DEVICE TO REDUCE TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

• US 20180028091A1
• Filed: 10/05/2017
• Published: 02/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chiming Huang
• Original Assignee: Chiming Huang
• Inventors: HUANG, CHIMING
• Granted Patent: US 10,188,311 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A42B 3/0473 Neck restraints
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/05 Detecting, measuring or recording for diagnosis by means of electric currents or magnetic fields; Measuring using microwaves or radio waves impedance plethysmography A61B5/0295; measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof A61B5/11; detecting, measuring or recording bioelectric or biomagnetic signals of the body or parts thereof A61B5/24
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• 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 5/1107 Measuring contraction of parts of the body, e.g. organ, muscle apparatus for measuring work or force in general G01L
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/375 using biofeedback
• 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: A61F 5/3707 for the head cervical supports A61F5/055; splints A61F5/05883
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/10 for the head A63B71/081 takes precedence ; in the form of caps or hats A42B1/08; helmets A42B3/00
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 1/04 Protection helmets crash helmets A42B3/00

Abstract

A device for reducing traumatic brain injury comprises a first sensor, a first linkage element, and a processing element. The first sensor is coupled to a head component and configured to measure an acceleration of a user'"'"'s head and to generate a sequence of real-time measured samples. The first linkage element is configured to connect the head component to a body component and is able to switch between a first state in which it is relatively flexible and a second state in which it is relatively rigid. The first linkage element is switched from its first state to its second state by a locking signal. The processing element is configured to receive the real-time measured samples and to generate the locking signal when each of a portion of the real-time measured samples is greater than one of a corresponding portion of a plurality of dynamic concussion thresholds.

Claims

1. A device for reducing traumatic brain injury, the device comprising:

a first sensor coupled to a head component configured to measure a motion value of a user'"'"'s head as a result of motion of the head component and to generate a sequence of real-time measured samples;

a linkage element configured to connect the head component to a body component, the linkage element switchable between a first state in which it is relatively flexible and a second state in which it is relatively rigid based upon a locking signal; and

a processing element configured to

receive the measured samples,

compare the measured samples to a threshold, and

generate the locking signal when each one of a plurality of successive measured samples is greater than the threshold.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the threshold is a time-varying threshold.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing element is further configured to generate the locking signal when each one of a predetermined number of successive measured samples is greater than the threshold.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing element is further configured to generate the locking signal when each successive measured sample is greater than the threshold for a predetermined period of time.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing element is further configured to

calculate a plurality of dynamic concussion thresholds, each dynamic concussion threshold associated with one of a plurality of sequential, time-based array cells, each array cell including a mean of historically-collected measured samples and a standard deviation of historically-collected measured samples from the first sensor, such that each dynamic concussion threshold is calculated as a sum of the mean and the standard deviation for the associated array cell,

compare a first measured sample to a first dynamic concussion threshold, a second measured sample to a second dynamic concussion threshold, and so forth in sequence, and

generate the locking signal when each one of a predetermined number of successive measured samples is greater than the corresponding successive dynamic concussion thresholds.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the processing element is further configured to calculate the dynamic concussion threshold for each array cell as a sum of the mean and a product of the standard deviation and a sensitivity factor, wherein the sensitivity factor is a variable value which determines the sensitivity of the device to an impact received by the user.

7. The device of claim 5, wherein the processing element is further configured to calculate the mean and the standard deviation of each array cell to include a current measured sample if the measured sample is less than the dynamic concussion threshold for the array cell.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing element is further configured to

calculate a plurality of dynamic concussion thresholds, each dynamic concussion threshold associated with one of a plurality of sequential, time-based array cells, each array cell including a mean of historically-collected measured samples and a standard deviation of historically-collected measured samples from the first sensor, such that each dynamic concussion threshold is calculated as a sum of the mean and the standard deviation for the associated array cell,

compare a first measured sample to a first dynamic concussion threshold, a second measured sample to a second dynamic concussion threshold, and so forth in sequence, and

generate the locking signal when each successive measured sample is greater than the corresponding successive dynamic concussion threshold for a predetermined period of time.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the processing element is further configured to calculate the mean and the standard deviation of each array cell to include a current measured sample if the measured sample is less than the dynamic concussion threshold for the array cell.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing element is further configured to determine a plurality of periods of motion, wherein each period of motion is a time period during which the value of each measured sample is greater than a motion threshold and the processing element begins comparing the measured samples to the threshold when a period of motion starts.

