Mind strength trainer

• US 20120029379A1
• Filed: 01/24/2011
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kulangara Sivadas
• Original Assignee: Kulangara Sivadas
• Inventors: Sivadas, Kulangara
• Granted Patent: US 11,471,091 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/545
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/375 using biofeedback
• 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: A61M 2021/0016 by the smell sense
• 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 21/00 Other devices or methods to cause a change in the state of consciousness; Devices for producing or ending sleep by mechanical, optical, or acoustical means, e.g. for hypnosis
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/502 User interfaces, e.g. screens or keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/52 with memories providing a history of measured variating parameters of apparatus or patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/70 with testing or calibration facilities
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2230/10 Electroencephalographic signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2230/60 Muscle strain, i.e. measured on the user
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2230/65 Impedance, e.g. conductivity, capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/015 Input arrangements based on nervous system activity detection, e.g. brain waves [EEG] detection, electromyograms [EMG] detection, electrodermal response detection

Abstract

An assortment of algorithms, procedures and associated device-hardware to condition human mind on causality between a specific state of mind and an externally generated stimuli, including a procedure to collect (310) bio signals underlying specific mental moods, characterize (330) them, monitor (350,360) bio signal activity to detect such moods, and play mind games that enhance mind'"'"'s flexing power with the help of said device. Invention also includes a method (340) to evaluate and engineer mantras that serve as said externally generated stimuli.

Claims

1. A signal processing and controlling machine adapted for manually marking at least one targeted state of mind of a human subject comprising:

a. bio signal acquisition, processing and storage means to collect, tag, process and store said bio signal from said subject body

b. user interface means for said human subject to communicate operational parameters back and forth with said machine and optionally view results produced by said machine

c. a first recording means to instantly acquire a bio signal segment from said subject'"'"'s body and save into memory at the instance of said subject pressing a button upon recognizing the onset of said targeted state of mind

d. a second optional tagging means to manually tag said bio signal segment with additional information before saving

thereby enabling said human subject to use self discretion to collect said bio signals representing various moods of day to day life.

2. The machine of claim 1 wherein said acquiring of bio signal segment involves saving an array of bio signal voltage-samples sampled, time-stamps associated with sampling of each said sample, a trigger-mark identifying the time-stamp associated with said button pressing event and any tag data associated with said segment.

3. The machine of claim 1 wherein said targeted state of mind corresponds to mental conditions such as a brooding, non-brooding or depressed state.

4. The machine of claim 1 wherein said targeted state of mind corresponds to physical conditions such as drowsy, drunk, running or kicking.

5. The machine of claim 1 wherein said tagging means comprise of having microphone means to add a voice clip from said subject to said bio signal segment.

6. The machine of claim 1 further including user-interactive or automatic means to sort said bio signal segments collected at various instances in accordance with similarities in their underlying mental states, archive them into libraries and retrieve them for later processing.

7. The machine of claim 6 wherein means to retrieve said bio signal segment from said library is guided by said tags attached to them.

8. The machine of claim 1 wherein said first means for acquiring bio signal segments includes additional user-interactive means to control lengths of pre-trigger and post trigger acquisition.

9. The means claim of claim 8 wherein said additional user-interactive means to control pre-trigger history acquisition length is said subject'"'"'s input indicating said subject'"'"'s perception of start time of said targeted state.

10. The machine of claim 1 wherein said bio sensor is electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor and said bio signal is electroencephalogram (EEG) signal.

11. A signal processing and controlling machine adapted for identifying a slip-in, dwell-in and wake-up regions within a bio signal segment recorded from the body of a human subject corresponding to periods when said subject slipped in, dwelled within and woke up from a targeted state of mind, said recording process having been triggered by said subject upon recognizing the onset of said state of mind, comprising:

a. a central processing unit, memory controller, and memory containing said bio signal segment bearing a trigger-mark representing the instant at which said recording process was manually initiated by said subject

b. user interface means for said human subject to communicate operational parameters back and forth with said machine and optionally view results produced by said machine

c. a first means to identify said trigger-mark inside said bio signal segment and associate it with a wake-up activity in said subject'"'"'s mind

d. a second user-interactive means to back-trace within said bio signal segment from said trigger-mark up to a slip-in region as characterized by a change in signal pattern

e. a third user-interactive means to identify a region between said slip-in and wake-up regions on said bio signal segment and identify it as said dwell-in region

thereby enabling isolation of transient parts of said bio signal segment from steady state part exhibiting features of said dwell-in periods and their characterization using common signal processing tools as applicable to transient and steady state analysis.

