Optical biological information measuring apparatus, optical biological information measuring method, biological information decision apparatus, program and recording medium

• US 8,135,447 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kondoh, Kazuya, Uchida, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Long V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Weatherby, Ellsworth
• Application Number:
  US10/955,862
• Publication Number:
  US 20050075549A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,721 Days
• Field of Search: 600/310, 600/473, 345/166
• US Class Current: 600/310
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0059 using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence A61B5/0093, A61B5/1455, A61B5/02416 and A61B5/0261 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1455 using optical sensors, e.g. spectral photometrical oximeters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/444 Evaluating skin marks, e.g. mole, nevi, tumour, scar
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4872 Body fat
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6844 Monitoring or controlling distance between sensor and tissue

Abstract

An optical biological information measuring apparatus includes a measuring surface to be placed on the surface of a living body, a mark display section which displays a mark at a region to be measured on the surface of the living body, a light-emitting section which irradiates the living body with light of a predetermined wavelength and a light-receiving section which receives light irradiated onto the living body and returned from the living body, and measures information on the living body based on the received light. The optical biological information measuring apparatus is capable of measuring biological information with improved alignment accuracy.

Claims

1. An optical biological information measuring apparatus comprising:

a measuring surface to be placed on a surface of a living body;

a visible light source which irradiates a first light to the living body to illuminate a position of the living body to be measured, the visible light source turning off irradiation of the first light to the living body after the measuring surface has contacted the surface of the living body, said first light being visible light;

a light-emitting section which irradiates the surface of the living body with a second light, said second light being light of a predetermined wavelength;

a light-receiving section which receives the second light irradiated onto and returned from the surface of the living body; and

a contact detection section which detects that said measuring surface has contacted the surface of the living body, and is configured to cause said visible light source to turn off the irradiation of the first light upon detection that said measuring surface has contacted the surface of the living body,

wherein said measuring surface being formed with said visible light source, said light-emitting section, said light-receiving section, and said contact detection section which are arranged in side-by-side relation along said measuring surface.

2. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said visible light source is placed at an end of said measuring surface.

3. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said contact detection section decides that said measuring surface has contacted the surface of the living body based on a variation in an amount of light received by said light-receiving section and/or by detecting attachment between said measuring surface and the living body.

4. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a color of said first light irradiated by said visible light source is red.

5. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein part of the surface of said measuring surface reflects at least a part of the first light.

6. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said measuring surface includes a mirrored surface.

7. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a calculation section which calculates a thickness of local fat based on an amount of the light received by said light-receiving section.

8. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said light-receiving section comprises two light-receiving elements arranged at different distances from said light-emitting section for receiving the light;

and

said calculation section calculates the thickness of local fat from a ratio of two amounts of light received by said two light-receiving elements based on a following expression;

T=A·

X1/X2+B

(A, B denote coefficients, X1, X2 denote amounts of light received by first and second light-receiving elements).

9. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said light-emitting section can emit light of two types of wavelength;

said light-receiving section can receive the light of two types of wavelength; and

said optical biological information measuring apparatus further comprises a calculation section which calculates local tissue oxygen concentration from the ratio of the respective amounts of light having the two types of wavelengths received by said light-receiving section.

10. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the light of two types of wavelength is light having a wavelength including substantially 650 nm and light having a wavelength including substantially 850 nm.

11. The biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said light-receiving section can receive the first light output from said visible light source and the second light, and

said biological information measuring apparatus further comprises a calculation section which calculates local tissue oxygen concentration from a ratio of amounts of the first light received by said light-receiving section and that of the second light received by said light-receiving section.

12. A program stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium for causing a computer to function as a calculation section which calculates the thickness of local fat based on an amount of light received by said light-receiving section of the optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 8.

13. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising one or more through holes formed on said measuring surface.

14. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said through hole is placed at a position at which said light-receiving section receives no influence from outside light through said through hole.

16. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said light irradiated from said light-emitting section is near-infrared light.

17. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 16, wherein at least part of said measuring surface absorbs near-infrared light irradiated from said light-emitting section.

18. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said measuring surface is convex-shaped.

20. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light-emitting section turns off irradiation of the second light to the living body when the measuring surface is not in contact with the surface of the living body.

22. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said visible light source is configured to keep the first light off while in contact with the surface of the living body.

23. The optical biological information measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said visible light source turns off the first light when the attachment to the living body is detected with said contact detection section.

15. An optical biological information measuring method comprising:

placing a measuring surface near a surface of a living body;

irradiating a first light from a visible light source arranged along said measuring surface to the living body to illuminate a position of the living body to be measured, said first light being visible light;

detecting whether or not said measuring surface has contacted the surface of the living body by a contact detection section arranged along said measuring surface,

turning off the irradiation of the first light to the living body responsive to detection that the measuring surface has contacted the surface of the living body by the contact detection section;

irradiating the surface of the living body with a second light, said second light being light having a predetermined wavelength; and

receiving the second light irradiated onto and returned from the surface of the living body.

19. The optical biological information measuring method according to claim 15, wherein said aligning the measuring surface with the mark displayed on the surface of the living body comprises aligning the measuring surface which reflects at least a part of the first light while watching the surface of the living body reflected on said measuring surface.

21. The optical biological information measuring method according to claim 15, further comprising turning off irradiation of the second light to the living body when the measuring surface is not in contact with the surface of the living body.