METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR FOOD INTAKE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ASSESSMENT

• US 20090012433A1
• Filed: 06/18/2008
• Published: 01/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Pittsburgh of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education
• Original Assignee: University of Pittsburgh of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education
• Inventors: Sclabassi, Robert J., Fernstrom, Madelyn H., Fernstrom, John D., Sun, Mingui
• Granted Patent: US 9,198,621 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/593
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/06 Children, e.g. for attention deficit diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/07 Home care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1128 using image analysis A61B5/1127 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/145 Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissuemeasuring of blood pressure or blood flow A61B5/02; non-radiation detecting or locating of foreign bodies in blood A61B5/06
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/411 Detecting or monitoring allergy or intolerance reactions to an allergenic agent or substance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6822 Neck
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7232 involving compression of the physiological signal, e.g. to extend the signal recording period
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/68 Food, e.g. fruit or vegetables
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Electronic systems, devices and methods are provided to accurately measure both food intake and physical activity in a subject. A device is provided to be placed on a subject which records video as well as other physiological and/or environmental data. Video data can be analyzed along with other data obtained by the device to determine food consumption and physical activity of the subject, much of which is accomplished by automated computer-implemented processes.

Claims

1. A device for remote monitoring of food intake and physical activity in a subject, comprising:

a housing having a proximal side and a distal side;

one or more physiological sensors;

a video camera;

a data transfer interface connected to the sensors and the video camera; and

one or more power supplies.

2. The device of claim 1, in which the proximal side of the housing comprises an acoustic coupling portion, the device further comprising a microphone within the housing.

3. The device of claim 2, in which a microphone is acoustically coupled to the proximal side of the housing.

4. The device of claim 2, in which the acoustic coupling portion comprises a protuberance on the proximal side of the housing, the protuberance extending from the housing a distance sufficient to establish acoustic and mechanical coupling of the housing to a subject'"'"'s skin.

5. The device of claim 2, in which swallowing and respiratory activities detected by the device are used as control signals to turn-on and turn-off the video camera.

6. The device of claim 2, further comprising:

a plurality of necklace portions attached to the housing wherein at least one of the plurality of necklace portions comprises one or more cables comprising one or both of one or more data transfer cables and one or more power cables;

a secondary housing attached to the necklace portions; and

a plurality of aesthetic features on the plurality of necklace portions comprising one or more batteries connected by one or more power cables to the device,

wherein the housing is attached as a pendant from the necklace portion and wherein the necklace portion and the housing are configured so that, when the device is worn by a subject, the housing rests over the subject'"'"'s jugular notch.

7. The device of claim 1, in which the physiological sensor is one or more of an accelerometer, a microphone, an oxygen saturation sensor and an electrode.

8. The device of claim 1, further comprising a range finder.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the range finder is a laser range finder.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the laser range finder uses three or more laser beams to measure distance.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the laser range finder uses fiducial markers generated by the laser beams to calculate distance.

12. The device of claim 1, the device comprising one or more aesthetic features.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the housing is no larger than two (2) inches in a major linear dimension.

14. The device of claim 1, in which the video camera is contained within the housing and a lens of the video camera is on a distal side of the housing.

15. The device of claim 14, further comprising a necklace portion attached to the housing, wherein the housing is attached as a pendant from the necklace portion and wherein the necklace portion and the housing are configured so that, when the device is worn by a subject, the housing rests over the subject'"'"'s jugular notch.

16. The device of claim 15, in which the power supply is a battery.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the battery is one or more polymeric lithium ion batteries configured as beads about the necklace portion.

18. The device of claim 1, further comprising one or more of a global positioning device, one or more environmental monitoring sensors, an optical sensor, and an oxygen saturation sensor connected to the data transfer interface.

19. The device of claim 1, further comprising a medically acceptable adhesive on a proximal side of the housing.

20. The device of claim 1, wherein the data transfer interface comprises a wireless data transmitter.

21. The device of claim 1, wherein the data transfer interface comprises one of an interface for a portable data storage device, a connector for a cable and a wireless data transmitter/receiver.

22. The device of claim 21, in which the data transfer interface comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface.

23. The device of claim 1, wherein the power supply is one or more batteries.

24. The device of claim 23, wherein the batteries are polymeric lithium ion batteries.

25. The device of claim 1, wherein the accelerometer is a three-axis accelerometer.

26. The device of claim 1, in which a lens of the video camera has a depth of field of less than three feet.

27. A system for remote monitoring of food intake and physical activity in a subject, comprising:

the device of claim 1;

a computer; and

a data communication device for transmitting data obtained from the device to the computer, the system comprising one or more computer processes for determining a dimension of a food item in video data obtained from the video camera;

physical activity of a subject wearing the device in video obtained from one or both of the video camera and accelerometer.

28. The system of claim 27, in which the one or more computer processes further comprise one or more of:

a data encryption process for encrypting data obtained from the device;

a process for obscuring facial features of a person in video data obtained from the video camera;

a process for distinguishing data associated with food and drink consumption from other data obtained from one or both of the microphone and accelerometer; and

a process for distinguishing data associated with physical activity from other data obtained from the device.

29. The system of claim 27, further comprising a database comprising dietary information for different foods, and a computer process for determining nutritional information from food dimension data obtained by the computer processes for determining a dimension of a food item in video data obtained from the video camera.

30. A method of remote monitoring of food intake and physical activity in a subject, comprising:

obtaining video data from a video camera suitably placed on a subject to show food consumption by the subject and physical activity of the subject; and

determining from the video data one or both of food consumption by the subject and physical activity of the subject.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising obtaining data from one or both of a microphone and an accelerometer placed on or near the jugular notch of the subject and one or both of food intake activity by the subject and physical activity of the subject from data obtained from the one or both of a microphone and an accelerometer.

33. The range finder of claim 31, wherein the computer process calculates one or more physical dimensions of an object in the image chosen from one or more of physical area, volume or mass of an object in the image.

32. A range finder for determining distance from a first object to an object in an image, comprising:

a source of three or more coherent light beams oriented to produce fiducial markers on the object in the image; and

a computer process for calculating from the fiducial markers in an image of the object one or more of distance to the object from the first object, distance between two or more objects in the image and a physical dimension of an object in an image.

34. The range finder of claim 32, wherein the coherent light beams are laser beams.

35. A method of determining a distance between a first object to an object in an image, comprising:

illuminating the object in the image with three or more coherent light beams to produce a fiducial marker on the object in the image;

producing an image of the object with the fiducial markers; and

calculating a distance to the object in the image from the first object using the fiducial markers in the image.