Monitoring system and method
A baby monitor system and method has a baby monitor unit which collects sounds of a baby to be monitored. The sounds collected are analyzed and crying sounds are identified and categorized into a set of different crying types. A first alert for a first carer receiver unit is generated for a first sub-set of crying types and a second alert is generated for a second carer receiver unit for a second, different, sub-set of crying types. Thus, two (or more) carers can be allocated care responsibility for the baby for different crying types, to provide a division of care.
1 . A baby monitor system, comprising:
a baby monitor unit having a microphone for collecting sounds of a baby to be monitored and an output system for providing alerts to a plurality of carer receiver units; and
a processor arrangement for triggering alerts for one or more of the plurality of carer receiver units,
wherein the processor arrangement is adapted to:
analyze the sounds collected by the baby monitor unit;
identify crying from the analyzed sounds and categorize the crying as one of a set of different crying types;
generate a first alert trigger signal for generating a first alert provided to a first carer receiver unit in response to the crying being one of a first sub-set of crying types; and
generate a second alert trigger signal for generating a second alert provided to a second carer receiver unit of the plurality of carer receiver units in response to the crying being one of a second sub-set of crying types, different to the first sub-set of crying types.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of crying types include a hunger crying type and at least one non-hunger crying type.
3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the first sub-set includes the hunger crying type and the second sub-set does not include the hunger crying type.
4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one non-hunger crying type includes: sleepy, discomfort, need to burp and stomach pain.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the baby monitor unit comprises a health monitoring system, wherein the processor arrangement is further adapted to use baby health monitoring information to generate the first and second alerts.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor arrangement is further adapted to use carer sleep monitoring information to generate the first and second alerts.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor arrangement is further adapted to take account of carer schedule information to generate the first and second alerts.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor arrangement is further adapted to take account of a response time to an alert trigger signal in order to change characteristics of the alert trigger signal or to switch to a different alert trigger signal.
9 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising the plurality of carer receiver units.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein each of the first and second carer receiver units comprises a smart watch and/or smartphone.
11 . A baby monitoring method, comprising:
collecting sounds of a baby to be monitored at a baby monitor unit; and
providing signals for triggering generation of alerts for one or more of a plurality of carer receiver units by:
analyzing the sounds collected by the baby monitor unit;
identifying crying from the analyzed sounds and categorizing the crying as one of a set of different crying types;
generating a first alert trigger signal for generating a first alert provided to a first carer receiver unit of the plurality of carer receiver units in response to the crying being one of a first sub-set of crying types; and
generating a second alert trigger signal for generating a second alert provided to a second carer receiver unit of the plurality of carer receiver units in response to the crying being one of a second sub-set of crying types, different to the first sub-set of crying types.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the set of crying types include a hunger crying type and at least one non-hunger crying type.
13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising using carer sleep monitoring information to generate the first and second alerts.
14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising using carer and/or baby health monitoring data to generate the first and second alerts.
15 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program code that, when run on a processor arrangement of a baby monitoring system, causes the processor arrangement to:
analyze sounds of a baby received from a baby monitor unit;
identify crying from the analyzed sounds;
categorize the crying as one crying type of a set of different crying types;
generate a first alert for a first carer receiver unit in response to the crying being one of a first sub-set of crying types of the set of different crying types, wherein the first alert is provided to the first carer receiver unit; and
generate a second alert for a second carer receiver unit in response to the crying being one of a second sub-set of crying types of the set of different crying types, different to the first sub-set of crying types, wherein the second alert is provided to the second carer receiver unit.
16 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the at least one non-hunger crying type includes at least one of sleepy, discomfort, need to burp or stomach pain.
17 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising using carer schedule information to generate the first and second alerts.
18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer program code further causes the processor arrangement to use carer sleep monitoring information to generate the first alert and second alert.
19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer program code further causes the processor arrangement to take account of carer schedule information to generate the first alert and the second alert.
20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the set of crying types include a hunger crying type and at least one non-hunger crying type.