System and method for supervising people with mental disorders

• US 6,540,674 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2000
• Issued: 04/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: IPG Healthcare 501 Limited (Coller IP Capital Limited)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zadrozny, Wlodek W., Kanevsky, Dimitri
• Primary Examiner(s): Winakur, Eric F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): McCrosky, David J.
• Application Number:
  US09/751,531
• Publication Number:
  US 20020087052A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: 600/300, 600/301, 705/2, 705/3, 340/573.1, 340/573.4
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0242 adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution
• 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 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7232 involving compression of the physiological signal, e.g. to extend the signal recording period

Abstract

A system and method for supervising persons with a mental illness, the method comprising the steps of acquiring sensor data related to the person and the person'"'"'s environment; tracking the acquired sensor data; and recognizing changes in the sensor data indicating the occurrence of an event. The method further comprises the steps of acquiring access to an event database of stored event data entries, each event data entry comprising identification of one of the sensor means, identification of the entity being sensed by the sensor means, and allowable values for the sensor data and recommendations for assistance providing actions to be taken when the received sensor data is out of range from the allowable sensor data; and recognizing the occurrence of an incident in which the received sensor data is outside of the range of the stored allowable sensor data values.

Claims

1. A system for supervising persons with a mental illness, the system comprising:

at least one sensor means for sensing physical properties relating to a person and the person'"'"'s environment, the sensor means outputting sensor data, the sensor data at least providing an indication of one or more actions of the person;

a Supervision Provider Server receiving the sensor data;

the Supervision Provider Server comprising;

means for continuously tracking the sensor data and updating a profile associated with the person according to the sensor data; and

means for recognizing a change in the sensor data indicating the occurrence of an event, the event including one or more actions of the person, wherein if the one or more actions are determined to be unacceptable, notifying the person and providing assisting instructions to the person to correct the unacceptable action.

2. The system according to claim 1, the Supervision Provider Server further comprising:

an event database storing a collection of event data entries, each entry comprising identification of one of the sensor means, identification of the entity being sensed by the sensor means and predetermined allowable values for the sensor data;

means for recognizing the occurrence of an incident, upon recognizing the occurrence of the event, by consulting the event database and determining when the received sensor data is outside of a range of the stored allowable sensor data values; and

means for outputting an indicator of an occurrence of an incident.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the Supervision Provider Server receives requests for information related to recognized events, and wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises:

means for processing the requests,

means for retrieving the information requested from the event database, and

means for outputting the retrieved information.

4. The system according to claim 3, further comprising a user interface in communication with the Supervision Provider Server for receiving user entries and the sensor data from the sensor means and providing the sensor data to the Supervision Provider Server, for receiving requests from a user and providing the requests to the Supervision Provider Server, and for receiving outputs from the Supervision Provider Server.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein each sensor data entry in the event database further comprises a recommendation for actions to be taken when the received sensor data is out of range from the allowable sensor data;

wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises means for retrieving a stored recommendation upon recognition of the occurrence of an incident.

6. The system according to claim 4 wherein the user interface is in communication with the Supervision Provider Server via the Internet.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises a Web Interface Server for receiving data from and transmitting data to the user interface.

8. The system according to claim 4, wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises a Dialogue Server for resolving ambiguities and needs for additional information in user requests by transmitting dialogue requests to the user interface for additional information.

9. The system according to claim 5, wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises:

means for generating assistance, wherein the means for generating assistance receives a recommendation from the event database; and

wherein the means for generating assistance provides assistance requested in the recommendation to the user interface by one of creating the assistance and retrieving the assistance from a library.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the assistance comprises one of a text message, music, graphics, instructions to a device or instructions to the user.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises a means for determining compliance for determining that instructions provided to the user interface have been complied with;

wherein the means for determining compliance maintains a list of entries of instructions provided to the user interface;

the list comprising a list of expected sensor data values indicating compliance; and

the means for determining compliance comparing values of current sensor data received to the expected sensor data values for determining compliance, and removes each entry from the list for which compliance has been determined.

12. The system according to claim 2, wherein the event database comprises:

a general event database for storing event data entries relating to a general population.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the event database further comprises:

a personal event database for storing event data relating to the person and the person'"'"'s environment, and wherein each event data entry further comprises the most recent sensor data received from the sensor means; and

means for updating each event data entry of the personal event database.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein a subset of the event data entries comprise schedule entries for storing data relating to the schedule of the person, the schedule entries comprising the expected time of occurrence for a scheduled event, the actual time of occurrence of a scheduled event, and an identification of the scheduled event.

15. The system according to claim 2 wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises:

means for assigning a classification to each incident, which occurs;

a personal incident database for storing incident data for the person, wherein an incident data comprises the incident classification, a count of the number of occurrences of the incident in the classification, and times of occurrences; and

means for updating the personal incident database upon recognition of the occurrence of an incident.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises:

a general disease database storing medical history data comprising incident data for stages in progressions of historical occurrences of diseases; and

means for illness progression tracking, wherein the means for illness progression tracking compares the incident data in the personal incident database to incident data in the general disease database for determining when recognized incidents indicate progression of the person'"'"'s disease to a different stage.

