MONITORING DEVICE WITH WIRELESS COMMUNICATION OVER NON-CONTIGUOUS CHANNELS

• US 20140247141A1
• Filed: 07/31/2013
• Published: 09/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hello, Inc.
• Inventors: Proud, James
• Application Number:
  US13/955,892
• Publication Number:
  US 20140247141A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/870.02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0214 of power generation or supply
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0233 Special features of optical sensors or probes classified in A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/08 Sensors provided with means for identification, e.g. barcodes or memory chips
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• 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 5/443 Evaluating skin constituents, e.g. elastin, melanin, water
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6831 Straps, bands or harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/23 The load being a medical device, a medical implant, or a life supporting device
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/70 involving the reduction of electric, magnetic or electromagnetic leakage fields
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/80 involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 : using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 : User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 : for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A communication system for a monitoring device. The monitoring device includes, one or more sensors, a unique user ID, ID circuitry with ID storage, a communication system that reads and transmits the unique ID from an ID storage, a power source and a pathway system to route signals through the circuitry. The one or more sensors acquire user information selected from of at least one of, a user'"'"'s activities, behaviors and habit information. A telemetry system is in communication with the monitoring device. The monitoring device and/or the telemetry system includes a wireless communication device that in operation transmits a wireless communication packet to the other over a plurality of non-contiguous wireless communication channels.

Claims

1. A wireless communication system for a monitoring device, comprising:

one or more sensors coupled to the monitoring device that has a unique user ID, the one or more sensors acquiring user information selected from of at least one of, a user'"'"'s activities, behaviors and habit information;

ID circuitry at the monitoring device, the ID circuitry including ID storage, a communication system that reads and transmits the unique ID from an ID storage, a power source and a pathway system to route signals through the circuitry;

a telemetry system in communication with the monitoring device; and

wherein at least one of the monitoring device and telemetry system includes a wireless communication device that in operation transmits a wireless communication packet to the other over a plurality of non-contiguous wireless communication channels.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein wireless communication device transmits at least first signaling information over a first channel, and a second signaling information over a second channel.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least part of the first signaling information includes at least one of a bandwidth of the first channel and channel allocation information corresponding to the first channel.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication unit in operation communicates over a first channel of the plurality of channels according to a first back-off mechanism and communicates over a second channel of the plurality of channels according to a second back-off mechanism.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein, if a back-off period of the first back-off mechanism is complete, the wireless communication unit is has a wait up to a predefined time period for the back-off period of the second back-off mechanism to complete, prior to transmitting over the first channel.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein, when the back-off period of the second back-off mechanism is complete within the predefined time period, the wireless communication unit transmits over the first and second channels.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one channel of the plurality of channels includes two or more contiguous channels and the wireless communication unit transmits a common preamble of the packet over the contiguous channels.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one channel of the plurality of channels has a bandwidth of at least 20 megahertz (MHz).

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of channels has a total bandwidth of at least 160 megahertz (MHz).

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring device is a medical monitoring device that monitors at least one of, cardiac, hemodynamic, respiratory, respiratory rate, hemodynamic, blood pressure, pulse oximetry, capnography, respiratory, neurologic, blood glucose, childbirth, body temperature, stress, epilepsy, and toxicity.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a control system at the patient monitoring device to orchestrate communication between different systems.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

logic resources at the patient monitoring device to determine at least one of use, activity type, behavioral patterns and habits based on data relative to the patient.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein switching is performed between incremental and full syncing of data based on available communication routes.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the telemetry system in operation creates different classifications for data received from the patient monitoring device.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the classifications are selected from at least one of, a patient'"'"'s location, where the patient spends its time, with whom the patient spends its time, a determination of working relationships, a determination of family relationships, a patient'"'"'s activities, and a patient'"'"'s social relationships.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the telemetry system in operation provides firmware updates to the patient monitoring device.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein streams of information are sent from at least one sensor at the patient monitoring device to the telemetry system.

18. A system comprising:

a wireless communication system for a monitoring device, comprising;

one or more sensors coupled to the monitoring device that has a unique user ID, the one or more sensors acquiring user information selected from of at least one of, a user'"'"'s activities, behaviors and habit information, the monitoring device including ID circuitry at the monitoring device, the monitoring device including an antenna;

a telemetry system in communication with the monitoring device; and

a plurality of transmission chains.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a media-access-controller (MAC) to control the plurality of transmission chains to simultaneously transmit symbols of a wireless communication packet over a plurality of non-contiguous wireless communication channels.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein in operation the MAC transmits as part of a preamble of a packet, signaling information defining transmission characteristics over the plurality of non-contiguous channels.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein in operation the MAC transmits over a first channel of the plurality of non-contiguous channels first signaling information defining first transmission characteristics over the first channel, and over a second channel of the plurality of non-contiguous channels second signaling information defining second transmission characteristics.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein in operation the MAC transmits over the first channel at least part of the second signaling information, and transmits over the second channel at least part of the first signaling information.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein in operation the MAC transmits over the first channel first and second information elements including the first and second signaling information.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein in operation the MAC communicates over a first channel of the plurality of channels in response to a first back-off and communicates over a second channel of the plurality of channels in response to a second back-off.

25. A method of communicating wirelessly with a monitoring device, comprising:

a monitoring device with one or more sensors, a unique user IDID circuitry and an antenna;

obtaining via the one or more sensors user information selected from of at least one of, a user'"'"'s activities, behaviors and habit information,

communicating between a telemetry system and the monitoring device; and

transmitting via a wireless communication device a wireless communication packet between the monitoring device and the monitoring device over a plurality of non-contiguous wireless communication channels.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

transmitting at least first signaling information over a first channel, and a second signaling information over a second channel.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least part of the first signaling information includes at least one of a bandwidth of the first channel and channel allocation information corresponding to the first channel.

28. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

communicating over a first channel of the plurality of channels according to a first back-off mechanism and communicates over a second channel of the plurality of channels according to a second back-off mechanism.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

wherein, if a back-off period of the first back-off mechanism is complete, the wireless communication unit is has a wait up to a predefined time period for the back-off period of the second back-off mechanism to complete, prior to transmitting over the first channel.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising:

wherein, when the back-off period of the second back-off mechanism is complete within the predefined time period, the wireless communication unit transmits over the first and second channels.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein

at least one channel of the plurality of channels includes two or more contiguous channels, and the wireless communication unit transmits a common preamble of the packet over the contiguous channels.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein at least one channel of the plurality of channels has a bandwidth of at least 20 megahertz (MHz).

33. The system of claim 25, wherein the plurality of channels has a total bandwidth of at least 160 megahertz (MHz).

34. The system of claim 25, wherein the monitoring device is a medical monitoring device that monitors at least one of, cardiac, hemodynamic, respiratory, respiratory rate, hemodynamic, blood pressure, pulse oximetry, capnography, respiratory, neurologic, blood glucose, childbirth, body temperature, stress, epilepsy, and toxicity.