1. The Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of continuous positive airway pressure apparatus and methods and more particularly to portable systems for active adult users during travel.
2. The Background Art
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is often used to treat obstructive sleep apnea as well as certain other disorders. In a CPAP apparatus and method, pressurized air is delivered through a mask to a patient's airway. Air may be introduced through the nostrils or through a mask that covers the nostrils and mouth. Typically, such systems are set on a night stand or other support beside a bed, and operate from wall current or a battery power source. Typically, a fan in a “generator” blows ambient air to create a pressurized supply having a pressure of from about five to fifteen centimeters of water. The mask or interface portion of the apparatus may be oral, oral-nasal, or simply nasal in its introduction of air.
Typically, such systems are treated as a medical devices and are engineered to be efficient movers of air through the various passages. Accordingly, such devices typically have a very box-like aspect ratio in which the height, width, and the depth (or thickness, width and length), are typically sized to be of the same order of magnitude. Thus, the aspect ratio is approximately one to one to one (1:1:1). In the prior art, many such systems have aesthetically pleasing lines developed to make the device seem less rectangular or box-like, yet the overall principal dimensions are about the same.
One of the particular difficulties is the unwieldy size and shape of CPAP systems during travel. Accordingly, each requires a large fraction of the space within a person's luggage. Even supposedly compact or portable CPAP units, when ultimately designed, still have sufficient bulk in all three dimensions as to require a packing system that requires either another piece of luggage or a sizeable portion of the space in other large luggage.
What is needed is an apparatus that can meet several criteria for traveling. The apparatus should fit within luggage configured to hold a laptop computer. If a CPAP system were configured to take on more of the aspect ratios of a laptop computer, then it could be carried as part of carry-on luggage, could be opened for inspection, and could be readily evaluated by conventional security mechanisms in airports. Thus, traveling professionals would not be required to carry such large luggage, or an additional piece of luggage, especially checked luggage, specifically to accommodate the CPAP system.