OPTICAL BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION DETECTING APPARATUS AND OPTICAL BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION DETECTING METHOD

• US 20110004106A1
• Filed: 06/29/2010
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Iwamiya, Hiroshi, Nakajima, Shuji
• Granted Patent: US 8,670,819 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/476
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0059 using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence A61B5/0093, A61B5/1455, A61B5/02416 and A61B5/0261 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02427 Details of sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient

Abstract

An optical biological information detecting apparatus includes a light emitting unit which emits observation light of a specific wavelength band to optically observe a desired portion of a tissue of a skin of a human body, and an annular light guide unit which guides the observation light to a desired area of a surface of the skin corresponding to the desired portion of the tissue of the skin, and which annularly irradiates the observation light onto the desired area of the surface of the skin. The apparatus further includes a light receiving unit which is disposed at a position surrounded by the annular light guide unit, and which receives scattered light scattered by the desired portion of the tissue of the skin after the observation light is annularly irradiated onto the desired area of the surface of the skin by the annular light guide unit.

Claims

1. An optical biological information detecting apparatus, comprising:

a light emitting unit which emits observation light of a specific wavelength band to optically observe a desired portion of a tissue of a skin of a human body;

an annular light guide unit which guides the observation light to a desired area of a surface of the skin corresponding to the desired portion of the tissue of the skin, and which annularly irradiates the observation light onto the desired area of the surface of the skin; and

a light receiving unit which is disposed at a position surrounded by the annular light guide unit, and which receives scattered light scattered by the desired portion of the tissue of the skin after the observation light is annularly irradiated onto the desired area of the surface of the skin by the annular light guide unit.

2. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a scattered light taking unit which is disposed to be closer to the desired area of the surface of the skin than the light receiving unit at the position surrounded by the annular light guide unit, which contacts the desired area of the surface of the skin, and which takes the scattered light,

wherein the light receiving unit is positioned at a side opposite to the desired area of the surface of the skin with respect to the scattered light taking unit, and receives the scattered light through the scattered light taking unit.

3. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the annular light guide unit comprises:

a light guiding ring portion which comprises an incident surface on which the observation light is incident from the light emitting unit and an annular emission surface to emit the observation light incident in the incident surface, and which annularly guides the observation light incident in the incident surface to the annular emission surface between the incident surface and the annular emission surface; and

a diffusion/irradiation ring portion which comprises an incident surface on which the observation light emitted from the emission surface of the light guiding ring portion is incident and an annular emission surface facing the desired area of the surface of the skin, which annularly diffuses the observation light incident in the incident surface, and which annularly irradiates the diffused observation light onto the desired area of the surface of the skin.

4. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the annular light guide unit comprises:

a light guiding ring portion which comprises an outer circumferential surface and an inner circumferential surface defining a circular hole, the outer circumferential surface being provided with an incident surface on which the observation light is incident from the light emitting unit, and the inner circumferential surface being provided with an emission surface to emit the observation light incident in the incident surface; and

a diffusion/reflection ring portion which is disposed in the circular hole of the light guiding ring portion, which comprises an outer circumferential surface facing the inner circumferential surface of the circular hole and a skin surface facing surface facing the desired area of the surface of the skin, the outer circumferential surface being provided with an incident surface on which the observation light emitted from the emission surface of the light guiding ring portion is incident, the skin surface facing surface being provided with an annular emission surface to annularly diffuse the observation light incident in the incident surface and to annularly irradiate the diffused observation light onto the desired area of the surface of the skin, and which guides the observation light incident in the incident surface to the annular emission surface by reflection.

5. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

each of the light guiding ring portion and the diffusion/reflection ring portion has the same predetermined height as to each other in a direction crossing the surface of the skin and are disposed in a direction along the surface of the skin without generating a step in the crossing direction, and

the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit are disposed within a range of the predetermined height.

6. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a diffusion/irradiation ring portion which is provided to correspond to the annular emission surface of the skin surface facing surface of the diffusion/reflection ring portion and to face the desired area of the surface of the skin, which transmits the annularly diffused observation light emitted from the annular emission surface of the diffusion/reflection ring portion, and which annularly diffuses and irradiates the annularly diffused observation light toward the desired area of the surface of the skin; and

a scattered light taking unit which is disposed in a central opening of the diffusion/irradiation ring portion to correspond to the light receiving unit, and which transmits the scattered light to the light receiving unit, the scattered light scattered in the desired portion of the skin tissue after the observation light irradiated from the diffusion/irradiation ring portion to the desired area of the surface of the skin.

7. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the light emitting unit includes first and second light emitting portions each of which emits the observation light, and

the annular light guide unit comprises a first light guiding ring portion which faces the desired area of the surface of the skin, a second light guiding ring portion which is disposed in an inner side of first light guiding ring portion in a radial direction of the first light guiding ring portion to be concentrically to the first light guiding ring portion and which faces the desired area of the surface of the skin, an outer circumferential side light irradiation path which guides the observation light emitted from the first light emitting portion to the first light guiding ring portion, and an inner circumferential side light irradiation path that guides the observation light emitted from the second light emitting portion to the annular second light guiding ring portion.

8. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a scattered light taking unit which is disposed at a position surrounded by the second light guiding ring portion of the annular light guide unit to be closer to the desired area of the surface of the skin than the light receiving unit, which contacts the desired area of the surface of the skin, and which takes the scattered light,

wherein the light receiving unit is positioned at a side of the scattered light taking unit which is opposite to the desired area of the surface of the skin, and receives the scattered light through the scattered light taking unit.

9. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the observation light emitted from the light emitting unit is a light of an infrared band of 800 nm or more which has a low absorbance to melanine pigment contained in the skin.

10. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the annular light guide unit comprises a reflection layer that reflects the observation light emitted from the light emitting unit to the desired area of the surface of the skin, and

the reflection layer prevents the scattered light until the scattered light is received by the light receiving unit after being scattered in the desired portion of the tissue of the skin from being mixed with the observation light in the light guide unit.

11. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an optical filter which transmits only light of a specific wavelength band of 800 nm or more among the scattered light toward the light receiving unit.

12. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the light receiving unit has a spectral sensitivity characteristic which reacts with only light of a specific wavelength band among the scattered light toward the light receiving unit.

13. The optical biological information detecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the optical biological information detecting apparatus is combined with a wristwatch which comprises a time piece module and a body case including an internal space to store the time piece module and a back cover,

the light emitting unit, the light guide unit, and the light receiving unit are provided in the internal space of the body case of the wristwatch, and

the back cover is provided with an observation light/scattered light transmitting structure which transmits the observation light annularly irradiated from the light guide unit to the desired area of the surface of the skin and which transmits the scattered light scattered by the desired portion of the tissue of the skin after the observation light annularly is irradiated onto the desired area of the surface of the skin by the annular light guide unit.

14. An optical biological information detecting method which is used in an optical biological information detecting apparatus,

the optical biological information detecting apparatus comprising:

a light emitting unit which emits observation light of a specific wavelength band to optically observe a desired portion of a tissue of a skin of a human body;

an annular light guide unit which guides the observation light to a desired area of a surface of the skin corresponding to the desired portion of the tissue of the skin, and which annularly irradiates the observation light onto the desired area of the surface of the skin; and

a light receiving unit which is disposed at a position surrounded by the annular light guide unit, and which receives scattered light scattered by the desired portion of the tissue of the skin after the observation light is annularly irradiated onto the desired area of the surface of the skin by the annular light guide unit,

the optical biological information detecting method comprising;

causing the light emitting unit to emit observation light;

annularly irradiating the observation light emitted from the light emitting unit onto the desired area of the surface of the skin by the light guide unit;

receiving the scattered light after the irradiated observation light is scattered by the desired portion of the skin tissue, by the light receiving unit through the scattered light taking unit; and

detecting biological information of the desired portion of the skin tissue, based on the scattered light received by the light receiving unit.

15. An optical biological information detecting method which is used in an optical biological information detecting apparatus,

the optical biological information detecting apparatus comprising:

first and second light emitting portions each of which emit observation light of a specific wavelength band to optically observe a desired portion of a tissue of a skin of a human body;

first and second light guiding ring portions which are mutually concentrically disposed, which guide the observation lights emitted from the first and second light emitting portions to desired area of a surface of the skin corresponding to the desired portion of the tissue of the skin, and which annularly irradiate the observation lights onto the desired area of the surface of the skin;

a scattered light taking unit which is disposed at a position surrounded by the first and second light guiding ring portions, which contacts the desired area of the surface of the skin, and which takes scattered lights after the observation lights annularly irradiated onto the desired area of the surface of the skin by the first and second light guiding ring portions are scattered by the desired portion of the tissue of the skin; and

a light receiving unit which is positioned at a side of the scattered light taking unit which is opposite to the surface of the skin and which receives the scattered lights through the scattered light taking unit,

the optical biological information detecting method comprising;

causing the first and second light emitting portions to simultaneously emit the observation lights, guiding the observation lights emitted from the first and second light emitting portions to the desired area of the surface of the skin corresponding to the desired portion of the tissue of the skin by the first and second light guiding ring portions, annularly irradiating the observation lights onto the desired area of the surface of the skin, receiving the scattered lights after the irradiated observation lights are scattered by the desired portion of the tissue of the skin by the light receiving unit through the scattered light taking unit, and detecting first biological information of the desired portion of the skin tissue, based on the scattered lights received by the light receiving unit;

causing only the first light emitting portion to emit the observation light, guiding the observation light emitted from the first light emitting portion to the desired area of the surface of the skin corresponding to the desired portion of the tissue of the skin by the first light guiding ring portion, annularly irradiating the observation light onto the desired area of the surface of the skin, receiving the scattered light after the irradiated observation light is scattered by the desired portion of the tissue of the skin by the light receiving unit through the scattered light taking unit, and detecting second biological information of the desired portion of the skin tissue, based on the scattered light received by the light receiving unit; and

processing the first biological information and the second biological information and calculating biological information unique to the human body where the observation lights are irradiated.