WIRELESS, ULTRASONIC PERSONAL HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM

• US 20110301439A1
• Filed: 05/16/2011
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AliveCor Inc.
• Original Assignee: Aliveusa, LLC (AliveCor Inc.)
• Inventors: Albert, David, Satchwell, Bruce Richard, Barnett, Kim Norman
• Application Number:
  US13/108,738
• Publication Number:
  US 20110301439A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0015 characterised by features of the telemetry system
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0026 characterised by the transmission medium
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/332 Portable devices specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 11/00 Transmission systems employing sonic, ultrasonic or infrasonic waves
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0254 comprising one or a plurality of mechanically detachable modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7246 by connection of exchangeable housing parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10

Abstract

A personal monitoring device has a sensor assembly configured to sense physiological signals upon contact with a user'"'"'s skin. The sensor assembly produces electrical signals representing the sensed physiological signals. A converter assembly, integrated with, and electrically connected to the sensor assembly, converts the electrical signals generated by the sensor assembly to a frequency modulated inaudible ultrasonic sound signal. The ultrasonic signal is demodulated from an aliased signal produced by undersampling.

Claims

1. A personal monitoring device comprising:

a sensor assembly configured to sense physiological signals upon contact with a user'"'"'s skin and to produce electrical signals representing the sensed physiological signals;

a converter assembly including an audio transmitter, the converter assembly integrated with, and electrically connected to the sensor assembly and configured to receive the electrical signals generated by the sensor and output those signals through the audio transmitter to a microphone in a computing device within range of the audio transmitter, wherein the converter assembly is further configured to output the signals as an inaudible, ultrasonic, frequency modulated (FM) sound signal.

2. The personal monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the inaudible, ultrasonic, FM sound signal has a carrier frequency in the range of from about 18 kHz to about 24 kHz.

3. The personal monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the inaudible, ultrasonic, FM sound signal has a carrier frequency in the range of from about 20 kHz to about 24 kHz.

4. The personal monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the physiological signals sensed are selected from the group consisting of electrocardiogram (ECG), electromyogram (EMG), electrooculogram (EOG), photoplethysmogram (PPG), respiration, heart rate, pulse oximetry, electroencephalogram (EEG) and a combination thereof.

5. An ECG device comprising:

an electrode assembly configured to sense heart-related signals upon contact with a user'"'"'s skin, and to convert the sensed heart-related signals to ECG electrical signals; and

a converter assembly including an audio transmitter, the converter assembly integrated with, and electrically connected to the sensor assembly and configured to receive the ECG electrical signals generated by the sensor and output ECG sound signals through the audio transmitter to a microphone in a computing device within range of the audio transmitter, wherein the converter assembly is further configured to output the ECG signals as an ultrasonic FM sound signal.

6. The ECG device of claim 5, wherein the ultrasonic FM sound signal has a carrier frequency in the range of from about 18 kHz to about 24 kHz.

7. The ECG device of claim 5, wherein the ultrasonic FM sound signal has a carrier frequency in the range of from about 20 kHz to about 24 kHz.

8. The ECG device of claim 5, wherein the converter assembly comprises an audio transmitter for outputting the frequency modulated ultrasonic signal, wherein the audio transmitter is configured to output the ultrasonic FM sound signal to a microphone in a computing device within range of the audio transmitter.

9. The ECG device of claim 8, wherein the computing device is selected from the group consisting of smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet personal computers, pocket personal computers, notebook computers, desktop computers, and server computers.

10. The ECG device of claim 8, wherein the electrode assembly is positioned on an outer surface of a smartphone protective case, and wherein the ultrasonic FM sound signal output from the audio transmitter is detectable by a microphone in a smartphone when the smartphone is positioned within the smartphone protective case.

11. The ECG device of claim 8, wherein the ECG device is a hand-held device having the electrode assembly comprising two electrodes positioned on one of a) an outer surface of a pad configured to receive a user'"'"'s hands, one on each electrode, b) a single side of a card or c) a cylindrical device having one electrode on the outer cylindrical surface and one electrode on either end.

