BIOMETRIC, PHYSIOLOGICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING USING A CLOSED CHAMBER

• US 20160324478A1
• Filed: 05/09/2016
• Published: 11/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ST Biotech, LLC
• Original Assignee: Steven W. Goldstein
• Inventors: Goldstein, Steven Wayne
• Granted Patent: US 10,709,388 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 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 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1172 using fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14507 specially adapted for measuring characteristics of body fluids other than blood devices for taking samples of body liquids A61B10/0045
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14542 for measuring blood gases A61B5/14551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/721 using a separate sensor to detect motion or using motion information derived from signals other than the physiological signal to be measured
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/00 Deaf-aid sets , i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception electrical stimulation of auditory nerves to promote the auditory function A61N1/36038; optical stimulation of auditory nerves to promote the auditory function A61N5/0622
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2420/01 Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/00 Indicating arrangements; Control arrangements, e.g. balance control

Abstract

A monitoring device configured for insertion into a conduit of a subject includes a housing, at least one physiological sensor coupled to the housing, a transmitter coupled to the housing, an expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon coupled to the housing and configured to occlude at least a portion of the conduit, a power source attached to the housing, and a processor coupled to the housing and operatively coupled to memory containing computer instruction causing the monitoring device to obtain physiological information via the at least one physiological sensor where the physiological information includes one or more of pulse rate information, body temperature information, breathing rate information, blood pressure information, cardiac output information, or blood gas level information, and processing and analyzing the physiological information to provide a result.

Claims

1. A monitoring device configured for placement in or insertion into a conduit of a subject, comprising:

a housing;

at least one physiological sensor coupled to the housing;

a transmitter coupled to the housing;

an expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon coupled to the housing and configured to occlude at least a portion of the conduit;

a power source attached to the housing; and

a processor coupled to the housing and operatively coupled to memory containing computer instruction, the computer instructions when executed by the processor causing the monitoring device to perform the operations comprising;

obtaining physiological information from a subject via the at least one physiological sensor, wherein the physiological information comprises one or more of the following;

pulse rate information, body temperature information, breathing rate information, blood pressure information, cardiac output information, and blood gas level information; and

processing and analyzing the physiological information to provide a result.

2. The monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon carries the at least one physiological sensor and further provides isolation from ambient interference or motion artifacts.

3. The monitoring device of claim 2, wherein the device further comprises a motion sensor coupled to the housing and wherein the processor obtains subject motion information via the motion sensor.

4. The monitoring device of claim 3, wherein the processor further causes the monitoring device to process the subject motion information via the processor to identify footstep information, body motion information, head motion information, jaw motion information, or swallowing information.

5. The monitoring device of claim 4, wherein the processor further causes the monitoring device to process the obtained physiological information to remove corrupted signals associated with the subject motion information from the physiological information.

6. The monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the memory further includes computer instructions which when executed causes the processor to perform the operation of analyzing the processed physiological information in context with an identified type of motion via the processor to identify one or more health issues associated with the subject.

7. The monitoring device of claim 6, wherein analyzing the processed physiological information in context with the identified type of motion comprises determining a stress level of the subject and identifying a source of stress.

8. The monitoring device of claim 1, further comprising transmitting via a transmitter the processed physiological information to a device remotely located from the monitoring device.

9. The monitoring device of claim 1, further comprising processing the obtained physiological information, via the processor, into signals that can be heard and/or viewed by the subject.

10. The monitoring device of claim 1, further comprising communicating via the processor corrective action information to a user interface, in response to identifying one or more health issues associated physiological information.

11. The monitoring device of claim 1, further comprising obtaining environmental condition information in a vicinity of the monitoring device via an environmental sensor attached to the housing, wherein the environmental condition information includes information about one or more of the following:

volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pollution, noise, light, or temperature.

12. The monitoring device of claim 11, further comprising analyzing the processed physiological information, via the processor, to identify a correlation between the processed physiological information and the obtained environmental condition information.

13. The monitoring device of claim 12, further comprising generating, via the processor, a health and/or environmental exposure assessment that identifies and/or predicts one or more physiological or environmental issues in response to identifying a correlation between the obtained physiological information and environmental condition information.

14. The monitoring device of claim 13, further comprising analyzing the health and/or environmental exposure assessment, via the processor, to identify and/or predict psychological and/or physiological stress.

15. The monitoring device of claim 14, further comprising communicating and presenting identified and/or predicted psychological stress via the processor on a user interface.

16. The monitoring device of claim 11, further comprising transmitting the obtained environmental condition information to a device remotely located from the subject via the transmitter.

17. The monitoring device of claim 3, wherein the motion sensor is an accelerometer, an acoustic sensor, a MEMS motion sensor, or a gyroscope.

18. The monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the portable monitoring device is an earpiece module.

19. A method of monitoring a subject via a monitoring device attached to the subject, wherein the monitoring device includes a housing, at least one physiological sensor attached to the housing, at least one environmental sensor attached to the housing that measures one or more of the following in the vicinity of the subject:

volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pollution, noise, light, and temperature, a motion sensor attached to the housing, a processor attached to the housing, an expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon coupled to the housing and configured to occlude at least a portion of the conduit of the subject and wherein the expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon carries at least one among the at least one physiological sensor or the at least one environmental sensor;

a transmitter attached to the housing, and a power source attached to the housing, the method comprising;

occluding at least a portion of a biological conduit of the subject using the expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon;

obtaining physiological information from the subject via the at least one physiological sensor, wherein the physiological information comprises one or more of the following;

pulse rate information, body temperature information, breathing rate information, blood pressure information, cardiac output information, and blood gas level information; and

processing the obtained physiological information and environmental condition information wherein the expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon further provides isolation from ambient interference or motion artifacts.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises the steps performed by a processor of

obtaining subject motion information via the motion sensor;

processing the subject motion information via the processor to identify footstep information, body motion information, head motion information, jaw motion information, or swallowing information;

obtaining environmental condition information in a vicinity of the subject via the at least one environmental sensor, wherein the environmental condition information includes one or more of the following;

VOCs, pollution, noise, light, and temperature; and

processing the obtained physiological information and environmental condition information via the processor to remove corrupted signals associated with the subject motion from the physiological information and environmental condition information.