11. A device for reducing traumatic brain injury, the device comprising:

a first sensor coupled to a head component configured to measure a motion value of a user'"'"'s head as a result of motion of the head component and to generate a sequence of real-time measured samples;

a linkage element configured to connect the head component to a body component, the linkage element switchable between a first state in which it is relatively flexible and a second state in which it is relatively rigid based upon a locking signal; and

a processing element configured to

receive the measured samples,

calculate a plurality of dynamic concussion thresholds, each dynamic concussion threshold associated with one of a plurality of sequential, time-based array cells, each array cell including a mean of historically-collected measured samples and a standard deviation of historically-collected measured samples from the first sensor, such that each dynamic concussion threshold is calculated as a sum of the mean and the standard deviation for the associated array cell,

compare a first measured sample to a first dynamic concussion threshold, a second measured sample to a second dynamic concussion threshold, and so forth in sequence, and

generate the locking signal when each one of a plurality of successive measured samples is greater than the corresponding dynamic concussion threshold.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the processing element is further configured to generate the locking signal when each one of a predetermined number of successive measured samples is greater than the corresponding successive dynamic concussion thresholds.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein the processing element is further configured to generate the locking signal when each successive measured sample is greater than the corresponding successive dynamic concussion threshold for a predetermined period of time.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the processing element is further configured to calculate the mean and the standard deviation of each array cell to include a current measured sample if the measured sample is less than the dynamic concussion threshold for the array cell.

15. The device of claim 11, wherein the processing element is further configured to determine a plurality of periods of motion, wherein each period of motion is a time period during which the value of each measured sample is greater than a motion threshold and the processing element begins comparing the measured samples to the dynamic concussion thresholds when a period of motion starts.

16. A device for reducing traumatic brain injury, the device comprising:

a first sensor coupled to a head component configured to measure a motion value of a user'"'"'s head as a result of motion of the head component and to generate a sequence of real-time measured samples;

a linkage element configured to connect the head component to the body component, the linkage element switchable between a first state in which it is relatively flexible and a second state in which it is relatively rigid based upon a locking signal; and

a processing element configured to

receive the measured samples,

compare the measured samples to a motion threshold that is constant,

perform the following when the measured samples are greater than the motion threshold;

compare a first measured sample that is greater than the motion threshold to a first time-varying, sequential threshold,

compare each successive measured sample that is greater than the motion threshold to a successive one of a plurality of time-varying, sequential thresholds, and

generate the locking signal when each one of a plurality of successive measured samples is greater than the corresponding time-varying, sequential threshold.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the processing element is further configured to perform the following when the measured samples are greater than the motion threshold:

calculate a plurality of dynamic concussion thresholds, each dynamic concussion threshold associated with one of a plurality of sequential, time-based array cells, each array cell including a mean of historically-collected measured samples and a standard deviation of historically-collected measured samples from the first sensor, such that each dynamic concussion threshold is calculated as a sum of the mean and the standard deviation for the associated array cell,

compare a first measured sample that is greater than the motion threshold to a first dynamic concussion threshold,

compare each successive measured sample that is greater than the motion threshold to a successive one of the dynamic concussion thresholds, and

generate the locking signal when each one of the predetermined number of successive measured samples is greater than the corresponding successive dynamic concussion thresholds.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the processing element is further configured to perform the following when the measured samples are greater than the motion threshold:

calculate a plurality of dynamic concussion thresholds, each dynamic concussion threshold associated with one of a plurality of sequential, time-based array cells, each array cell including a mean of historically-collected measured samples and a standard deviation of historically-collected measured samples from the first sensor, such that each dynamic concussion threshold is calculated as a sum of the mean and the standard deviation for the associated array cell,

compare a first measured sample that is greater than the motion threshold to a first dynamic concussion threshold,

compare each successive measured sample that is greater than the motion threshold to a successive one of the dynamic concussion thresholds, and

generate the locking signal when each successive measured sample is greater than the corresponding successive dynamic concussion threshold for a predetermined period of time.

19. The device of claim 16, wherein the processing element is further configured to calculate the mean and the standard deviation of each array cell to include a current measured sample if the measured sample is less than the dynamic concussion threshold for the array cell.

20. The device of claim 16, wherein the processing element is further configured to calculate the dynamic concussion threshold for each array cell as a sum of the mean and a product of the standard deviation and a sensitivity factor, wherein the sensitivity factor is a variable value which determines the sensitivity of the device to an impact received by the user.