Living-body information measuring device

• US 10,271,747 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2016
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ozawa, Hideaki, Umekawa, Hideyuki, Kojima, Tomoaki, Sakai, Kazuhiro, Akamatsu, Manabu
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheng, Jacqueline
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mustansir, Abid A
• Application Number:
  US15/229,206
• Publication Number:
  US 20170273576A1
• Time in Patent Office: 998 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0204 of power management
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0233 Special features of optical sensors or probes classified in A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/043 in a linear array
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0075 by spectroscopy, i.e. measuring spectra, e.g. Raman spectroscopy, infrared absorption spectroscopy A61B5/0071 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02007 Evaluating blood vessel condition, e.g. elasticity, compliance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02427 Details of sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0261 using optical means, e.g. infrared light
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0285 Measuring or recording phase velocity of blood waves
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1455 using optical sensors, e.g. spectral photometrical oximeters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6826 Finger
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7225 Details of analog processing, e.g. isolation amplifier, gain or sensitivity adjustment, filtering, baseline or drift compensation A61B5/30, A61B5/316 take precedence; transformers for specific applications H01F38/00; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7257 using Fourier transforms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7278 Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesising signals from measured signals A61B5/327 takes precedence

Abstract

A living-body information measuring device includes plural light-emitting elements, a light-receiving element that is disposed at a position at different distances from the light-emitting elements and that receives reflected light beams that are reflected from a living body when the light-emitting elements emit light beams toward the living body, a control unit that controls the light-emitting elements so that the light-emitting elements successively emit the light beams, and a measurement unit that measures living-body information at plural depths in the living body by using the reflected light beams that are successively received by the light-receiving element.

Claims

1. A living-body information measuring device comprising:

a plurality of light-emitting elements;

a light-receiving element that is disposed at a position at different distances from the light-emitting elements,

wherein the light-receiving element is configured to receive reflected light beams that are reflected from a living body in response to the light-emitting elements emitting light beams toward the living body;

a control unit configured to control the light-emitting elements so that the light-emitting elements successively emit the light beams; and

a measurement unit configured to measure living-body information at a plurality of depths in the living body by using the reflected light beams that are successively received by the light-receiving element,

wherein a mesa size of each light-emitting element decreases as the distance from the light-receiving element to the light-emitting element decreases and the mesa site of each light-emitting element increases as the distance from the light-receiving element to the light-emitting element increases.

2. The living-body information measuring device according to claim 1,

wherein the control unit is configured to control the plurality of light-emitting elements so that an electric current for driving each light-emitting element decreases as the distance from the light-receiving element to the light-emitting element decreases and the electric current for driving each light-emitting element increases as the distance from the light-receiving element to the light-emitting element increases.

3. The living-body information measuring device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an attenuating filter configured to attenuate the light beams emitted from the plurality of light-emitting elements so that an attenuation ratio of the light beam emitted from each light-emitting element increases as the distance from the light-receiving element to the light-emitting element decreases and the attenuation ratio of the light beam emitted from each light-emitting element decreases as the distance from the light-receiving element to the light-emitting element increases.

4. The living-body information measuring device according to claim 1,

wherein an area of an opening in an upper electrode of each light-emitting element decreases as the distance from the light-receiving element to the light-emitting element decreases and the area of the opening in the upper electrode of each light-emitting element increases as the distance from the light-receiving element to the light-emitting element increases.

5. The living-body information measuring device according to claim 1,

wherein the plurality of light-emitting elements are a plurality of surface-emitting lasers or are a plurality of light-emitting spots disposed on a single substrate of a surface-emitting laser array.

6. The living-body information measuring device according to claim 1,

wherein the living-body information includes at least one of a blood flow, a blood velocity, a blood volume, a pulse rate, a photoplethysmogram, a blood component, and a blood pressure of the living body.