12. The machine of claim 11 further including means to process a multitude of said bio signal segments, by fragmenting each into slip-in, dwell-in and wake-up sub-segments and forming a library of all said dwell-in sub-segments.

13. The machine of claim 12 additionally having means to check if said dwell-in sub-segments collected are similar by examining if said sub-segments exhibit mutual coherence beyond a threshold value.

14. The machine of claim 12 additionally having means to check if said slip-in sub-segments collected are similar by examining if said slip-in sub-segments exhibit mutual correlation beyond a threshold value.

15. The machine of claim 12 additionally having means to check if said wake-up sub-segments collected are similar by examining if said wake-up sub-segments exhibit mutual correlation beyond a threshold value.

16. The machine of claim 12 further including means to identify time and or freq domain characteristics common to each sub-segment library.

17. The machine of claim 11 wherein said bio signal is electroencephalogram (EEG) signal.

18. A signal processing and controlling machine adapted for automatically identifying sustaining, targeted states of mind of a human subject comprising:

a. channeling means to stream at least one bio signal from said subject body, having substantial correlation with said targeted state of mind of said subject, in real time

b. alerting means to drive at least one bio stimulus into said human body, in real time

c. a first real time signal processing means to scan said streamed bio signal for time domain or frequency domain attributes of a predetermined nature that characterize sustaining parts of said targeted state of mind

d. a second logical means comprising of checking if, when said time domain or frequency domain attributes are detected, they outlast a subject-defined time limit, in order to filter out short occurrences of said targeted state of mind

e. a third sustenance checking means of computing a running coherence function on said bio signal, comprising of continuously calculating coherence of a current segment of said bio signal against a previously collected segment of said bio signal, if said second means of filtering resulted in detecting said targeted states of mind that sustain for a substantial duration

f. a fourth means to alert said subject upon said bio signal maintaining a substantial value of said running coherence for periods longer than a predetermined time threshold

thereby having a machine with the ability to watch over said subject for sustained mental states.

19. The machine of claim 18 wherein, said targeted states of mind is a brooding or non-brooding or depressed state.

20. The machine of claim 18 wherein, said targeted states of mind is a generic state of mind not having any said predetermined trait.

21. The machine of claim 18 wherein, said sustenance checking means comprise of computing a running correlation coefficient of said current segment against a said previously collected segment of said bio signal.

22. The machine of claim 18 wherein, said alert used is a mantra.

23. The machine of claim 18 wherein said bio signal is EEG signal

24. The machine of claim 18 wherein said alerting means uses an audio clip for bio stimulus.

25. A signal processing and controlling machine adapted for composing mantras for a human subject wearing said machine comprising

a. bio stimuli storage, modification and application means to store, retrieve, alter and apply said bio stimuli to said human subject body

b. bio signal acquisition, processing and storage means to collect, process and store bio response signals from said subject body

c. user interface means for said human subject to communicate operational parameters back and forth with said machine and optionally view results produced by said machine

d. a first means to apply one of said bio stimuli to the body of said subject simultaneously recording at least one bio response signal generated by said body in response to said bio stimulus

e. a second means to control acquisition parameters of said bio response signal so that a substantial length of pre-stimulus history forming a pre-trigger segment and an equal length of stimulus response data forming a post-trigger segment are captured around a trigger point coinciding with the start point of said bio stimulus

f. a third means to apply same said bio stimulus at random occasions of life, record responses at each run of said stimulus, compute a correlation coefficient between pre and post trigger segments obtained from each run of said stimulus application and find average of said correlation coefficients from all said runs

g. a fourth means to apply same bio stimulus at random occasions of life, record responses at each run of said stimulus, compute a correlation coefficient between post trigger segments obtained from various runs of said stimulus application and find average of said correlation coefficients

h. a fifth means to apply same bio stimulus at random occasions of life, record responses at each run of said stimulus, estimate a duration of an initial transient part on said post-trigger segment collected at each run of said stimulus application and find average of said transient durations from all said runs

i. a sixth means to evaluate if said bio stimulus would make a substantially good candidate for forming a mantra by checking if said third means produced a substantially low value of said average correlation coefficient close to zero, if said fourth means produced a substantially high value of said average correlation coefficient close to one and if said fifth means produced a low value of said average durations

j. a seventh means to enhance dramatic effect of said bio stimulus on said subject by adding a prelude of differing bio stimulus to said bio stimulus

thereby making it possible to scientifically compare performance indices of various stimuli, choose ones that suit said subject'"'"'s likings and verify if a chosen stimulus keeps producing desired results even after hundreds of repetitions.

