Monitoring device with an accelerometer, method and system

• US 8,172,761 B1
• Filed: 10/04/2011
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FRX Polymers, Inc., Yukka Magic LLC
• Original Assignee: Impact Sports Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Brady, Donald, Hunt, Mark, Rulkov, Nikolai
• Primary Examiner(s): Mallari, Patricia
• Assistant Examiner(s): D'ANGELO, MICHAEL J
• Application Number:
  US13/253,046
• Time in Patent Office: 217 Days
• Field of Search: 600300-301, 600/310, 600/323, 600/481, 600/483, 600500-504
• US Class Current: 600/503
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02427 Details of sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• 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 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6824 Arm or wrist
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6831 Straps, bands or harnesses

Abstract

A monitoring device for monitoring the vital signs of a user is disclosed herein. The monitoring device is preferably comprises an article, an optical sensor, an accelerometer and processor. The optical sensor preferably comprises a photodetector and a plurality of light emitting diodes. A sensor signal from the optical sensor is processed with a filtered accelerometer output signal from the accelerometer to create a filtered vital sign signal used to generate a real-time vital sign for a user.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring a real-time vital sign of a user, the system comprising:

an monitoring device comprising

an optical sensor for generating a real-time digitized optical signal corresponding to a flow of blood through an artery of the user,

an accelerometer for generating a real-time accelerometer data comprising a X-axis signal, a Y-axis signal and a Z-axis signal based on a movement of the user, and

a first transceiver for transmitting the real-time digitized optical signal and the real-time accelerometer data from the monitoring device;

a mobile communication device comprising

a second transceiver for receiving the real-time digitized optical signal and the real-time accelerometer data from the monitoring device,

a processor in electrical communication with the second transceiver, the processor configured to receive the real-time digitized signal and the real-time accelerometer data, the processor configured to calculate a period of motion related harmonics from the real-time accelerometer data utilizing a repetitive motion pattern analyzer, the processor configured to modify the real-time digitized optical signal by suppressing the motion related harmonics calculated by the motion pattern analyzer to generate a modified optical signal, the processor configured to generate a real-time heart rate for the user from the modified optical signal, and

a display for displaying the real-time heart rate value for the user received from the processor.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein the modified optical signal is filtered with a narrow band filter adaptively tuned to a heart rate frequency calculated by a heart rate evaluator to generate the real-time heart rate for the user.

3. The system according to claim 1 wherein the repetitive motion pattern analyzer comprises an array of Comb filters.

4. The system according to claim 1 wherein the optical sensor comprises two green LEDs and a photodetector.