System for Improving Mine Safety and a Method for Using Same
AssigneeArizona Board of Regents on Behalf of the University of Arizona
InventorsMoe Momayez, Mary M. Poulton
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Abstract
A worksite safety system and method is disclosed. The system uses wearable sensors to collect biometric data from workers. The data are used to compute a worker's core body temperature on the basis of an individual profile associating historical biometric data with measured core body temperature. If the computed core body temperature crosses certain thresholds, alert actions are performed.
Claims22
A method of improving worker safety, comprising:
- providing a wearable biometric sensor worn by a worker;
- collecting biometric data measured by the wearable biometric sensor during the course of work performed by the worker;
- computing, on the basis of the collected biometric data, a physiological value for the worker;
- comparing the computed physiological value with a computed or predetermined threshold;
- solely on the basis of the comparison, determining and alert condition, and
- taking an alert action.
A system for improving worker safety, comprising:
- a wearable biometric sensor, worn by a worker;
- a network gateway in communication with the wearable biometric sensor;
- a server in communication with the sensor via a communications fabric and the gateway, the server comprising a programmable processor and non-volatile storage including computer executable instructions capable of causing the programmable processor to:
- receive biometric data from the wearable biometric sensor;
- compute a physiological value for the worker;
- compare the physiological value with a predetermined or computed threshold;
- on the basis of the comparison, determining an alert condition, and
- taking an alert action.
A worksite safety system, comprising:
- a plurality of nodes, each node including a sensor capable of measuring environmental data, a power source and a communications interface, the plurality of nodes including at least one environmental node comprising at least one environmental sensor and at least one personal node worn on a miner, the personal node having a biophysical and biochemical sensor that collects data regarding a worker's physical condition;
- a gateway;
- and
- a server, wherein the plurality of nodes transmits information collected by sensors to the server via the gateway;
- wherein:
- the system uses the information collected by sensors to predict trends in the core body temperature of a worker wearing the personal node.
A non-transitory computer usable medium encoded with a computer program product to improve worksite safety and usable with programmable computer processor disposed within a computer, comprising:
- computer readable program code which causes said programmable computer processor to perform the following steps:
- collect biometric data collected by the wearable biometric sensor during the course of work performed by the worker;
- compute, on the basis of the collected biometric data, the core body temperature of the worker;
- compare the computed physiological value with a computed or predetermined threshold;
- on the basis of the comparison, determining an alert condition, and
- taking an alert action.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.