ALERTNESS ESTIMATOR
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for estimating alertness for a living being having a sleep-wake cycle, the sleep-wake cycle having at least a circadian component and a homeostatic component, the apparatus comprising:
- an electronic circuit, including;
a circadian model circuit configured to model the circadian component, anda homeostatic model circuit configured to model the homeostatic component of the sleep-wake cycle,the homeostatic model circuit including a resistor-capacitor analog circuit,the electronic circuit being operable to combine outputs from the homeostatic model circuit and the circadian model circuit so as to estimate the alertness.
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Abstract
Example apparatus and methods for estimating a living being'"'"'s alertness include modeling the sleep-wake cycle using a function generator circuit to model the circadian component, and one or more analog circuits to model the homeostatic and inertial components. In some embodiments of the present invention, temporal scaling is used for more rapid modeling, for example using time periods of seconds or less to represent an hour of the sleep-wake cycle.
48 Citations
27 Claims
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1. An apparatus for estimating alertness for a living being having a sleep-wake cycle, the sleep-wake cycle having at least a circadian component and a homeostatic component, the apparatus comprising:
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an electronic circuit, including; a circadian model circuit configured to model the circadian component, and a homeostatic model circuit configured to model the homeostatic component of the sleep-wake cycle, the homeostatic model circuit including a resistor-capacitor analog circuit, the electronic circuit being operable to combine outputs from the homeostatic model circuit and the circadian model circuit so as to estimate the alertness. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An apparatus for determining an alertness given a sleep-wake cycle having a homeostatic component, the apparatus comprising:
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an electronic circuit including; a circadian model circuit configured to model the circadian component, and a homeostatic model circuit configured to model the homeostatic component of the sleep-wake cycle, the homeostatic model circuit including a resistor-capacitor analog circuit having a capacitive element, the capacitive element being charged through a first resistive load and discharged through a second resistive load, the homeostatic component being modeled using a potential difference across the capacitive element, the resistor-capacitor analog circuit further including at least one switch responsive to a sleep-wake transition signal. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A method of determining an alertness of a living being, the living being having a sleep-wake cycle having a homeostatic component and a circadian component, the method comprising:
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modeling the circadian component using a circadian model circuit; modeling the homeostatic component using a homeostatic model circuit, the homeostatic model circuit being a resistor-capacitor analog circuit; and combining outputs of the homeostatic model circuit and the circadian model circuit so as to estimate the alertness. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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Specification