Existing fluid detection alarms can be attached to a user's clothes with a safety pin, magnet, or specialized clips. Not only are these approaches limiting in nature, they can create various inconveniences for the user. Even though attaching a fluid detection alarm to the user's clothes can ensure that it is close enough to be heard, the sound can be easily muffled if the user is covered with a blanket or some other covering. Besides, the user would be forced to sleep in one position to ensure that he/she is not sleeping on the fluid detection alarm. Additionally, safety pins and specialized clips can easily impair the comfort and convenience of the user, while magnets are often not strong enough to hold a fluid detection alarm.
The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The use of conductive polymers and conductive elastomers is commonly known in the form of gaskets or seals due to their elasticity and conductivity. Some of the useful properties as a conductor include facile shape formation, corrosion resistance, and airtight contact interface. Use as a conductor is limited, however, because it is difficult to obtain as low a resistivity as in metals. Conductive elastomers are typically composed of silicone rubber that has had conductive carbon or metal particles introduced. The resistivity of the material changes with the conductive particle content.
The use of sensor electrodes attached electrically to an alarm unit for the purpose of treatment enuresis therapy is well known. Electrolytes present in urine enable completion of an alarm circuit by filling a channel or gap between electrodes and thereby indicating the occurrence of a micturition event. Most existing electrodes have either a set of parallel or else linear serpentine positive and negative electrode patterns wherein urine contacts both a positive and negative bare wire to complete the alarm circuit. The bare wire is made available for contact with urine through gaps in an insulator, whereby urine enters a positive and negative gap to contact a wire and complete a circuit.
Existing electrolyte sensors are limited to circuit completion along a single narrow gap between two conductive plastic zone halves, each half respectively in contact with one positive conductive element and one negative conductive element that extend into the sensor body from a terminal socket. This is disadvantageous because an electrolyte may be present in one of the plastic zone halves and never close the electric circuit wherein the entire sensor surface is comprised only of the two zone halves. The present disclosure is not limited in this way. Conductive elastomer positive and negative trace electrodes may be connected to respective wire lead terminals and the conductive elastomer trace electrodes may be in close proximity to each other throughout a sensor “trace pattern” so that an electrolyte can close the circuit by simultaneously touching any point along the surface of a positive and a negative trace electrode throughout the entire trace pattern which takes up the entire sensor surface. This is an important improvement given that a penis or other electrolyte source is unpredictable in electrolyte placement and the volume or amount of electrolyte required to close a circuit should be as low as possible and corresponding circuit completion as quick as possible for effective therapy where every moment counts in training the nervous system. Examples of sensor trace patterns are illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2K.
Another advantage over the existing solutions is the use of heat molding to attach the trace electrodes. Considerably larger and more robust than existing sensor films or printed circuits, the present heat molded elastomeric electrodes are able to withstand both being worn overnight by a user as well as degradation by caustic substances such as urine. Available wetness sensors detect leaks from catheter sites using exclusively a circuit printed onto a solid nonflexible support. Such a circuit would not withstand the caustic effect of urine combined with continuous overnight use by a wearer.
Sensors used to detect electrolytes present in things other than urine operate on the same principle of forming a conductive bridge between sensor electrodes, and the function of the completed circuit operates to contribute to different forms of therapy depending on what is being detected by the sensor, the upstream electronics, and which human system is being treated. Examples of additional purposes include detecting blood or spinal fluid leaking from catheter sites and sensing feces in a diaper. These examples are not exclusive from other uses but instead are meant to describe some of the utilities for the use of conductive elastomer in sensor electrodes and where it is illustrated that a conductive elastomer electrode is universally an improvement over the existing solutions for many reasons, but especially because electrolytes can contact any part of the surface of the robust conductive elastomer trace electrodes and result immediately in a current, whereas the existing solutions require additional time for electrolytes to come into contact with interspersed metal wire contact points or be of sufficient volume and directionality to connect plastic electrode zone halves.