US 8,444,558 · Granted 2013-05-21
The Mattress That Watches You Sleep Without Wearables
Imagine a mattress that knows your heart rate and breathing just by you lying on it—no fitness tracker needed. This patent describes a hidden fluid-filled bladder under soft padding that senses your vital signs as you sleep, then sends that data to a monitor.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a sleeping monitoring system where a fluid-filled bladder sits beneath a padded layer and connects to a sensor that reads vital signs. What's protected here is the specific arrangement of the fluid bladder positioned under padding material, combined with a sensor in fluid contact with that bladder, configured to output vital sign signals. Anyone making an unauthorized mattress or sleep surface that uses this exact fluid-bladder-under-padding architecture to monitor heart rate or breathing would infringe on this patent.
Why it matters
This patent tackles a real problem: most vital-sign monitors require you to wear something (chest strap, smartwatch, ring). By embedding the sensor in the mattress itself, the patent lets you monitor health passively while you sleep—no devices to put on or charge. This kind of non-contact monitoring could be valuable for hospitals, elderly care, or consumer sleep tracking, and it protects Bam Labs' approach against competitors trying to copy the same embedded-fluid-sensor design.
Real-world use
When you lie down on a mattress with this technology, the pressure of your body pushes on the fluid bladder, and the sensor detects the tiny changes in fluid pressure caused by your heartbeat and breathing, capturing vital signs without you wearing anything.
Original USPTO abstract
A sleeping monitoring system includes a first padding layer. A fluid bladder is beneath the first padding layer. A sensor is in fluid communication with the fluid bladder. The sensor is configured to output a vital sign signal.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 8,444,558
- Filing date
- 2009-01-07
- Grant date
- 2013-05-21
- Assignee
- Bam Labs, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- YOUNG STEVEN J., RIFREDI RICHARD V., ZHOVNIROVSKY YURI
- CPC class
- A47C27/144
Want to file your own patent?
If you're designing smart furniture or a health-monitoring bed, check our patent scanner to see what's already locked down in the sleep-tech space before you prototype.
Free patentability scan