WhipFlash [TM]: wearable environmental control system for predicting and cooling hot flashes
This invention is a sleep environment control system which uses wearable technology with physiological sensors to predict when a person will have a hot flash and to proactively provide localized cooling or accelerated airflow for that person for a limited time to alleviate the adverse effects of that hot flash. In an example, a physiological sensor can be a body temperature sensor, skin conductance sensor, or EEG sensor. This system can reduce interruptions of a person's sleep due to hot flashes and improve their quality of life.
1. A system for changing the temperature of air in close proximity to the body of a sleeping person comprising:
a head band or cap that is configured to be worn by a person while the person sleeps; an EEG sensor which is part of, or attached to, the head band or cap, wherein the EEG sensor collects data concerning the person's brain activity;
a power source which is part of, or attached to, the head band or cap; a wireless data transmitter which is part of, or attached to, the head band or cap; a wireless data receiver, wherein data from the EEG sensor is transmitted from the wireless data transmitter to the wireless data receiver;
a temperature sensor, wherein the temperature sensor collects data concerning the person's body temperature;
a data processing unit, which uses Fourier Transformation to analyze data from the EEG sensor in the Beta frequency band relative to the Delta frequency band, and wherein the data processing unit uses multivariate analysis to analyze data from the EEG sensor and the temperature sensor to predict when the person will have a hot flash and to identify when the hot flash is over;
a blanket with pathways through which cooling air flows, wherein a first subset of the pathways covers a first side of a bed, wherein a second subset of pathways covers a second side of the bed, wherein the system selectively sends cooling air through the first subset of pathways or the second subset of pathways in order to selectively cool the side of the bed where the person is sleeping when data from the EEG sensor predicts that the person will have a hot flash; and
a cooling member whose operation cools air that flows through the pathways, wherein cooling by the cooling member is turned on when the data processing unit predicts that the person will have a hot flash and is turned off when the data processing unit indicates that the hot flash is over.
2. The system in claim 1 wherein the cooling member cools air by: (a) extracting thermal energy from air using a compressor, heat pump, and/or heat exchanger, thereby cooling that air; and (b) transferring the extracted thermal energy to a location outside the room in which the person is sleeping.
3. The system in claim 1 wherein the cooling member sends and/or circulates air through channels which are in thermal communication with ice within an ice reservoir.