12. The ECG device of claim 8, wherein the electrode assembly is positioned within a chest strap.

13. A smartphone protective case, usable as an ECG device, comprising:

an electrode assembly configured to sense heart-related signals upon contact with a user'"'"'s skin, and to convert the sensed heart-related signals to an ECG electric signal; and

a converter assembly integrated with, and electrically connected to the electrode assembly, the converter assembly configured to convert the electric ECG signal generated by the electrode assembly to an ultrasonic FM sound signal having a carrier frequency in the range of from about 18 kHz to about 24 kHz, and further configured to output the ultrasonic FM sound signal through an audio transmitter at a signal strength capable of being received by a smartphone positioned within the smartphone protective case.

14. A system for generating and transferring medical data, the system comprising:

an electrode assembly configured to sense heart-related signals upon contact with a user'"'"'s skin, and to convert the sensed heart-related signals to ECG electrical signals;

a converter assembly including an audio transmitter, the converter assembly integrated with, and electrically connected to the electrode assembly and configured to convert the ECG electrical signals to an ultrasonic FM sound signal and output the ultrasonic FM sound signal through the audio transmitter to a microphone in a computing device, wherein an analog to digital converter (ADC) of the computing device is configured to sample the signal from the microphone and convert it to a digital audio signal; and

demodulation software stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the computing device to cause the computing device to (1) under-sample the digital audio signal, aliasing it to a lower frequency band, and (2) demodulate the aliased digital audio signal at the lower frequency band to produce an ECG output.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the demodulation software is executable by the computing device to cause the computing device to the perform a zero crossings analysis of the aliased digital audio signal at the lower frequency band to produce the ECG output.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the demodulation software includes instructions for causing the computing device to bandpass filter the digital audio signal around the carrier frequency to improve the signal to noise ratio.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the demodulation software causes the computer to under-sample at one-half the ADC sampling rate.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the demodulation software includes instructions for causing the computing device to invert the demodulated output to correct for the frequency spectrum being inverted by under-sampling.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the demodulation software includes instructions for causing the computing device to display the ECG output on a display screen of the computing device.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions capable of being executed by one or more computing devices, that when executed by the one or more computing devices causes the one or more computing devices to demodulate a digitized FM audio signal having a carrier frequency in the range of from about 18 kHz to about 24 kHz by at least (1) under-sampling the digitized FM audio signal, thereby aliasing it to a lower frequency band, and (2) demodulating the aliased digital FM audio signal at the lower frequency band to produce an ECG output.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the demodulation software is executable by the computing device to cause the computing device to perform a zero crossings analysis of the aliased digital audio signal at the lower frequency band to produce the ECG output.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to display on a display screen of the computing device, the ECG output representing the real-time ECG signal.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the computing device is a smartphone.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more smartphones, further causes the smartphone to record real-time information from a GPS and/or accelerometer in the smartphone.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to record spoken voice messages simultaneously with the demodulated ECG output.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to calculate and display in real-time, a heart rate determined from the demodulated output representing the real-time ECG signal.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to process the demodulated output representing the real-time ECG signal to identify the occurrence of an arrhythmia.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to store the demodulated output representing the real-time ECG signal in a memory of the one or more computing devices for later retrieval.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to retrieve and transmit, upon demand, the stored demodulated output representing the real-time ECG signal to a web server via an internet connection on the computing device.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to record spoken voice messages simultaneously with the demodulated digital ECG data, and to transmit the spoken voice messages with the demodulated output representing the real-time ECG signal to the web server.

31. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to transmit the demodulated output representing the real-time ECG signal to a web server in real-time.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to record spoken voice messages simultaneously with the demodulated output representing the real-time ECG signal, and to transmit the spoken voice messages with the demodulated output representing the real-time ECG signal to the web server.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more computing devices, further causes the one or more computing devices to record spoken voice messages simultaneously with the ECG output.

34. A method of health monitoring, comprising the steps of:

placing an electrode assembly of an ECG device in contact with a user'"'"'s skin, wherein the electrode assembly is configured to sense heart-related signals and convert the sensed heart-related signals to ECG electrical signals;

utilizing a converter assembly of the ECG device to transmit the ECG signals as an ultrasonic FM sound signal, wherein the converter assembly includes an audio transmitter, the converter assembly integrated with, and electrically connected to the sensor assembly and configured to receive the ECG electrical signals generated by the sensor and output ECG sound signals through the audio transmitter as an ultrasonic FM sound signal;

receiving the ultrasonic FM sound signal at a microphone in a computing device within range of the audio transmitter, demodulating the ultrasonic FM signal and recording the resulting ECG output; and

optionally recording spoken voice messages simultaneously with the ECG.