US Patent Issued to 3M Innovative Properties on Sept. 16 for "Breathing apparatus and method of communicating using breathing apparatus" (Canadian, American Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,415,099, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to 3M Innovative Properties Co. (St. Paul, Minn.).

"Breathing apparatus and method of communicating using breathing apparatus" was invented by Darin K. Thompson (Huntersville, N.C.), Jeremy V. Barbee (Oakboro, N.C.), Eric J. Bassani (Denver, N.C.), Robert Heise (Calgary, Canada) and Michael J. Z. Norton (Alberta, Canada).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of communicating using a breathing apparatus includes receiving an audio signal from a sound acquisition unit. The method further includes determining a state of the breathing apparatus based on the received audio signal. The state is at le...