Systems and methods for individual identification and authorization utilizing conformable electronics

• US 10,013,832 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2016
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2016
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Hyde, Roderick A., Kare, Jordin T., McKnight, Gary L., Petroski, Robert C., Sweeney, Elizabeth A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Dionne H
• Application Number:
  US15/232,884
• Publication Number:
  US 20180047234A1
• Time in Patent Office: 692 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0223 of calibration, e.g. protocols for calibrating sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0214 Capacitive electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0223 Magnetic field sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0257 Proximity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0261 Strain gauges
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0271 Thermal or temperature sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/164 the sensor is mounted in or on a conformable substrate or carrier
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0059 using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence A61B5/0093, A61B5/1455, A61B5/02416 and A61B5/0261 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/053 Measuring electrical impedance or conductance of a portion of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/117 Identification of persons methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1171 based on the shapes or appearances of their bodies or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/145 Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissuemeasuring of blood pressure or blood flow A61B5/02; non-radiation detecting or locating of foreign bodies in blood A61B5/06
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6825 Hand
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6833 Adhesive patches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 : using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/014 : Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/015 : Input arrangements based on nervous system activity detection, e.g. brain waves [EEG] detection, electromyograms [EMG] detection, electrodermal response detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/647 : by matching two-dimensional images to three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/698 : Matching; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 : Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/14 : Vascular patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/15 : Biometric patterns based on physiological signals, e.g. heartbeat, blood flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/70 : Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00563 : using personal physical data of the operator, e.g. finger prints, retinal images, voicepatterns
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/00 : Arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless electrical link
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 : for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A device embodiment includes, but is not limited to, a deformable substrate; a sensor assembly including one or more identity sensors configured to generate one or more identity sense signals associated with at least one physical characteristic of the individual subject; circuitry configured to compare the one or more identity sense signals generated by the sensor assembly to reference data indicative of one or more physical characteristics associated with an identity of at least one individual to determine whether the one or more identity signals correspond to the identity of the at least one individual; and a reporter configured to generate one or more communication signals associated with at least one of the one or more identity sense signals or a comparison of the one or more identity sense signals with the one or more physical characteristics associated with the identity of the at least one individual.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an identification device including

a deformable substrate configured to conform to a skin surface of a body portion of an individual subject, the deformable substrate including at least one of an elastomeric polymer or a hydrocolloid film;

a sensor assembly coupled to the deformable substrate and at least partially embedded within the at least one of an elastomeric polymer or a hydrocolloid film, the sensor assembly including one or more identity sensors configured to generate one or more identity sense signals associated with at least one physical characteristic of the individual subject;

circuitry operably coupled to the sensor assembly and configured to receive the one or more identity sense signals associated with the at least one physical characteristic of the individual subject, the circuitry including a comparison module configured to compare the one or more identity sense signals generated by the sensor assembly to reference data indicative of one or more physical characteristics associated with an identity of at least one individual, the circuitry configured to disable a power connection to at least one of the sensor assembly or the reporter responsive to a correspondence between the one or more identity sense signals and the one or more physical characteristics associated with the identity of the at least one individual being below a threshold correspondence; and

a reporter operably coupled to the circuitry and configured to generate one or more communication signals responsive to instruction by the circuitry, the one or more communication signals associated with at least one of the one or more identity sense signals or a comparison of the one or more identity sense signals with the one or more physical characteristics associated with the identity of the at least one individual; and

an external device operably coupled to the identification device, the external device including

a receiver configured to receive the one or more communication signals from the reporter of the identification device; and

circuitry configured to compare the one or more communication signals with one or more authorization parameters associated with one or more users authorized to operate the external device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more authorization parameters include a list of identities of one or more users authorized to operate the external device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more authorization parameters include a list of reference physical characteristics for one or more users authorized to operate the external device.

4. An identification device, comprising:

a deformable substrate configured to conform to a skin surface of a body portion of an individual subject, the deformable substrate including at least one of an elastomeric polymer or a hydrocolloid film;

a sensor assembly coupled to the deformable substrate and at least partially embedded within the at least one of an elastomeric polymer or a hydrocolloid film, the sensor assembly including one or more identity sensors configured to generate one or more identity sense signals associated with at least one physical characteristic of the individual subject;

circuitry operably coupled to the sensor assembly and configured to receive the one or more identity sense signals associated with the at least one physical characteristic of the individual subject, the circuitry including a comparison module configured to compare the one or more identity sense signals generated by the sensor assembly to reference data indicative of one or more physical characteristics associated with an identity of at least one individual to determine whether the one or more identity sense signals correspond to the identity of the at least one individual, the circuitry configured to disable a power connection to at least one of the sensor assembly or the reporter responsive to a correspondence between the one or more identity sense signals and the one or more physical characteristics associated with the identity of the at least one individual being below a threshold correspondence; and

a reporter operably coupled to the circuitry and configured to generate one or more communication signals responsive to instruction by the circuitry, the one or more communication signals associated with at least one of the one or more identity sense signals or a comparison of the one or more identity sense signals with the one or more physical characteristics associated with the identity of the at least one individual.

5. The identification device of claim 4, including at least one flexible or stretchable electronic component.

6. The identification device of claim 5, wherein the at least one flexible or stretchable electronic component includes at least one of a wavy, bent, mesh, or serpentine geometry.

7. The identification device of claim 5, wherein the at least one flexible or stretchable electronic component includes at least one nanowire, at least one nanoribbon, or at least one nanomembrane.

8. The identification device of claim 4, wherein the deformable substrate includes a gas-permeable elastomeric sheet.

9. The identification device of claim 4, wherein the one or more identity sensors include at least one of an optical sensor, an electromagnetic sensor, an impedance sensor, or a capacitive sensor.

10. The identification device of claim 4, wherein the one or more identity sensors include at least one of an electrophysiological sensor, a plethysmographic sensor, a resistive sensor, a biosensor, or a chemical sensor.

11. The identification device of claim 4, wherein the at least one physical characteristic includes a skin topography feature.

12. The identification device of claim 11, wherein the skin topography feature includes at least one of a pattern of a skin surface or a follicle pattern.

13. The identification device of claim 4, further including:

one or more physiological sensors.

14. The identification device of claim 4, further including:

at least one of a proximity sensor, a contact sensor, a pressure sensor, or a temperature sensor.

15. The identification device of claim 4, wherein the circuitry is configured to permit operation of at least one component of the identification device responsive to a correspondence between the one or more identity sense signals and the one or more physical characteristics associated with the identity of the at least one individual being at least at a threshold correspondence.

16. The identification device of claim 15, wherein the circuitry is configured to activate a power connection to the reporter responsive to the correspondence between the one or more identity sense signals and the one or more physical characteristics associated with the identity of the at least one individual being at least at the threshold correspondence.

17. The identification device of claim 4, wherein one or more of the sensor assembly, the circuitry, or the reporter is communicatively coupled with an external device that is resident on the individual subject.

18. The identification device of claim 4, wherein the one or more identity sense signals include at least one of an electric current pattern, a photovoltaic current pattern, or a skin resistivity measurement.

19. The identification device of claim 4, wherein at least one of the reporter, the sensor assembly, or the circuitry includes at least one of a receiver or a transceiver configured to receive one or more communication signals from an external device, wherein the one or more communication signals from an external device are associated with at least one of control programming, reference data, or a query.

20. The identification device of claim 4, wherein the circuitry includes or is operably coupled to a switch structure switchable between an active configuration and an inactivate configuration responsive to control by the circuitry, the inactive configuration associated with disabling the power connection to at least one of the sensor assembly or the reporter.