Systems, Computer Medium and Computer-Implemented Methods for Coaching Employees Based Upon Monitored Health Conditions Using an Avatar

• US 20130011819A1
• Filed: 07/02/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Government of Saudi Arabia)
• Original Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Government of Saudi Arabia)
• Inventors: Horseman, Samantha J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,833,142 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/257
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/00 Measuring for diagnostic purposes radiation diagnosis A61B6/00; diagnosis by ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves A61B8/00; Identification of persons
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0008 Temperature signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0537 Measuring body composition by impedance, e.g. tissue hydration or fat content
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/08 Detecting, measuring or recording devices for evaluating the respiratory organs A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1114 Tracking parts of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/145 Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissuemeasuring of blood pressure or blood flow A61B5/02; non-radiation detecting or locating of foreign bodies in blood A61B5/06
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/40 Detecting, measuring or recording for evaluating the nervous system A61B5/4806, A61B5/4821, A61B5/4824 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4872 Body fat
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6887 mounted on external non-worn devices, e.g. non-medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6891 Furniture
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6892 Mats
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6897 Computer input devices, e.g. mice or keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/72 : Signal processing specially adapted for physiological signals or for diagnostic purposes character recognition, recognising digital ink, document-oriented image-based pattern recognition G06V30/00; recognition or understanding of postal images G06V30/424
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 : Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• 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 5/742 : using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 : ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 : for remote operation

Abstract

Provided are embodiments of systems, computer medium and computer-implemented methods for monitoring the health of an employee. A method for monitoring the health of an employee including collecting health data corresponding to at least one of biometric health data and biomechanical health data for an employee acquired via a plurality of health sensors located throughout the employee'"'"'s workstation, determining a health profile for the employee based at least in part on the collected health data, and serving, to an employee computer for display, health profile content comprising an avatar configured to communicate information relating to the health profile for the employee. The plurality of health sensors including at least one of biometric sensors and biomechanical sensors.

Claims

1. A system for providing health information to an employee based on one more monitored health conditions, the system comprising:

a computer workstation comprising a graphical user interface, the computer workstation being in communication with a communications network;

a set of health sensors located at the workstation for detecting biometric and biomechanical characteristics of the employee'"'"'s health, the set of health sensors comprising at least one of;

a set of biometric sensors in communication with the communications network and comprising of at least one of one or more temperature transducers, one or more force transducers, one or more pairs of conductive contacts, one or more blood pressure transducers, one or more respiration sensors, and one or more pulse oximeters, the set of biometric sensors configured to output biometric sensor data comprising of temperature data output by one or more of the temperature transducers that is indicative of a body temperature of the employee, force data output by one or more of the force transducers that is indicative of a body weight of the employee, resistance data output by one or more of the pairs of conductive contacts that is indicative of a body fat of the employee, pressure data output by one or more of the blood pressure transducers that is indicative of a blood pressure of the employee, respiration data output by the one or more respiration sensors indicative of a respiration rate of the employee, and blood condition data output by one or more of the pulse oximeters that is indicative of a blood oxygenation of the employee; and

a set of biomechanical sensors in communication with the communications network and comprising of at least one of one or more temperature transducers, one or more force transducers and one or more cameras adapted to capture three-dimensional video data, the set of biomechanical sensors configured to output biomechanical sensor data comprising of temperature data output by one or more of the temperature transducers that is indicative of a body position of the employee, force data output by one or more of the force transducers that is indicative of the body position of the employee, and image data output by one or more of the cameras that comprises three-dimensional images that are indicative of the body position and eye movement of the employee,

a database in communication with the communications network and storing employee health information associated with one or more employees; and

a computer server in communication with the communication network, the computer server comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, an input/output (I/O) device interface and a processor, the I/O device interface connecting the computer server to the communications network, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a set of computer readable instructions stored thereon that are executable by the processor to cause the computer server to perform the steps of;

collecting, via the communications network, the biometric sensor data output by the set of biometric sensors and the biomechanical data output by the set of biomechanical sensors;

determining a health profile for the employee using the biometric sensor data and the biomechanical sensor data collected, the health profile for the employee comprising health characteristics, health conditions, health risks and health plans for the employee determined using the biometric sensor data and the biomechanical sensor data collected;

updating the health information stored in the database to reflect the health profile for the employee; and

