Monitoring activity of an individual

• US 8,872,664 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2011
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Best Buy Health Incorporated (Best Buy Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Healthsense, Inc. (Best Buy Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Bischoff, Brian J., Shilepsky, Alan P., Long, Lina
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Hoi
• Application Number:
  US13/324,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20120086573A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,050 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1, 340/573.4, 340/573.7, 340/539.11, 340/539.12, 340/539.22, 340/521, 340/522, 482 8- 9, 434258-261
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0288 Attachment of child unit to child/article
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0423 detecting deviation from an expected pattern of behaviour or schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0492 Sensor dual technology, i.e. two or more technologies collaborate to extract unsafe condition, e.g. video tracking and RFID tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/185 Signal analysis techniques for reducing or preventing false alarms or for enhancing the reliability of the system
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, devices, and systems to monitor activity. One method to monitor activity includes monitoring activity of an individual including detecting a sensor activated by an individual during the individual'"'"'s daily activities. The embodiment also includes comparing the sensor activation to a predetermined sensor activation timeframe, determining whether to initiate an alert based upon the comparison, and checking for at least one other sensor activation to confirm whether an alert should be initiated.

Claims

1. A method using computer-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium executed by a processor for monitoring activity of an individual, comprising:

grouping a number of sensors into a first group associated with an activity of daily living of an individual and a number of sensors into a second group associated with the activity of daily living of the individual;

monitoring the number of sensors in the first group to identify activations of at least one sensor in the first group, wherein activations of at least one sensor in the first group indicate performance of the activity of daily living;

associating a number of rules defining a number of actions to be taken based upon activations of the at least one sensor in the first group; and

applying a rule associated with the activation of the at least one sensor in the first group to determine whether to take an action, wherein the rule includes checking for at least one other sensor activation of at least one sensor in the second group to confirm whether the action should be initiated, wherein activation of at least one sensor in the second group indicates performance of the activity of daily living and activation of another sensor in the second group indicates that performance of the activity of daily living has ended.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes regrouping the number of the sensors into one or more different groups.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rule includes checking for a sensor activation from another sensor within the first group.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the grouping a number of sensors into the first group and the second group is based upon one or more rules used to determine whether the action should be initiated.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes detecting a first sensor in the first group of sensors.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein checking for at least one other sensor activation includes checking for a sensor activation from a sensor within the second group of sensors that includes all sensors except the first group of sensors.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein checking for at least one other sensor activation includes checking for a sensor activation from a sensor within the second group of sensors that includes all sensors except the first sensor after detecting the first sensor in the first group.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes checking for at least one other sensor activation includes checking for a sensor activation from a third group defined by another daily living activity.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the number of sensors in the first group to identify activations of at least one sensor in the first group includes detecting absence of a home/away sensor and wherein checking for at least one other sensor activation includes checking for a sensor activation from a sensor indicating an exit.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes utilizing a number of timers to determine whether to take the action.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes utilizing a number of timers to monitor whether a sensor activation occurs within a time period in order to determine whether to take the action.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes utilizing a number of timers to monitor whether a client response occurs within a time period in order to determine whether to take the action.

13. A system for monitoring activity, comprising:

a number of sensors to be activated by an individual;

a logic component having computer-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium executed by a processor to;

institute multiple rules for determining whether to initiate an alert based upon one or more activations of the sensors;

initiate a first rule based upon an identification of a first sensor activation;

initiate a first timer for monitoring a sensor activation according to the first rule;

initiate a second timer for monitoring the time between a first sensor activation and at least one second sensor activation according to the first rule;

determine whether an action should be initiated based upon the analysis of whether the first rule has been met; and

modify a portion of the first rule which defines a time period to wait between the first sensor activation and the at least one second sensor activation based on the second timer monitoring the time between the first sensor activation and the at least one second sensor activation.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the logic component is designed to initiate a second rule, associating a simultaneous activation of the first sensor and the second sensor.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the logic component is designed to initiate the first rule based upon the identification of the first sensor activation wherein the first rule states that if the first sensor activation is detected, wait a predetermined time for a second sensor activation.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first rule further states, if a second sensor activation is not received then initiate an action.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the first rule further states, if a second activation is received then reset the second timer.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the first rule is modified to adjust the predetermined time to wait for the second activation based on the time between the first sensor activation and a third sensor activation.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the first rule is modified to adjust the predetermined time to wait for the second activation based on the time between the first sensor activation and the at least one second sensor activation.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the first sensor is a home/away sensor and wherein the logic component is designed to initiate the first rule based upon the identification of absence of the home/away sensor and check whether an associated sensor indicating an exit has been activated.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein if the home/away sensor is out of range to communicate with a base station, then an out-of-range message is displayed on a portable device.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the first rule states if an emergency sensor is activated, then wait a predetermined period for receipt of a cancellation request, if no cancellation request is received, then initiate an action.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the action is to initiate contact to a remote site.

24. A system for monitoring activity, comprising:

a number of sensors to be activated by an individual;

a logic component having computer-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium executed by a processor to;

institute multiple rules for determining whether to initiate an action based upon one or more activations of the sensors;

initiate a first rule based upon an identification of a first sensor activation of the number of sensors;

initiate a timer for monitoring the time between the first sensor activation and at least one second sensor activation according to the first rule;

determine whether an action should be initiated based upon the analysis of whether the first rule has been met; and

change a timer value for the time between the first sensor activation and the at least one second sensor activation that determines whether an action should be initiated based on the time between the first sensor activation and the at least one second sensor activation.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the logic component is designed to initiate a timer for monitoring the time between the first sensor activation in a first group of sensors and at least one second sensor activation within the sensors of the first group.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the logic component is designed to initiate a timer for monitoring the time between the first sensor activation in a first group of sensors and at least one second sensor activation from a sensor of a second group.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the second group of sensors is defined as all sensors associated with the system after the first sensor activation in the first group of sensors.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the second group of sensors is all sensors associated with the system except the sensor associated with the first sensor activation.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein the second group of sensors is all sensors associated with the system except the sensors associated with the group of sensors in which the first sensor activation was detected.

30. The system of claim 24, wherein the logic component changes the timer value in order to keep the value within an acceptable range.

31. The system of claim 24, wherein the logic component changes one or more of the multiple rules.

32. The system of claim 24, wherein the number of sensors includes a portable sensor that can be located based upon a communication signal.

33. The system of claim 24, wherein the system includes a portable device that utilizes a short range communication signal and a long range communication signal.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the short range communication signal is provided by the portable device and the long range communication signal is accessed via another device.