17. The system according to claim 2, wherein the sensor means is a camera, the sensor data comprises at least one of visual data and audio data, the visual data comprises a coordinate location of an object sensed and a relative location of the objects relative to a different object.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the allowable values for the visual data comprise a predetermined allowable coordinate location, and an allowable relative location.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor means include navigational sensors;

and

wherein the Supervision Provider Server further comprises a navigating module for processing the navigational sensor data, consulting a database of geographical information and providing navigational directions to a user of the system.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein the Supervision Provider Server comprises a medicinal intake supervision module for processing sensor data related to medicinal intake.

21. A method for supervising a person with a mental illness, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) acquiring sensor data related to the person and the person'"'"'s environment, the sensor data at least providing an indication of one or more actions of the person;

(b) continuously tracking the acquired sensor data and updating a profile associated with the person according to the sensor data; and

(c) recognizing changes in the sensor data indicating the occurrence of an event, the event including one or more actions of the person, wherein if the one or more actions are determined to be unacceptable, notifying the person and providing assisting instructions to the person to perform a corrective action.

22. The method according to claim 21, further comprising the steps of:

(d) acquiring access to an event database of stored event data entries, each event data entry comprising identification of the sensor data, identification of the entity being sensed and allowable values for the sensor data;

(e) recognizing the occurrence of an incident in which the received sensor data is outside of the range of the stored allowable sensor data values.

23. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

(f) receiving requests for information related to recognized events;

processing the received requests;

(g) retrieving information requested from the event database; and

outputting the retrieved information.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the acquired sensor data is submitted to a service provider, and wherein the service provider performs steps (b)-(g) for a fee.

25. The method according to claim 22, wherein:

each stored event data entry further comprises a recommendation for assistance providing actions to be taken when the received sensor data is out of range from the allowable sensor data; and

further comprising the step of retrieving a stored recommendation upon recognition of the occurrence of an incident.

26. The method according to claim 25, further comprising the steps of:

acquiring access to a library of assistance files wherein the assistance files store text messages, instructions to devices, music, graphics and instructions to a user;

providing assistance requested in the retrieved recommendation to a user interface by one of creating an assistance file or retrieving an assistance file from the library of assistance files.

27. The method according to claim 26, further comprising the steps of:

determining compliance with instructions to the user and instructions to devices comprising the steps of;

maintaining a list of entries of instructions provided to the user interface;

including with each entry a list of expected sensor data values indicating compliance with the instruction entry;

comparing current sensor data values to expected sensor data values for each instruction entry to determine compliance with the instruction, and

removing the instruction entry from the list upon determination of compliance.

28. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the step of:

assigning a classification to each incident, which occurs;

acquiring access to a personal incident database for storing incident data for the person, wherein the incident data comprises the incident classification and a count of the number of occurrences of an incident in the classification and times of occurrences; and

updating the personal incident database upon recognition of the occurrence of an incident.

29. The method according to claim 28, further comprising the steps of:

acquiring access to a general disease database storing medical history data comprising incident data for stages in progressions of historical occurrences of diseases;

tracking the progression of the person'"'"'s illness by comparing the incident data in the personal incident database to incident data in the general disease database, and

determining when recognized incidents indicate that the person'"'"'s illness has progressed to a different stage.

30. The method according to claim 22, wherein the event data base further comprises a database of geographical information;

the method further comprising the steps of;

acquiring navigational sensor data from navigational sensors;

processing the navigational sensor data;

consulting the database of geographical information and providing navigational directions to a user interface.

31. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer usable medium for causing a computer to supervise a mentally ill person, said article having;

computer readable program code means for causing said computer to track sensor data from at least one sensor means, the sensor data relating to a person and the person'"'"'s environment, the sensor data at least providing an indication of one or more actions of the person; and

to recognize changes in the sensor data indicating the occurrence of an event, the event including one or more actions of the person, wherein if the one or more actions are determined to be unacceptable, to notify the person and provide assisting instructions to the person to perform a corrective action, computer readable program code means for causing said computer to acquire access to an event database of stored event data entries, each event data entry comprising identification of one of the sensor means, identification of the entity being sensed by the sensor means, allowable values for the sensor data, and recommendations for assistance providing actions to be taken when the received sensor data is out of range from the allowable sensor data; and

recognizing the occurrence of an incident in which the received sensor data is outside of the range of the stored allowable sensor data values;

computer readable program code means for causing said computer to retrieve a stored recommendation upon recognition of the occurrence of an incident;

computer readable program code means for tracking the progression of the person'"'"'s illness by categorizing the incidents, maintaining a count of the number of occurrences of incidents for each category, and comparing the count to a database of medical histories storing categories of incidents and the counts and rates of increase of numbers of occurrences of the categories of incidents for different stages of progressions of mental illnesses.

32. The computer program product according to claim 31, wherein the computer usable medium further comprises computer readable program code means for:

processing requests from a user interface, wherein the requests are related to recognized events, retrieving the information requested from the event database and outputting the information to the user interface; and

providing assistance requested in the retrieved recommendation to a user interface by one of creating an assistance file or retrieving an assistance file from the library of assistance files, wherein an assistance files store text messages, instructions to devices, music, graphics and instructions to a user.