serving, to the computer workstation for presentation to a user of the computer workstation, health profile content comprising an avatar configured to communicate information relating to the health profile for the employee, the avatar comprising at least one of a health status avatar configured to communicate at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions, the health risks and the health plans of the health profile for the employee, and a coaching avatar configured to communicate coaching information comprising suggested actions to assists the employee in accomplishing one or more health goals of the health plans.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the health profile content comprises a textual description of the at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions, the health risks, and the health plans of the health profile for the employee, and wherein the avatar comprises an animated character configured to verbally communicate the at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions, the health risks, and the health plans of the health profile for the employee such that the user is provided a display of a textual description of the at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions, the health risks, and the health plans of the health profile for the employee accompanied by a verbal recitation, by the avatar, of the at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions, the health risks, and the health plans of the updated health profile for the employee.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the avatar comprises an animated character configured to communicate via audible speech, and wherein the avatar is animated such that the avatar appears to be speaking to the user.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions are executable by the processor to further cause the computer server to perform the steps of:

comparing one or more of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks for the employee to a corresponding predetermined threshold range for the one or more of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks; and

determining, based on the comparison, that at least one of the one or more of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks determined for the employee are outside of the corresponding predetermined threshold range for the one or more of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks,

wherein the avatar comprises a graphical representation of a human body comprising one or more graphical alerts displayed on the graphical representation of the human body, the graphical alerts being displayed at locations on the graphical representation of the human body that correspond to locations of the one or more of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks for the employee determined to be outside of the corresponding predetermined threshold range.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions are executable by the processor to further cause the computer server to perform the steps of:

identifying a health goal of the health plan for the employee; and

identifying an action to be taken by the employee to assist in accomplishing the health goal,

wherein the avatar comprises a coaching avatar configured to provide an animated demonstration of the action to be taken by the employee to assist in accomplishing the health goal.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the action comprises a physical exercise.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein the computer readable instructions are executable by the processor to further cause the computer server to perform the steps of:

identifying a health goal of the health plan for the employee; and

identifying an action to be taken by the employee to assist in accomplishing the health goal,

wherein the avatar comprises a coaching avatar configured to provide a verbal description of the action to be taken by the employee to assist in accomplishing the health goal.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein the avatar is displayed via an interactive health dashboard.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein the avatar is displayed via a health status widget.

10. A system for monitoring the health of an employee, the system comprising:

an employee workstation comprising;

an employee computer; and

a plurality of health sensors located throughout the employee workstation, the plurality of health sensors comprising at least one of biometric sensors and biomechanical sensors, the biometric sensors configured to sense biometric characteristics of the employee and output corresponding biometric health data indicative of biometric characteristics of the employee, the biomechanical sensors configured to sense biomechanical characteristics of the employee and output corresponding biomechanical health data indicative of biomechanical characteristics of the employee, the plurality of health sensors configured to output health data corresponding to the biometric health data and the biomechanical health data for the employee; and

a health monitoring server configured to;

collect the health data corresponding to the biometric health data and the biomechanical health data for the employee;

determine a health profile for the employee based at least in part on the collected health data, the health profile comprising one or more of health characteristics, health conditions, health risks, and health plans for the employee; and

serve, to the employee computer for display, health profile content comprising an avatar configured to communicate information relating to the health profile for the employee.

11. A system according to claim 10, wherein the health profile content comprises a textual description of the at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions, the health risks, and the health plans of the health profile for the employee, and wherein the avatar comprises an animated character configured to verbally communicate at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions, the health risks, and the health plans of the health profile for the employee.

12. A system according to claim 11, wherein the avatar comprises an animated character configured to communicate via audible speech, and wherein the avatar is animated such that the avatar appears to be speaking to the user.

13. A system according to claim 10, wherein the health monitor server is configured to:

compare one or more of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks for the employee to acceptable ranges for the one or more health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks; and

determine, based on the comparison, that at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks for the employee are outside of the acceptable ranges for the one or more of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks,

wherein the avatar comprises a graphical representation of a human body comprising one or more graphical alerts displayed on the graphical representation of the human body, the graphical alerts being displayed at locations on the representation of the human body that correspond to locations of the one or more of the health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks determined to be outside of the acceptable ranges for the one or more health characteristics, the health conditions and the health risks.

