Systems and Methods For Controlling Position

• US 20110132378A1
• Filed: 06/04/2010
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Brain Monitoring
• Original Assignee: Advanced Brain Monitoring
• Inventors: Trejo, Jonny, Mitrovic, Mirko, Zavora, Timothy, Levendowski, Daniel J., Westbrook, Philip R., Veljkovic, Bratislav, Berka, Chris
• Granted Patent: US 8,783,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 128/848
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/103 Detecting, measuring or recording devices for testing the shape, pattern, colour, size or movement of the body or parts thereof, for diagnostic purposes A61B5/08 takes precedence; measuring aids for tailors A41H1/00; measuring instruments specially adapted for dentistry A61C19/04
• 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 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/113 occurring during breathing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4806 Sleep evaluation A61B5/4821 takes precedence; devices for inducing sleep A61M21/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4809 Sleep detection, i.e. determining whether a subject is asleep or not
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4818 Sleep apnoea
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4833 Assessment of subject's compliance to treatment
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/486 Bio-feedback A61B5/375 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6819 Nose
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6822 Neck
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6823 Trunk, e.g., chest, back, abdomen, hip
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6831 Straps, bands or harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7405 using sound
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/003 Detecting lung or respiration noise
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 5/56 Devices for preventing snoring by influencing the respiratory system by gas treatment A61M16/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2021/0022 by the tactile sense, e.g. vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2021/0027 by the hearing sense
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2021/0044 : by the sight sense
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2021/0083 : especially for waking up
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 21/02 : for inducing sleep or relaxation, e.g. by direct nerve stimulation, hypnosis, analgesia for massage A61H; electrotherapy A61N, e.g. applying alternating or intermittent electric currents for producing anaesthesia A61N1/36021
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3375 : Acoustical, e.g. ultrasonic, measuring means
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3569 : sublocal, e.g. between console and disposable
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3592 : using telemetric means, e.g. radio or optical transmission
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/502 : User interfaces, e.g. screens or keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/581 : by audible feedback
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/583 : by visual feedback
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/8206 : battery-operated
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2209/088 : on the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2230/63 : Motion, e.g. physical activity
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/3601 : of respiratory organs
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36014 : External stimulators, e.g. with patch electrodes external pacemakers A61N1/3625
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36031 : using physiological parameters for adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/0653 : Organic light emitting diodes

Abstract

Systems and methods for controlling the position of a user of a wearable positional therapy device are provided. The wearable position therapy device can be configured to monitor and store physiological signals that can be used to assess sleep quality and sleeping position of a user. The device can be configured to be worn around the head, the neck, or body of the user. The device can be configured to provide feedback to a user if the user is sleeping or is positioned in a target position to induce the user to change positions. The feedback can be provided by one or more haptic motors that can be configured to provide various levels of feedback and the level of feedback can be customized based on the user'"'"'s reaction to the feedback.

Claims

1. A wearable position therapy device for influencing the position of a user, the system comprising:

a position detector configured to generate positional signal data that can be used to determine a position of the user;

a haptic feedback device configured to generate tactile feedback to the user of the device; and

a microcontroller in communication with the position detector and the haptic feedback device, the microcontroller being configured to

receive and analyze the signal data from the position detector,

determine whether the user of the device is in a target position, and

generate a control signal to cause the haptic feedback device to provide tactile feedback to the user to induce the user to change to a different, non-target position if the user of the device is in the target position.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the target position is a target sleeping position and wherein the position therapy device is configured to influence a sleeping position of the user.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the target position is a target sleeping position, and wherein the microcontroller is configured to wait for a predetermined period of time before making an initial determination whether the user of the device is in the target sleeping position to allow the user of the device time to fall asleep before providing tactile feedback to the user.

4. The device of claim 2 wherein the microcontroller is configured to gather baseline sleep data for a predetermined period of time before providing feedback to the user to induce the user to change sleeping positions.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the device further comprises:

an audiovisual feedback module in communication with the microcontroller, the audiovisual feedback module being configured to provide at least one of audio and or visual feedback to the user of the device.

6. The device of claim 5 wherein the audiovisual feedback module includes an audio output circuit for emitting audio signals to indicate that device is not applied correctly on the user.

7. The device of claim 5 wherein the audiovisual feedback module includes a light emitting diode that indicates that the device has acquired and stored sleep data.

8. The device of claim 1 wherein the device further comprises:

a persistent memory in communication with the microprocessor,

wherein the microprocessor is configured to store position therapy data collected while the user is wearing the device in the persistent memory.

