COLD STORAGE DEVICE

Abstract

An electronic paper display is used for an ice-lined cold storage device to display data from the device's data system and/or from an external network.

Claims

1.-15. (canceled)

16. A cold storage device wherein the cold storage device is a passive, ice-lined, vaccine cold storage device; wherein the passive, ice-lined, vaccine cold storage device comprises: a cold storage compartment arranged at an interior of the passive, ice-lined, vaccine cold storage device; and an ice-lining configured to absorb heat from the interior of the passive, ice-lined, vaccine cold storage device; wherein the cold storage device further comprises a data system comprising: a temperature probe configured to measure a temperature in the cold storage compartment; a data logger configured to log the temperature of the cold storage compartment measured by the temperature probe; and a visual display configured to display data from the data system; and wherein the visual display is an electronic paper display.

17. The cold storage device of claim 16, in which the visual display is powered by a data system battery.

18. The cold storage device of claim 17, in which the data system battery has an operating voltage which is in the range 4.5 to 6 volts.

19. The cold storage device of claim 17, in which the data system battery has a capacity in the range 500-3000 mAh.

20. The cold storage device of claim 16, in which the visual display is configured to display data from the data system selected from: data from the temperature probe; data derived from the data logger; and data that has been transmitted to the data system.

21. The cold storage device of claim 16, in which the electronic paper display has a standby power which is less than 1 mW.

22. The cold storage device of claim 16, in which the electronic paper display has a standby power which is less than 0.1 mW.

23. The cold storage device of claim 16, in which the data system comprises: a transmitter configured to transmit data wirelessly from the data system to an external network and a receiver configured to receive data transmitted wirelessly by an external network for controlling the electronic paper display.

24. The cold storage device of claim 16, in which the data system comprises: a receiver configured to receive data transmitted wirelessly by an external network; and in which the electronic display is configured to display data received from the external network.

25. The cold storage device of claim 24, wherein the electronic display is configured to display a warning message received by the receiver from the external network.

26. The cold storage device of claim 16, in which the data system is configured to be switchable between a) a standard display mode in which the electronic paper display is periodically updated to display a plurality of updated data from the data system and b) an energy saving display mode in which the electronic paper display displays only a selected portion of the said data.

27. The cold storage device of claim 26, in which i) in its energy saving display mode the electronic paper display displays an amount of data which is limited to reduce a partial refresh power consumption of the electronic paper display, the data displayed in the energy saving display mode being selected from: an internal temperature of the cold storage compartment; one or more alarms and combinations thereof; and ii) in its standard display mode the electronic paper display displays a greater amount of data than in the energy saving display mode, the data displayed in the standard display mode being selected from: an internal temperature of the cold storage compartment; a temperature outside the cold storage device; remaining battery charge available to the data logger; remaining charge of a data system battery; one or more alarms; an indication of the status of a lid of the cold storage device; remaining autonomy of the cold storage device; telemetric data of the cold storage device; and combinations thereof.

28. A method of operating the cold storage device of claim 16, wherein the method comprises displaying on the electronic paper display of the cold storage device data selected from: data from the data system, a temperature of the cold storage compartment, and data transmitted to the cold storage device from an external network.

Description

[0036] An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:

[0037] FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an ice-lined cold storage device with its lid open; and;

[0038] FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the ice-lined cold storage device with its lid closed.

[0039] FIGS. 1 and 2 illustration an ice-lined cold storage device 10, specifically a passive cold storage device for storing vaccines during transport. The vaccine storage device 10 comprises a body 11 and a lid 12 each of which have an outer, rigid plastics shell filled with thermal foam insulation. An interior of the body 11 of the vaccine cooler 10 comprises a recess 13 for housing ice-packs 14, 15 and a cold storage compartment 16 in which vaccine vials (not shown) are stored for transport.

[0040] An integrated, electronic paper display 20 is provided in the top of the lid 12 as part of a data system of the vaccine cooler 10 for displaying, for example, the temperature of a temperature probe (not shown) positioned within the vaccine storage compartment 16 and/or one or more warning messages, for example a warning regarding a rate of increase of temperature within the cold storage compartment 16 and/or a warning message received by a data system of the vaccine carrier 10 from an external network.

[0041] An example of the above-described ice-lined cold storage device 10 was configured and successfully tested using a GDEM029T94 electronic paper display manufactured by Dalian Good Display Co., Ltd. and having the following characteristics:

TABLE-US-00001 Paper display type Dot matrix; resolution 296 ? 128 Full refresh 3 seconds; power consumption 9 mW Partial refresh 0.3 seconds; power consumption 0.3 mW Standby power consumption 0.0033 mW

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

[0042] 10 ice-lined cold storage device [0043] 11 body [0044] 12 lid [0045] 13 recess [0046] 14 ice-pack [0047] 15 ice-pack [0048] 16 vaccine storage compartment [0049] 20 electronic paper display