26. The machine of claim 25 wherein said bio stimulus is audio stimulus, said bio response is electroencephalogram and said seventh means for enhancing dramatic effect is adding a preamble of deep silence before said audio stimulus.

27. A signal processing and controlling machine adapted to condition its user'"'"'s mind on causality between a sustaining state of mind and an externally generated stimuli comprising

a. a first means to monitor said sustaining mind states of said user of said machine

b. a second means to trigger said stimuli each time said sustaining states lasts longer than a predetermined duration set by said user

thereby said user'"'"'s mind developing ability to anticipate occurrence of said stimuli upon said state of mind begins to sustain.

28. The machine of claim 27 wherein said first means to monitor sustaining mind states comprise of scanning for specific signal attributes in bio signals representing said states of mind, by running continuous coherence check on said bio signals and monitoring if a substantially coherent session extends beyond said predetermined duration

29. The machine of claim 27 wherein said second means uses a mantra stimuli

30. The machine of claim 27 wherein said conditioning involve training said user to predict said alerts while said electronic means within said machine that generate said alerts is turned off

31. The machine of claim 27 wherein said conditioning involve training said user to controllably induce said sustaining mental states to precipitate said alerts

32. A signal processing and controlling machine adapted to condition its user'"'"'s mind on causality between an externally generated stimuli and a non-brooding mental state comprising

a. a first means to scan bio signals streaming from said user for specific attributes that represent said non-brooding mental state

b. a second means to trigger said stimuli each time a said attribute belonging to a said non-brooding mental state is detected thereby training said user'"'"'s mind to associate said stimuli with said non-brooding states that represent happy moments in said user'"'"'s life.

33. The machine of claim 32 additionally having means to help said user precipitate said non-brooding states of mind by playing said stimuli at random occasions and causing said mind to remember positive moments of life that lead to said non-brooding states

34. A signal processing and controlling machine adapted to train a human subject mind to flex away from a sustaining mind state thereby exercising mind-flexing and building mind-strength comprising:

a. bio signal acquisition, processing, storing means and bio stimuli storing, actuating means

b. user interface means for said human subject to communicate operational parameters back and forth with said machine and optionally view results produced by said machine

c. a first means to watch said human subject mind continuously by monitoring at least one bio signal from said human body that substantially correlate with said sustaining state of said human mind

d. a second means to monitor sustenance of said sustaining mind state

e. a third means to alert said human upon said sustaining condition persisting beyond a predetermined duration

f. a fourth optional means to affirmatively break said sustaining mind state by having said human perform a wake-up act

g. a fifth means to condition said human mind on causality between said alert and said sustaining mind state

h. a sixth means to train said human mind to have the ability to self-alert said sustaining mind condition, even in the absence of said machine.

35. The machine of claim 34 wherein said second means to monitor mind state comprise of scanning for specific signal attributes in bio signals representing said mental states and running continuous coherence check after said attributes are detected.

36. The machine of claim 34 wherein said sustaining mind state is a brooding state.

37. The means claim 35 wherein said signal attributes are derived by collecting bio signal segments belonging to similar life events of said human subject undergoing said sustaining mind states, forming libraries of said bio signal segments possessing substantial mutual coherence and finding time domain and frequency domain characters common to members of said formed libraries.

38. The machine of claim 34 wherein said third means to alert use mantras that serve to break said sustaining mind state and deflect said human mind.

39. The means claim 38 wherein said mantras are chosen by a process comprising:

exciting said human subject with a bio stimulus while simultaneously collecting a pre-stimulus and post-stimulus bio responses caused by said bio stimulus on said human subject, repeating the process of said exciting at random occasions and collecting said pre-stimulus and post-stimulus responses each time, computing a first set of correlation coefficients between said pre-stimulus and post-stimulus responses for each repeat and finding an average value of said first set, computing a second set of correlation coefficients between said post-stimulus responses for each repeat and finding an average value of said second set, determining length of an initial transient part of said post-stimulus response for each said repeat and finding an average of said length from each repeat and finally, accepting said stimulus as mantra if said average of first set of correlation coefficients is low, said average of second set of correlation coefficients is high and said average of transient lengths is small.

40. The means claim 38 wherein said mantras are additionally engineered for enhanced performance by modifying it with preamble stimuli.

41. The machine of claim 34 wherein said fourth means of performing said wake-up act comprise of enacting a self-reflecting ritual, performed with substantial presence of mind, and forming an extension of said alert that amplifies said alert'"'"'s effect.

42. The machine of claim 34 wherein said bio signal is of electroencephalogram type and said bio stimulus is of audio type.

43. The machine of claim 34 wherein said machine may be built from portable, partially portable or non-portable components.