Portable device for collecting information about living body, and system and method for collecting information about living body

• US 20030187336A1
• Filed: 07/26/2002
• Published: 10/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rutgers University, Seiko Instruments Incorporated (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Instruments Incorporated (Seiko Group), University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (State of New Jersey)
• Inventors: Saruwarati, Tomozumi, Yamamoto, Yoshiharu, Odagiri, Hiroshi, Natelson, Benjamin H.
• Granted Patent: US 6,786,866 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4824 Touch or pain perception evaluation A61B5/4821 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

A portable living body information collection device is arranged to continuously measure living body information in daily life and to efficiently collect relating mental information by timely questioning about health. The device can be worn on a human body. The portable living body information collection device extracts living body information in electrical signal form by a detection circuit and a signal processing circuit, and discretizes the information by a conversion circuit. A control circuit stores the discretized living body information in a storage and displays questions about feelings and mental conditions on a display unit periodically or when a large changes occurs in living body information. The wearer inputs answers by using an input device, and the answers are also recorded as mental information in the storage. Write or read of the living body information and mental information recorded in the storage, and various set values to or from an external personal computer can be performed by means of a communication circuit.

Claims

1. A portable device for collecting living body information, comprising:

a detection circuit for detecting living body information and for outputting a signal representing the detected information;

storage means for storing the output signal from said detection circuit and for storing at least one question and an answer to the question;

a display unit which displays the question;

input means for inputting an answer to the displayed question; and

a control circuit which makes said display unit display the question at a suitable time, and which stores, sequentially with respect to time, answers input by said input means.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein said control circuit has a timer and makes said detection circuit detect living body information at predetermined time intervals.

3. A device according to claim 1, wherein said control circuit has a timer and makes said display unit display the question at predetermined time intervals.

4. A device according to claim 1, wherein said control circuit has determination means for making a determination by comparing an output signal from said detection circuit with a predetermined threshold value, and makes said display unit display the question when the output signal is larger than the threshold value.

5. A device according to claim 1, wherein said control circuit has determination means for making a determination by comparing an output signal from said detection circuit with a predetermined threshold value, and inhibits said display unit from displaying the question when the output signal is smaller than the threshold value.

6. A device according to claim 1, wherein said detection circuit comprises an acceleration sensor which detects a bodily movement of a living body.

7. A device according to claim 1, further comprising notification means for notifying a start of asking of the question when the question is displayed.

8. A device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a signal processing circuit which amplifies the output signal from said detection circuit and extracts a necessary signal by removing noise; and

a conversion circuit which quantifies an output signal from said signal processing circuit or converts the output signal from said signal processing circuit into a numeric value,

wherein said storage means stores the result of quantification or conversion performed by said conversion circuit.

9. A device according to claim 1, wherein said input means is constituted by at least one key.

10. A device according to claim 1, further comprising a band for wearing on the body of a user.

11. A device according to claim 1, wherein said display unit displays time information.

12. A system for collecting living body information, said system comprising:

a main unit including;

a detection circuit for detecting living body information and for outputting a signal representing the detected information;

storage means for storing the output signal from said detection circuit and for storing at least one question and an answer to the question;

a display unit which displays the question;

input means for inputting an answer to the displayed question;

a control circuit which makes said display unit display the question at a suitable time, and which stores, sequentially with respect to time, answers input by said input means; and

communication means for external communication, said system also comprising an external device which performs data exchange with said main unit through said communication means.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein said external device includes analysis means for analyzing the contents of said storage means of said main unit, and a display unit which displays an analysis result obtained by said analysis means.

14. A method of collecting living body information, said method comprising the steps of:

averaging the latter half of 2N number of plurality of living body information items lately measured at predetermined internals sequentially with respect to time, averaging the former half of the 2N number of living body information items, and making a determination as to whether the difference between the average of the latter half of the 2N number of living body information items and the average of the former half of the 2N number of living body information items is larger than a predetermined threshold value, wherein questioning about health is performed if it is determined in said determination step that the difference between the averages is larger than the threshold value.

15. A portable device for collecting living body information, comprising:

a detection circuit for detecting living body information and for outputting a signal representing the detected information;

a storage circuit for storing the output signal from said detection circuit and for storing at least one question and an answer to the question;

a display unit which displays the question;

an input circuit for inputting an answer to the displayed question; and

a control circuit which makes said display unit display the question at a suitable time, and which stores, sequentially with respect to time, answers input by said input circuit.

16. A system for collecting living body information, said system comprising:

a main unit including;

a detection circuit for detecting living body information and for outputting a signal representing the detected information;

a storage circuit for storing the output signal from said detection circuit and for storing at least one question and an answer to the question;

a display unit which displays the question;

an input circuit for inputting an answer to the displayed question;

a control circuit which makes said display unit display the question at a suitable time, and which stores, sequentially with respect to time, answers input by said input circuit; and

a communication circuit for external communication, said system also comprising an external device which performs data exchange with said main unit through said communication circuit.