Condition-responsive wearable device for sensing and indicating proximity of an article with a specific characteristic

• US 10,121,355 B1
• Filed: 06/26/2018
• Issued: 11/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Capital One Services LLC (Capital One Financial Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Capital One Services LLC (Capital One Financial Corporation)
• Inventors: Mossoba, Michael Bakr, Shah, Salik
• Primary Examiner(s): Barakat, Mohamed
• Application Number:
  US16/019,130
• Time in Patent Office: 133 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/251 of input or preprocessed data
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/803 of input or preprocessed data
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0275 Electronic Article Surveillance [EAS] tag technology used for parent or child unit, e.g. same transmission technology, magnetic tag, RF tag, RFID
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 6/00 Tactile signalling systems, e.g. personal calling systems

Abstract

A condition-responsive wearable device for sensing and indicating proximity of an article with a specific characteristic includes a processor and a sensor. The sensor is configured to detect an article with two or more information sources within a predetermined distance of the sensor. The information sources contain characteristic information of the article. The wearable device also includes a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive predefined characteristic information, select detected characteristic information from at least two of the information sources to compare with the predefined characteristic information, and compare the selected detected characteristic information with the predefined characteristic information. The wearable device includes an indicator configured to generate an alarm in response to detecting a match between the selected detected characteristic information and the predefined characteristic information.

Claims

1. A condition-responsive wearable device for sensing and indicating proximity of an article with a specific characteristic, the wearable device comprising:

a processor;

a sensor, wherein the sensor is configured to;

detect an article with two or more information sources within a predetermined distance of the sensor, wherein the information sources contain characteristic information of the article, and

detect the characteristic information from at least one of the information sources;

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive predefined characteristic information,

select detected characteristic information from at least two of the information sources to compare with the predefined characteristic information, and

compare the selected detected characteristic information with the predefined characteristic information; and

an indicator configured to generate an alarm in response to the processor detecting a match between the selected detected characteristic information and the predefined characteristic information.

2. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the predefined characteristic information is received from a remote server.

3. The wearable device of claim 2, further comprising an antenna configured to receive the predefined characteristic information transmitted from the remote server.

4. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein:

the article is a medicine;

the predefined characteristic information comprises an identification of a medicine prescribed to a user; and

the characteristic information comprises an identification of the article.

5. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the predefined characteristic information comprises a list of one or more ingredients harmful to a user and the characteristic information comprises a list of one or more ingredients of the article.

6. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the alarm is a haptic signal.

7. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises an imaging device.

8. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a Quick Response Code reader, a barcode reader, a camera, or a Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) reader.

9. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the information sources comprises an RFID tag.

10. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the information sources comprises a label on the article.

11. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the information sources comprises a shape of the article.

12. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is capable of detecting characteristic information using optical character recognition.

13. The wearable device of claim 12, wherein the selected detected characteristic information is an ingredient list and the ingredient list is detected by the sensor and processed using optical character recognition.

14. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the predefined characteristic information is dynamically updated nutritional information.

15. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the predefined characteristic information is dynamically updated medical information.

16. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the article holds sub-articles and wherein the characteristic information comprises characteristic information for at least a plurality of the sub-articles.

17. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the article is a medicine container.

18. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the article is a food-product container.

19. A condition-responsive wearable device for sensing and indicating proximity of an information source associated with an article with a specific characteristic, the wearable device comprising:

a processor;

two or more sensors of different types, wherein each sensor is configured to;

detect one or more information sources associated with an article within a predetermined distance of the sensor, wherein the information sources contain characteristic information of the article, and

detect the characteristic information from at least one of the information sources;

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive predefined characteristic information,

select detected characteristic information from at least two of the information sources to compare with the predefined characteristic information, and

compare the selected detected characteristic information with the predefined characteristic information; and

an indicator configured to generate an alarm in response to the processor detecting a match between the selected detected characteristic information and the predefined characteristic information.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions that are executed by at least one processor to perform a method for sensing and indicating proximity of an article with a specific characteristic, the method comprising:

receiving characteristic information of an article detected by a wearable device'"'"'s sensor from at least one information source, wherein at least two information sources contain characteristic information of the article;

receiving predefined characteristic information;

selecting detected characteristic information from at least two of the information sources to compare with the predefined characteristic information;

comparing the selected detected characteristic information with the predefined characteristic information; and

detecting a match between the selected detected characteristic information and the predefined characteristic information.