Apparatus and method of sensing sleeping condition of user

• US 20080009685A1
• Filed: 06/19/2007
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Jong, Shin, Kun, Bae, Soo, Lee, Mi
• Granted Patent: US 8,784,322 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• 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 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0533 Measuring galvanic skin response
• 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 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4809 Sleep detection, i.e. determining whether a subject is asleep or not
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4812 Detecting sleep stages or cycles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality

Abstract

A method and apparatus for sensing a sleeping condition of a user, including measuring a physiological signal of a user who is sleeping, determining whether or not a predetermined motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal, and determining that the user goes into an awake state when the predetermined motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal.

Claims

1. A method of sensing a sleeping condition of a user, the method comprising:

measuring a physiological signal of a user who is sleeping;

determining whether or not a predetermined motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal; and

determining that the user goes into an awake state when the predetermined motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the measuring the physiological signal comprises electrically measuring the physiological signal of the user through a dry or wet type electrode which is in close contact with a skin area over a soft body tissue of the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the measuring the physiological signal comprises measuring the physiological signal of the user using an optical or radio frequency signal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the physiological signal comprises an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, a photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal, or a galvanic skin response (GSR) signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined motion artifact comprises a drift of a low-frequency component signal of the physiological signal.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining further comprises:

extracting the low-frequency component signal from the measured physiological signal;

calculating the maximum value and the minimum value of the extracted low-frequency component signal within a predetermined time interval; and

determining that the motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal within the predetermined time interval when a difference between the maximum value and the minimum value is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining further comprises:

extracting the low-frequency component signal from the measured physiological signal;

calculating a gradient of the extracted low-frequency component signal within a predetermined time interval; and

determining that the motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal within the predetermined time interval when the gradient is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining further comprises:

calculating a power of the low-frequency component signal corresponding to a predetermined time interval; and

determining that the motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal within the predetermined time interval when the power of the low-frequency component signal is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined motion artifact comprises a high-frequency noise of the measured physiological signal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining further comprises:

calculating a power of the high-frequency noise corresponding to a predetermined time interval; and

determining that the motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal within the predetermined time interval when the power of the high-frequency noise is greater than a predetermined threshold value.

11. A computer-readable recording medium having a program stored therein for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 10.

12. An apparatus for sensing a sleeping condition of a user, comprising:

a physiological signal-measuring module for measuring a physiological signal of a user who is sleeping;

a physiological signal-processing module for determining whether or not a predetermined motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal; and

a determination module for determining that the user goes into an awake state when the predetermined motion artifact is contained in the measured physiological signal.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the physiological signal-measuring module electrically measures the physiological signal of the user through a dry or wet type electrode which is in close contact with a skin area over a soft body tissue of the user.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the physiological signal-measuring module comprises measures the physiological signal of the user using an optical or radio frequency signal.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the predetermined motion artifact comprises a drift of a low-frequency component signal of the physiological signal.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the predetermined motion artifact comprises a high-frequency noise of the measured physiological signal.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising a communication interface module for transmitting determination result data including information on a frequency of awakenings during sleep,

wherein the frequency of awakenings during sleep includes the frequency of the user'"'"'s moving into the awake stage determined by the determination module to a predetermined remote device through a wired/wireless communication network.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication interface module transmits the determination result data to a cellular phone.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication interface module transmits the determination result data to a personal computer.