14. A system according to claim 10, wherein the health monitor server is configured to:

identify a health goal of the health plan; and

identify an action to be taken by the employee to assist in accomplishing the health goal,

wherein the avatar comprises a coaching avatar configured to provide an animated demonstration of the action to be taken by the employee to assist in accomplishing the health goal.

15. A system according to claim 14, wherein the action comprises a physical exercise.

16. A system according to claim 10, wherein the health monitor server is configured to:

identify a health goal of the health plan; and

identifying an action to be taken by the employee to assist in accomplishing the health goal,

wherein the avatar comprises a coaching avatar configured to provide a verbal description of the action to be taken by the employee to assist in accomplishing the health goal.

17. A system according to claim 10, wherein the avatar is displayed via an interactive health dashboard.

18. A system according to claim 10, wherein the avatar is displayed via health status widget.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising program instructions for use in providing health information to an employee based on one more health conditions monitored by a health monitoring system comprising a computer workstation in communication with a communications network, and a set of health sensors located at the workstation for detecting biometric and biomechanical characteristics of the employee'"'"'s health, the set of health sensors comprising at least one of a set of biometric sensors and a set of biomechanical sensors, the biometric sensors comprising of at least one of one or more temperature transducers, one or more force transducers, one or more pairs of conductive contacts, one or more blood pressure transducers, one or more respiration sensors, and one or more pulse oximeters, the set of biometric sensors configured to output biometric sensor data comprising of temperature data output by one or more of the temperature transducers that is indicative of a body temperature of the employee, force data output by one or more of the force transducers that is indicative of a body weight of the employee, resistance data output by one or more of the pairs of conductive contacts that is indicative of a body fat of the employee, pressure data output by one or more of the blood pressure transducers that is indicative of a blood pressure of the employee, respiration data output by the one or more respiration sensors indicative of a respiration rate of the employee, and blood condition data output by one or more of the pulse oximeters that is indicative of a blood oxygenation of the employee, the set of biomechanical sensors comprising of at least one of one or more temperature transducers, one or more force transducers and one or more cameras adapted to capture three-dimensional video data, the set of biomechanical sensors configured to output biomechanical sensor data comprising of temperature data output by one or more of the temperature transducers that is indicative of a body position of the employee, force data output by one or more of the force transducers that is indicative of the body position of the employee, and image data output by one or more of the cameras comprising three-dimensional images that are indicative of the body position and eye movement of the employee, the computer program instructions being executable by a computer processor to cause the steps of:

collecting, via the communications network, the biometric sensor data output by the set of biometric sensors and the biomechanical data output by the set of biomechanical sensors;

determining a health profile for the employee using the biometric sensor data and the biomechanical sensor data collected, the health profile for the employee comprising health characteristics, health conditions, health risks and health plans for the employee determined using the biometric sensor data and the biomechanical sensor data collected;

updating health information stored in a database to reflect the health profile for the employee; and

serving, to the computer workstation for presentation to a user of the computer workstation, health profile content comprising an avatar configured to communicate information relating to the health profile for the employee, the avatar comprising at least one of a health status avatar configured to communicate at least one of the health characteristics, the health conditions, the health risks and the health plans of the health profile for the employee, and a coaching avatar configured to communicate coaching information comprising suggested actions to assists the employee in accomplishing one or more health goals of the health plans.

20. A computer implemented method for monitoring the health of an employee, the computer implemented method comprising:

collecting health data corresponding to at least one of biometric health data and biomechanical health data for an employee acquired via a plurality of health sensors located throughout the employee'"'"'s workstation, the employee'"'"'s workstation comprising;

an employee computer; and

the plurality of health sensors comprising of at least one of biometric sensors and biomechanical sensors, the biometric sensors configured to sense biometric characteristics of the employee and output corresponding biometric health data indicative of biometric characteristics of the employee, the biomechanical sensors configured to sense biomechanical characteristics of the employee and output corresponding biomechanical health data indicative of biomechanical characteristics of the employee, the plurality of health sensors configured to output health data corresponding to the biometric health data and the biomechanical health data for the employee;

determining a health profile for the employee based at least in part on the collected health data, the health profile comprising one or more of health characteristics, health conditions, health risks, and health plans for the employee;

serving, to the employee computer for display, health profile content comprising an avatar configured to communicate information relating to the health profile for the employee.