A brace for treating a portion of a human body, the brace including a brace body including at least one fastener adapted for fastening the brace about the portion of the human body, and an aromatherapy heat-treatment pack removably attachable to the brace body, the aromatherapy heat-treatment pack containing at least one temperature maintaining component and at least one aromatherapeutic component, wherein the aromatherapy heat-treatment pack is adapted to maintain a temperature thereof for a predetermined treatment duration.

A cervical collar that facilitates therapeutic hypothermia is provided and includes a cooling device having a front portion and a back portion fixedly coupled to the front portion on one side and removably coupled to the front portion on an opposite side. A fastening device removably couples the back portion to the front portion on the opposite side. The cooling device induces hypothermia in at least a portion of a patient. A sensor is provided that measures a physical characteristic of the patient.

A head-cooling cap for controlling swelling caused by any head injury is provided. The head-cooling cap includes a flexible, preferably adjustable cap-shaped main body with a plurality of inner cavities containing a cooling substance. The main body can be built in a three-dimensional cap shape or, alternatively, be deformable to adopt a three-dimensional cap shape. When the head-cooling cap is placed on a user's head, the cooling substance, which has been kept at an adequate cold temperature, will cool the head and control any swelling caused by a traumatic head injury. When not placed on a user's head, the head-cooling cap can be conveniently stored in a refrigerator or freezer to prepare it for further use.

An electronic heating/cooling garment includes: a neck part, a collar (neckband), or an underarm part where a Peltier device (31) is placed; and a front body or a back body where a heating medium circulation path (35) and a battery (35) are placed, the battery (35) being configured to supply electric power to a pump (341) and the Peltier device (31). The heating medium circulation path (35) is composed of a flexible thermally conductive material having a tubular shape and holds a heating medium therein in an airtight manner. The heating medium circulation path has a first electrode and a second electrode on its outer surface. The first and second electrodes are configured to supply the electric power from the battery (35) to the Peltier device (31) and the pump (341).

A brassiere incorporating a hot flash mitigation system for cooling the upper torso, chest and neck area of a wearer is disclosed. The brassiere comprises two front panel sections connectively engaged to each other, at least one rear panel section connectively engaged to each of the two front panel sections. The hot flash mitigation system provides a deformable reservoir for containing and dispensing a fluid therefrom. The deformable reservoir is disposed in mating and contacting engagement with the brassiere and has an outlet in cooperative fluid engagement thereto. At least one duct disposed proximate to one of the at least two front panel sections is in fluid engagement with the outlet of the deformable reservoir. At least one nozzle disposed upon an end of the duct distal from the deformable reservoir operatively conveys the fluid from the duct to the upper torso, chest and neck area of the wearer.

A brassiere incorporating a hot flash mitigation system for cooling the upper torso, chest and neck area of a wearer is disclosed. The brassiere incorporating a hot flash mitigation system provides for a brassiere and at least one electronic hot flash mitigation system cooperatively associated thereto. The electronic hot flash mitigation system provides at least one fluid source having a valve in fluid engagement with an outlet thereof, at least one duct disposed proximate to one of the at least two front panel sections and in fluid engagement with the outlet of the fluid source, and at least one nozzle disposed upon an end of the duct distal from the fluid source and in fluid communication with the at least one duct.

A wearable appliance or a set of wearable appliances, arranged for being worn by a person on the person's body comprises: one or more cold applicators, one or more biosignal sensors for measuring biosignals indicative of physiological stress experienced by the person and control circuitry connected to the one or more cold applicators and configured so as to activate them in response to detection, based upon the measured biosignals, that the person experiences elevated physiological stress. According to a further aspect, the invention proposes a communication system comprising a wearable appliance (24) or a set of wearable appliances (24, 26) and one or more mobile terminals (22) comprising each a human interface device with one or more output devices (40, 46, 50) for indicating the level of stress to a second person holding the mobile terminal and with one or more input devices (44, 50) for receiving input from that person. The system translates input received by the one or more mobile terminals into a control signal provided to the one or more cold applicators (18).

A cervical collar that facilitates therapeutic hypothermia is provided and includes an outer shell having a front portion and a back portion fixedly coupled to the front portion on one side and removably coupled to the front portion on an opposite side. A fastening device removably couples the back portion to the front portion on the opposite side. At least one cooling device is provided on an interior of the outer shell to induce hypothermia in a patient. A sensor is provided that measures a physical characteristic of the patient.

Methods of operating a haptic actuator to apply physical and/or thermal sensations to a user to provide subjective symptom relief to a user are described. In some embodiments, a haptic actuator may be automatically activated when one or more detected user states are compared to one or more predetermined activation parameters to determine the user is experiencing an episode related to a condition of the user. In another embodiment, one or more operating parameters of a haptic actuator may be updated if the haptic actuator did not provided a desired amount of subjective symptom relief to a user during use. In yet another embodiment, a haptic actuator may create an event log based on activation events when the haptic actuator is used to provide symptom relief for a condition of the user.

Methods of operating a haptic actuator to apply physical and/or thermal sensations to a user to provide subjective symptom relief to a user are described. In some embodiments, a haptic actuator may be automatically activated when one or more detected user states are compared to one or more predetermined activation parameters to determine the user is experiencing an episode related to a condition of the user. In another embodiment, one or more operating parameters of a haptic actuator may be updated if the haptic actuator did not provided a desired amount of subjective symptom relief to a user during use. In yet another embodiment, a haptic actuator may create an event log based on activation events when the haptic actuator is used to provide symptom relief for a condition of the user.