Portable Monitoring Devices for Processing Applications and Processing Analysis of Physiological Conditions of a User Associated With the Portable Monitoring Device

• US 20140206954A1
• Filed: 03/20/2014
• Published: 07/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Yuen, Shelten Gee Jao, Park, James, Friedman, Eric Nathan, Martinez, Mark Manuel, Axely, Andrew Cole
• Granted Patent: US 9,801,547 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0214 of power generation or supply
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0242 adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0059 using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence A61B5/0093, A61B5/1455, A61B5/02416 and A61B5/0261 take 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 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• 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 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/112 Gait analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/222 combined with detection or measurement of physiological parameters, e.g. heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/441 Skin evaluation, e.g. for skin disorder diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4809 Sleep detection, i.e. determining whether a subject is asleep or not
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4812 Detecting sleep stages or cycles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6838 : Clamps or clips
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 : Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 : Pedometers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 : relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 : for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 : for remote operation

Abstract

An activity monitoring device and associated methods for using and interfacing with the activity monitoring device are provided. In one example, the activity monitoring device includes a housing configured for attachment to a body part of a user. Also included ins a display screen attached to the housing and a sensor for capturing physiological conditions of the user. The sensor is disposed along a surface of the housing so that the sensor is proximate to the body part, the body part having at least some exposed skin. The activity monitoring device also includes memory for storing the captured physiological conditions, and a processor for examining the captured physiological conditions. At a particular time, the processor automatically selects an application to execute from a plurality of applications based on characteristics of the captured physiological conditions.

Claims

1. An activity monitoring device, comprising,

a housing configured for attachment to a body part of a user;

a display screen attached to the housing;

a sensor for capturing motion data of the user, the motion data being representative of one or more activities;

a sensor for capturing physiological conditions of the user, the sensor being disposed along a surface of the housing so that the sensor is proximate to the body part, the body part having at least some exposed skin;

memory for storing the captured physiological conditions and the motion data; and

a processor for examining the captured physiological conditions and the motion data, and at a particular time based on the examining of the motion data, automatically executing an application of a plurality of applications to process the captured physiological conditions.

2. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the sensor includes a plurality of light emitting devices and at least one detector.

3. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the captured physiological conditions include a heart rate of the user.

4. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein examining the motion data by the processor identifies a period of time of occurrence of one or more of the activities of the user, and the processed captured physiological conditions produce specific physiological conditions that are correlated to the period of time.

5. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the specific physiological conditions include one or more of heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, galvanic skin response, motion, skin temperature, or body temperature, or combinations thereof,

the processor using the specific physiological conditions to identify when the user is attempting to go to sleep, entering sleep, is asleep and/or is awoken from a period of sleep.

6. The activity monitoring device of claim 4, wherein the sensor includes a plurality of light emitting devices (LEDs) and at least one detector, wherein the LEDs are directed toward the exposed skin of the user so that light is reflected from an artery under the skin and the detector captures at least some of the light reflected from the artery.

7. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the housing includes a band for enabling the attachment to the body part of the user.

8. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the housing includes a wrist band and the body part of the user includes a wrist of the user, and the surface of the housing is configured to be proximate to the skin of the user.

9. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, further comprising,

an environmental sensor for capturing environment data, the processor configured to execute the automatic execution additionally based on the environment data.

10. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein automatically executing the application causes data to be processed and stored in the memory and/or data to be displayed on the display screen.

11. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein automatically executing the application includes launching or starting a specific functionality provided by the selected application.

12. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to automatically close or discontinue execution of the application in response to examining the physiological conditions and environmental conditions.

13. The activity monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to set one or more modes of one or more applications of the activity monitoring device based on examination of the physiological conditions and/or environmental conditions.

