SENSING DEVICE FOR DETECTING A WEARING POSITION

• US 20120072168A1
• Filed: 05/17/2010
• Published: 03/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lifeline Systems Company (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Yin, Bin, Doornbos, Richard Marcel Pierre
• Granted Patent: US 9,119,568 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/150
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/061 Determining position of a probe within the body employing means separate from the probe, e.g. sensing internal probe position employing impedance electrodes on the surface of the body A61B1/00158 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00

Abstract

The invention relates to sensing device (20) for detecting the wearing position of the device with respect to a user. The device comprises a motion sensor (21) for detecting a motion signal, a height sensor (22) for detecting a height signal and a computing unit (23). The computing unit receives the motion signal and the height signal, and based thereon determines the wearing position of the sensing device with respect to the user. In embodiments, parameters related to movement of the user are extracted from the signals, and the wearing position is detected from these parameters by means of a classification algorithm.

Claims

1. A sensing device (20) for detecting a wearing position, the device comprising:

a motion sensor (21) for detecting a motion signal (52);

a height sensor (22) for detecting a height signal (53); and

a computing unit (23);

wherein the motion sensor and the height sensor are communicatively connected to the computing unit, and where the computing unit in response to receiving the motion signal and the height signal determines the wearing position of the sensing device with respect to a user.

2. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the detecting area of the motion sensor and the detecting area of the height sensor are located less than five centimeters from each other.

3. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the motion sensor is a tri-axial accelerometer.

4. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the height sensor is an altimeter.

5. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the computing unit is further adapted to recognize a preselected type of a motion in the motion signal (52) and/or in the height signal (53), and to detect that a motion of the preselected type has occurred (50, 51) in the motion signal and in the height signal.

6. The sensing device according to claim 5, wherein the computing unit is further adapted to subsequent to detecting the type of the motion, to determine the wearing position from one or more parameters (60-63) extracted from the motion signal and the height signal measured during the occurrence (50, 51) of the motion of the preselected type.

7. The sensing device according to claim 6, wherein the computing unit is adapted to execute a classification algorithm, and where the classification algorithm is adapted to detect the wearing position, based on the one or more parameters extracted from the motion signal and the height signal measured during the occurrence of the motion of the preselected type.

8. The sensing device according to claim 7, wherein the classification algorithm is adapted to access a database of predefined signal features, the predefined signal features being associated with related wearing positions, and wherein the classification algorithm is further adapted to perform a comparison between the predefined signal features and one or more parameters extracted from the motion signal and the height signal, so as to determine the wearing position of the sensing device.

9. The sensing device according to claim 7, wherein the computing unit is further adapted to access an initial wearing position from a set of possible wearing positions, detecting the wearing position, and compare the detected wearing position to the initial wearing position, if the detected wearing position matches the initial wearing position, the detected wearing position is maintained, otherwise a new initial wearing position from the set of possible wearing positions is accessed and a new wearing position is detected, and the new initial wearing position and the new detected wearing positions are compared.

10. A method of detecting a wearing position of a sensing device, the method comprising:

detecting a motion signal;

detecting a height signal; and

based on the motion signal and the height signal determining the wearing position of the sensing device with respect to a user.

11. A computer program product adapted to carry out the method according to claim 10 when running on a computer.