Remote wellness monitoring system with universally accessible interface

• US 7,772,965 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2007
• Issued: 08/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fariborz M. Farhan, John W. Peifer
• Original Assignee: Fariborz M. Farhan, John W. Peifer
• Inventors: Peifer, John W., Farhan, Fariborz M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout; Brent
• Application Number:
  US11/835,405
• Publication Number:
  US 20080033256A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• Field of Search: 600/300, 600/301, 128903-905, 128/920, 340/552, 340/561, 340/565, 340/573.1, 340/286.07, 340/539.12
• US Class Current: 340/286.07
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/04 responsive to non-activity, e.g. of elderly persons G08B21/06 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/903 Radio telemetry

Abstract

A remote wellness monitoring system with universally accessible interface consists of an apparatus or home appliance unit running an embedded software program connected to a server computer via a phone line or high-speed internet. At home, the apparatus communicates with an optional set of medical health monitoring devices using wired or wireless communications methods in order to perform wellness measurements. Embodiments of the invention provide a novel user interface on the home appliance to make the system accessible to people with disabilities. The simple user interface is designed to be accessible to people who are blind or deaf or people who cannot use their hands and require an alternative interface device such as a sip & puff controller. The home unit can further monitor wellness activity of the care recipient by pegging the number of times the care recipient passes by an infra-red motion sensor.

Claims

1. A method for detecting human activity and providing time-stamp measurements but preventing false detections of pets, the method comprising the steps of:

during a statistical observation phase;

utilizing a monitoring device in proximity with a monitored human object, detecting motion and measuring motion velocity of the human object using a passive infra-red motion detector within the monitoring device for a minimum of P occurrences, where P is greater than 1, and wherein the passive infra-red motion detector only detects human sized thermal profiles, thereby detecting human-only motion;

learning the motion speed of the human object by averaging the P measured motion occurrences and calculating a set of object detection thresholds based on this average;

storing these object detection thresholds into a memory storage device within the monitoring device;

utilizing the monitoring device, detecting subsequent human-only motion occurrences using the passive infra-red motion detector that fall within the above the set of object detection thresholds and capturing the time of day of such occurrence;

a processor within the monitoring device performing statistical processing of these subsequent human-only motion occurrences over an initial statistical observation phase to determine counts of motion activity of the human-only object over a unit interval of time, less than or equal to an hour, and for every such interval within a twenty-four hour day;

using the statistically processed occurrences from the statistical observation phase to define thresholds of normal activity for each of the unit intervals;

during an operational period subsequent to the statistical processing phase;

utilizing the monitoring device, detecting subsequent human-only motion occurrences after the initial statistical processing phase, that fall within the object detection thresholds above and counting these occurrences for every unit interval;

the processor within the monitoring device performing decision making of normalcy by comparing the counts for each unit interval and comparing those to the levels computed during the statistical observation phase for each unit interval to determine user-defined normal, subnormal or no-activity status for the given interval for the current day and sounding an alert through a speaker of the monitoring device; and

the processor within the monitoring device updating statistics by continuing to perform statistical processing of these motion counts for each unit interval to ensure that over time, the normal activity thresholds are statistically appropriate and if necessary updating the normal activity thresholds.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein during the statistical observation phase, further comprising the step of the processor within the monitoring device computing a mean and standard deviation for the observed counts for the given interval and setting an arbitrary threshold count for the given interval as a mathematical function of the mean and the standard deviation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of decision making of normalcy further comprises the processor within the monitoring device performing the step of deriving an output selected from the group of outputs including:

above-normal, normal, below-normal or zero-activity, based on the inputs received for every interval within the twenty-four hour period, the inputs comprising a motion count for every occurrence of motion speed within the range learned during the learning step, a motion count of any motion event regardless of its speed, statistical mean computed for the interval and during the statistical processing phase, and standard deviation for the distribution for the said interval computed during the statistical processing phase.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of updating statistics further comprises the processor within the monitoring device performing the step of computing the mean and standard deviation of each interval count over a minimum of a thirty interval period and updating the mean and standard deviation upon confirmation of a remote caregiver and hence computing and updating new thresholds for each interval.