9. The device of claim 8 further comprising a data transfer interface configured to transfer the position therapy data collected by the microprocessor to an external computer system for analysis of the results of the positional therapy and for generating a positional therapy report based on the position therapy data.

10. The device of claim 1 wherein the device can be worn around the neck, back, or torso of the user.

11. The device of claim 10 wherein when configured to be worn around the neck of the user, the device includes an enclosure strap for holding the device around the neck of the user, wherein the enclosure strap includes a detachable magnetic clasp that is configured to automatically release if the device is snagged while the user is wearing the device.

12. The device of claim 1 wherein the microcontroller is configured to provide adaptive feedback to the user based on the user'"'"'s reaction to previously applied haptic feedback.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the microcontroller is configured to increase the level of haptic feedback provided to the user if the user did not respond to a previous level of haptic feedback applied to the user.

14. The device of claim 1 wherein the positional therapy device includes a microphone for capturing audio data while the user is sleeping and to provide the audio data to the microcontroller, wherein the microcontroller is configured to analyze the audio data to detect snoring events.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein the microcontroller is configured to correlate the snoring event data with the positional signal data received from the position detector to determine whether generate a control signal to cause the haptic feedback device to provide tactile feedback to the user to induce the user to change to a different position.

16. The device of claim 1 wherein the microcontroller is configured to detect user movement based on the positional signal data received from the position detector indicative of the user being in a non-sleep state, and wherein the microcontroller is configured to not generate the control signal to cause the haptic feedback device to provide tactile feedback to the user to induce the user to change to the different position if the user is in a non-sleep state.

17. The device of claim 1 wherein the position detector comprises one or more accelerometers.

18. The device of claim 1 wherein the position detector comprises a pressure switch.

19. The device of claim 1 wherein the position detector comprises a pressure sensor.

20. The device of claim 1 wherein the device includes an electronic feedback module for providing electrical feedback to the user to induce the user to change positions in response to control signals from the microcontroller.

21. A method for influencing the position of a user using a wearable position therapy device, the method comprising:

applying the position therapy device to the body of the user;

collecting positional signal data to determine a position of the user while the user is wearing the device;

determining whether the user is positioned in a target position based at least in part on the positional signal data; and

generating haptic feedback to the user to induce the user to change to a different, non-target position if the user is in the target position.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein determining whether the user is positioned in a target position based at least in part on the positional signal data further comprises determining whether the user is sleeping in a target sleeping position based at least in part on the positional signal data, and wherein generating haptic feedback to the user to induce the user to change to a different, non-target position if the user is in the target sleep position further comprises generating haptic feedback to the user to induce the user to change to a different, non-target sleep position if the user is in the target sleep position.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

waiting for a predetermined period of time before making an initial determination whether the user of the device is in the target sleeping position to allow the user of the device time to fall asleep before providing tactile feedback to the user.

24. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

collecting baseline sleep data for a predetermined period of time before generating feedback to the user to induce the user to change sleeping positions.

25. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

capturing audio data while the user is sleeping; and

analyzing audio data to identify snoring events.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

determining whether the user is in a sleep state based on the occurrence of snoring events; and

generating tactile feedback to induce the user to change to the different sleeping position only if the user is in a sleep state.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

detecting user movement based on the positional signal data received from the position detector indicative of the user being in a non-sleep state; and

generating tactile feedback to induce the user to change to the different sleeping position only if the user is in a sleep state.

28. The method of claim 21 wherein the position therapy device is applied to the neck of the user.

29. The method of claim 21 wherein the position therapy device is applied to the back of the user.

30. The method of claim 21 wherein the position therapy device is applied to the torso of the user.

31. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

emitting an audio signal to notify the user that the position therapy device is not applied correctly to the user'"'"'s body.

32. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

transferring position therapy data collected by the position therapy to an external computer system for analysis of the results of the positional therapy; and

generating a positional therapy report based on the position therapy data collected by the device.

33. The method of claim 21 wherein generating haptic feedback to the user to induce the user to change to a different, non-target position if the user is in the target position further comprises:

providing a level adaptive feedback to the user based on the user'"'"'s reaction to previously applied haptic feedback.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein providing adaptive feedback to the user based on the user'"'"'s reaction to previously applied haptic feedback further comprises:

providing an increased the level of haptic feedback to the user if the user did not respond to a previous level of haptic feedback applied to the user.

35. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

providing electrical feedback to the user to induce the user to change positions if the user is in the target position.