14. An activity monitoring device, comprising,

a wrist band;

a display screen disposed on a housing, the wrist band being coupled to the housing;

a first sensor disposed in the housing to capture data associated with a user;

a second sensor disposed in the housing to capture environmental conditions;

memory disposed in the housing for storing the captured data associated with the user, for storing captured environmental conditions, and for storing one or more applications; and

a processor in communication with the first and second sensors, the memory and the display screen, the processor configured to execute from time to time the one or more applications to render content associated with the one or more applications on the display screen, at least one of the applications being configured to present metrics regarding the captured data of the user or the environmental conditions, the captured data including one of motion data by the user, biometric data of the user, or combinations of two or more thereof, the processor selecting at particular times certain of the applications to execute based in part on analysis of one or both of the captured data associated with the user and the captured environmental conditions.

15. An activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein select ones of the applications provide a watch function, a pedometer function, a communication function, a biometric analysis function, an environmental conditions analysis function, a motion data analysis function, or a combination thereof.

16. An activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein the environmental conditions include one or more of a time of day, a pressure or motion characteristic, an inertial characteristic, an accelerometer characteristic, a temperature characteristic, a light characteristic, an audio characteristic, a compass characteristic, a location characteristic, or combination of two or more thereof.

17. An activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein selecting at particular times certain of the applications to execute further includes detecting when multiple conditions occur simultaneously.

18. An activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein the certain of the applications that are selected are contextually usable in relation to the one or both of the captured data associated with the user and the captured environmental conditions.

19. An activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein one of the certain of the applications is automatically started or closed automatically based on analysis of one or both of the captured data associated with the user and the captured environmental conditions.

20. The activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein the first sensor includes a plurality of light emitting devices and at least one detector.

21. The activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein the biometric data of the user quantifies at least one physiological condition of the user.

22. The activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein the physiological condition is heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, galvanic skin response, skin temperature, body temperature, galvanic skin condition, or combinations thereof.

23. The activity monitoring device of claim 14, wherein the first sensor includes a plurality of light emitting devices (LEDs) and at least one detector, wherein the LEDs are directed toward exposed skin of the user so that light is reflected from an artery under the skin and the detector captures at least some of the light reflected from the artery for analysis by the processor.

24. A method, comprising,

receiving motion data from an activity tracking device while the activity tracking device is worn by a user;

receiving physiological data of the user while the activity tracking device is worn by the user;

identifying a condition of the user based at least in part on the received motion data and the received physiological data;

launching an application of a plurality of applications stored in memory of the activity tracking device based on the identified condition of the user, wherein the method is executed by a processor.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the physiological data includes data regarding one or more of heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, galvanic skin response, motion, skin temperature, or body temperature, or combinations thereof.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the identified condition of the user signifies when the user is attempting to go to sleep, is entering sleep, is asleep and/or is awoken from a period of sleep.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the physiological data includes information from a plurality of light emitting devices (LEDs) and at least one detector, wherein the LEDs are directed toward exposed skin of the user so that light is reflected from an artery under the skin and the detector captures at least some of the light reflected from the artery.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising,

receiving environmental data, the environmental data providing one or more additional indicia to identify the condition of the user, the environmental data includes one or more of a time of day, a pressure or motion characteristic, an inertial data characteristic, an accelerometer characteristic, a temperature characteristic, a light characteristic, an audio characteristic, a compass characteristic, a location characteristic, or combination of two or more thereof.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the applications provide a watch function, or a pedometer function, or a communication function, or a biometric analysis function, or an environmental conditions analysis function, or a motion data analysis function, or a combination thereof.

30. A computer readable media having program instructions for operating an activity tracking device, comprising,

program instructions for receiving motion data from an activity tracking device while the activity tracking device is worn by a user;

program instructions for receiving physiological data of the user while the activity tracking device is worn by the user;

program instructions for identifying a condition of the user based at least in part on the received motion data and the received physiological data;

program instructions for launching an application of a plurality of applications stored in memory of the activity tracking device based on the identified condition of the user, wherein the physiological data includes information from a plurality of light emitting devices (LEDs) and at least one detector, wherein the LEDs are directed toward exposed skin of the user so that light is reflected from an artery under the skin and the detector captures at least some of the light reflected from the artery.