Systems and methods for displaying changes in biological responses to therapy

• US 20070091091A1
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Photomed Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Alpha Golf, Inc.
• Inventors: Gardiner, Allan, McCullough, Brent
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/440
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

Systems and methods of this invention display data using pixels with information indicated by color and intensity changes, particularly used for monitoring of physiological variables in real time. For certain methods, physiological data can be acquired by sensors, acquired data can be stored in data frames, data frames can be processed using computer-implemented methods, and processed data frames can be scaled to a display frame for display on a display device. Using such methods, a spot made up of a group of pixels can be updated during a time frame, or cycle using a computer-implemented method, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division or a time dependent function. Newly received data can be combined with prior received data to indicate time-dependent changes. In this way, each spot contains a cumulative history of data starting at some initial time. In other embodiments, visual contrast can be enhanced between desired data and other data. In further embodiments, two or more different types of data can be plotted together to indicate relationships between variables. Real time monitoring of signals during therapeutic treatment using light, electricity or other nerve or muscle stimuli can allow a user to monitor physiological responses during stimulation and to make rapid decisions about medical treatment.

Claims

1. A method of displaying real-time data on a display comprising:

acquiring data from one or more sensors attached to an animal;

storing received sensor data at one time point producing a first data frame;

storing received sensor data at a second time point producing a second data frame;

processing data using a computer implemented program to combine data in said second data frame with data from said first data frame thereby producing a processed data frame;

scaling said processed data and said previous data frame to a desired range, thereby producing a display frame; and

displaying said display frame on a display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensors capture biological or physiological activity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises signals from biological or physiological activity.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a filter to said signal, wherein the filter is a numerical method that smooths the data by removing signals having a frequency of greater than the frequency content of the physiological data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer implemented program includes any combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division or a time-dependent function.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing said data and data from said first data frame is carried out using one or more of a linear, non-linear, logarithmic, exponential or polynomial curve fitting algorithm.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the display is analog or digital.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said data is selected from the group consisting of surface electromyography (SEMG), electrocardiography (EKG), electroencephalography (EEG), body position, limb motion, acceleration, local temperature and local blood flow.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said data is obtained from a surface electromyograph (SEMG) and an accelerometer attached to a human.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an image.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a computer-implemented program to highlight a display of relationships between at least two of said signals.

10. The method of claim 10, further comprising displaying a stimulus for deep brain stimulation.

12. The method of claim 12, wherein said image is a thermal image.

14. The method of claim 14, wherein said computer-implemented program is an image convolution program.

15. A method of enhancing visual contrast between a displayed data point and surrounding data points, comprising the steps of:

(a) identifying a value of a first display spot;

(b) identifying a value of a plurality of spots surrounding said first display spot;

(c) applying a computer-implemented program to increase the value of said first display spot if said value is greater than the value of said plurality of spots surrounding said first display spot by an amount greater than about 10% of the average value of said plurality of spots.

16. The method of claim 16, wherein said increase is in the range of about 2 to about 1000.

17. A method of displaying real-time data on a display comprising:

acquiring data from one or more sensors attached to an animal;

storing received sensor data at one time point producing a first data frame;

processing said data using a computer-implemented image convolution program; and

displaying said display frame on a display.

18. A system of providing data to a display comprising

a data source;

a filter for the data produced by the data source; and

an analog or digital display for the filtered data.

19. The system of claim 19, wherein the data source is one or more sensors measuring biological or physiological activities, motion, electrical muscle activity information, or nerve activity information.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the filter is a numerical method, Fast Fourier Transform or other frequency domain transform to smooth the data and present the data in terms of intensity and color range.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the display comprises means of showing a magnitude, frequency shift and phase shift of data source data in real time.