System and method for non-intrusive health monitoring in the home

• US 10,357,202 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2014
• Issued: 07/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Inventors: Cheung Hyen, David Chong, Hayes, Patrick H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Niketa I
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jian, Shirley X
• Application Number:
  US14/531,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20150051456A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,723 Days
• Field of Search: 600300-301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/07 Home care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0004 characterised by the type of physiological signal transmitted
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• 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 5/6826 Finger
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/72 Signal processing specially adapted for physiological signals or for diagnostic purposes character recognition, recognising digital ink, document-oriented image-based pattern recognition G06V30/00; recognition or understanding of postal images G06V30/424
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/747 in case of emergency, i.e. alerting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7475 User input or interface means, e.g. keyboard, pointing device, joystick
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42201 biosensors, e.g. heat sensor for presence detection, EEG sensors or any limb activity sensors worn by the user input arrangements for interaction with the human body based on nervous system activity detection G06F3/015
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6168 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/814 comprising emergency warnings arrangements specially adapted for emergency or urgency in broadcast systems H04H20/59; arrangements for providing alarms, notifications, alerts to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895

Abstract

A hand-held device, such as a remote control, is provided for operation of a consumer appliance and is equipped with one or more biometric sensors to capture and report on the health condition of a user of the hand-held device. The data captured by such a hand-held device may be evaluated locally in the hand-held device itself or may be conveyed to a target consumer appliance either for local evaluation by that consumer appliance or for onward transmission to a central off-site monitoring service.

Claims

1. A hand-held controlling device for use in controlling functional operations of one or more controllable consumer appliances, comprising:

a processing device;

a wireless transmitter coupled to the processing device;

a user interface having a plurality of input elements coupled to the processing device; and

at least one biometric sensor coupled to the processing device;

wherein, in response to the processing device determining that one or more of the plurality of input elements of the user interface has been activated to cause the wireless transmitter to transmit commands to control a functional operation of one or more of the controllable consumer appliances while the at least one biometric sensor is in a disabled state, the processing device functions to transition the at least one biometric sensor from the disabled state to an enabled state to thereby allow for biometric data to be captured from a user via use of the least one biometric sensor.

2. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 1, further comprising an output device coupled to the processing device wherein the processing device receives signals from the at least one biometric sensor and causes the output device to present information to the user related to biometric data captured from the user.

3. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 1, wherein the controlling device comprises a housing having a first housing element and a second housing element between which a finger of the user is to be inserted as the user holds the hand-held controlling device and wherein constituent parts of the at least one biometric sensor are located on each of the first housing element and the second housing element.

4. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 3, wherein one of the first housing element and the second housing element comprises a cantilevered element associated with the housing.

5. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 4, wherein the cantilevered element is located on a bottom side of the housing and wherein a top side of the housing opposite the bottom side of the housing carries the user interface.

6. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 1, wherein the processing device receives signals from the at least one biometric sensor and causes the wireless transmitter to transmit a communication having data related to biometric data captured from the user.

7. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 1, further comprising a wireless receiver coupled to the processing device wherein the wireless receiver is used to receive a request from at least one of the controllable consumer appliances to have the at least one biometric sensor capture biometric data from the user.

8. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 1, further comprising a timing device coupled to the processing device wherein an expiration of predetermined time interval as measured by the timing device is used as a request to have the at least one biometric sensor capture biometric data from the user.

9. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 1, wherein the user interface further comprises a panic button activatable to cause the processing device to issue an emergency alert communication via the wireless transmitter.

10. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 9, further comprising an output device coupled to the processing device wherein the processing device receives signals from the at least one biometric sensor and causes the output device to present information to the user related to biometric data captured from the user.

11. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 9, wherein the controlling device comprises a housing having a first housing element and a second housing element between which a finger of the user is to be inserted as the user holds the hand-held controlling device and wherein constituent parts of the at least one biometric sensor are located on each of the first housing element and the second housing element.

12. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 11, wherein one of the first housing element and the second housing element comprises a cantilevered element associated with the housing.

13. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 12, wherein the cantilevered element is located on a bottom side of the housing and wherein a top side of the housing opposite the bottom side of the housing carries the user interface.

14. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 9, wherein the processing device receives signals from the at least one biometric sensor and causes the wireless transmitter to transmit a communication having data related to biometric data captured from the user.

15. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 9, further comprising a wireless receiver coupled to the processing device wherein the wireless receiver is used to receive a request from at least one of the controllable consumer appliances to have the at least one biometric sensor capture biometric data from the user.

16. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 9, further comprising a timing device coupled to the processing device wherein an expiration of predetermined time interval as measured by the timing device is used as a request to have the at least one biometric sensor capture biometric data from the user.

17. A hand-held controlling device for use in controlling functional operations of one or more controllable consumer appliances, comprising:

a processing device;

a wireless transmitter coupled to the processing device;

a handling sensor coupled to the processing device for generating a signal in response to a detected handling of the hand-held controlling device by a user;

a user interface having a plurality of input elements coupled to the processing device wherein one or more of the plurality of input elements are activable to cause the processing device to instruct the wireless transmitter to transmit commands to control a functional operation of one or more of the controllable consumer appliances; and

at least one biometric sensor coupled to the processing device;

wherein, in response to the processing device receiving from the handling sensor the signal generated in response to the detected handling of the hand-held controlling device by the user while the at least one biometric sensor is in a disabled state, the processing device functions to transition the at least one biometric sensor from the disabled state to an enabled state to thereby allow biometric data to be captured from the user via use of the least one biometric sensor.

18. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 17, wherein the handling sensor comprises an accelerometer.

19. The hand-held controlling device as recited in claim 17, wherein the user interface further comprises a panic button activatable to cause the processing device to issue an emergency alert communication via the wireless transmitter.