) with the pressure sensor (2) and its distance from this sensor, which causes the emission of an electrical pulse. Device according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the electrical pulse is transmitted to a computer processing unit.

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