Integrated wearable noise dosimeter

• US 10,072,967 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2015
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verily Life Sciences LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mirov, Russell Norman, Lapetina, John, Thng, Florence
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Toan
• Application Number:
  US14/698,155
• Publication Number:
  US 20160320231A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0242 adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution
• 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 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0533 Measuring galvanic skin response
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0816 Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14542 for measuring blood gases A61B5/14551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/165 Evaluating the state of mind, e.g. depression, anxiety
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4818 Sleep apnoea
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6891 Furniture
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7405 using sound
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/003 Detecting lung or respiration noise
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 3/10 Amplitude; Power
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 3/14 Measuring mean amplitude; Measuring mean power; Measuring time integral of power
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/008 : Visual indication of individual signal levels visual indication of stereophonic sound image H04S7/40

Abstract

Systems and methods are described that may provide audio information about an environment around a wearable device. Such audio information may be correlated with other biometric data to provide physiological information, e.g. regarding a wearer of the wearable device. For example, an illustrative method includes receiving an audio signal via a microphone of a wearable device and rectifying the audio signal with a peak detector. The method further includes amplifying the rectified signal with a logarithmic amplifier and causing an analog to digital converter (ADC) to sample the logarithmic signal. The method also includes causing the ADC to convert the sampled logarithmic signal to a digital output and storing the digital output in a memory of the wearable device. In some embodiments, the method includes transmitting the digital output to a computing device, which may correlate the digital output with other biometric data.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a microphone configured to provide an audio signal;

a rectifier communicatively coupled to the microphone;

a logarithmic amplifier communicatively coupled to the rectifier, wherein a combination of the logarithmic amplifier and the rectifier is configured to provide a rectified and logarithmically amplified signal based on a mathematical log function and the audio signal;

an analog to digital converter (ADC) communicatively coupled to the logarithmic amplifier; and

a controller comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the controller executes instructions stored in the memory so as to carry out operations, the operations comprising;

at predetermined time intervals, causing the ADC to sample the rectified and logarithmically amplified signal and provide a digital output, wherein the rectified and logarithmically amplified signal comprises an output of the combination of the logarithmic amplifier and the rectifier;

storing the digital output in the memory

transmitting the digital output to a computing device, wherein the computing device is configured to correlate the digital output with other biometric data; and

triggering an indication relating to a user'"'"'s health via a user interface, wherein the indication is based on a comparison between the digital output and the other biometric data.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a pre-amplifier communicatively coupled to the microphone, wherein the pre-amplifier is configured to provide an amplified signal based on the audio signal.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the rectifier comprises a peak detector circuit, wherein the peak detector circuit comprises a rectifier circuit and a filter circuit.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the logarithmic amplifier comprises a baseband logarithmic amplifier.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the rectifier and the logarithmic amplifier comprise a demodulating logarithmic amplifier.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the system comprises a wearable device, wherein the wearable device comprises at least one other sensor, wherein the at least one other sensor is configured to obtain the other biometric data, and wherein the operations further comprise comparing the digital output with the other biometric data obtained by the at least one other sensor.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the other biometric data comprises at least one of:

respiration data, movement data, blood pressure data, heart rate data, blood oxygen saturation data, or galvanic skin response data.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the microphone, rectifier, logarithmic amplifier, and ADC are housed within a housing.

9. A system comprising:

a microphone configured to provide an audio signal;

a logarithmic amplifier communicatively coupled to the microphone, wherein the logarithmic amplifier is configured to provide a logarithmically amplified signal based on a mathematical log function and the audio signal;

a rectifier communicatively coupled to the logarithmic amplifier, wherein the rectifier is configured to provide a rectified and logarithmically amplified signal based on the logarithmically amplified signal;

an analog to digital converter (ADC) communicatively coupled to the rectifier; and

a controller comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the controller executes instructions stored in the memory so as to carry out operations, the operations comprising;

at predetermined time intervals, causing the ADC to sample the rectified and logarithmically amplified signal and provide a digital output, wherein the rectified and logarithmically amplified signal comprises an output of a combination of the logarithmic amplifier and the rectifier;

storing the digital output in the memory;

transmitting the digital output to a computing device, wherein the computing device is configured to correlate the digital output with other biometric data; and

triggering an indication relating to a user'"'"'s health via a user interface, wherein the indication is based on a comparison between the digital output and the other biometric data.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the rectifier comprises a trough detector circuit.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the system comprises a wearable device, wherein the wearable device comprises at least one other sensor, and wherein the at least one other sensor is configured to obtain the other biometric data.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the other biometric data comprises at least one of:

respiration data, movement data, blood pressure data, heart rate data, blood oxygen saturation data, or galvanic skin response data.

13. A system comprising:

a microphone configured to provide an audio signal;

a rectifier communicatively coupled to the microphone, wherein the rectifier is configured to provide a rectified signal based on the audio signal;

an analog to digital converter (ADC) communicatively coupled to the rectifier; and

a controller comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the controller executes instructions stored in the memory so as to carry out operations, the operations comprising;

at predetermined time intervals, causing the ADC to sample the rectified signal and provide a digital output, wherein the rectified signal comprises an output of a combination of the microphone and the rectifier;

storing the digital output in the memory;

providing a logarithmic output based on a mathematical log function and the digital output;

transmitting the logarithmic output to a computing device, wherein the computing device is configured to correlate the logarithmic output with other biometric data; and

triggering an indication relating to a user'"'"'s health via a user interface, wherein the indication is based on a comparison between the digital output and the other biometric data.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a pre-amplifier communicatively coupled to the microphone, wherein the pre-amplifier is configured to provide an amplified signal based on the audio signal.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the rectifier comprises a peak detector circuit, wherein the peak detector circuit comprises a rectifier circuit and a filter circuit.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the system comprises a wearable device, wherein the wearable device comprises at least one other sensor, and wherein the at least one other sensor is configured to obtain the other biometric data.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the other biometric data comprises at least one of:

respiration data, movement data, blood pressure data, heart rate data, blood oxygen saturation data, or galvanic skin response data.

18. A method comprising:

receiving an audio signal via a microphone of a wearable device;

rectifying the audio signal with a rectifier to provide a rectified signal, wherein the rectifier comprises a peak detector;

amplifying the rectified signal with a logarithmic amplifier to provide a rectified and logarithmically amplified signal based on a mathematical log function and the rectified signal;

causing an analog to digital converter (ADC) to sample the rectified and logarithmically amplified signal, wherein the rectified and logarithmically amplified signal comprises an output of the combination of the logarithmic amplifier and the rectifier;

causing the ADC to convert the sampled rectified and logarithmically amplified signal to a digital output;

storing the digital output in a memory of the wearable device;

transmitting the digital output to a computing device, wherein the computing device is configured to correlate the digital output with other biometric data; and

triggering an indication relating to a user'"'"'s health via a user interface, wherein the indication is based on a comparison between the digital output and the other biometric data.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the wearable device comprises at least one other sensor, and wherein the at least one other sensor is configured to obtain the other biometric data.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the other biometric data comprises at least one of:

respiration data, movement data, blood pressure data, heart rate data, blood oxygen saturation data, or galvanic skin response data.