Systems and methods for controlling acquisition of sensor information

• US 9,375,145 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2012
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund II, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Chin, Hon Wah, Hyde, Roderick A., Petroski, Robert C., Wood, Lowell L. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stigell, Theodore
• Assistant Examiner(s): CAREY, MICHAEL JAMES
• Application Number:
  US13/720,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20140171749A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,287 Days
• Field of Search: 600/301, 600/509, 600/527
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0015 characterised by features of the telemetry system
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7221 Determining signal validity, reliability or quality A61B5/7207 and A61B5/7217 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/60 for the operation of medical equipment or devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for controlling acquisition of sensor information, including: one or more condition sensors, one or more physiological sensors, and a computing device including a processor programmed to query the condition sensors to initiate measurement of one or more conditions of an individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors; receive a set of condition sensor values from the condition sensors; assign a predictive value to the set of condition sensors values; query at least one of the one or more physiological sensors to measure one or more physiological parameters of the individual if the assigned predictive value of the set of condition sensor values meets or exceeds a minimum predictive value threshold; and re-query at least one of the one or more condition sensors if the assigned predictive value of the set of condition sensors fails to meet or exceed the minimum predictive value threshold.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a network of sensors including

one or more physiological sensors configured to sense a physiological parameter of an individual; and

one or more condition sensors configured to sense a position of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors; and

a computing device operably connected to the one or more condition sensors and the one or more physiological sensors, the computing device including a processor programmed to

query at least one of the one or more condition sensors to initiate measurement of the position of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors;

receive a set of condition sensor values from the at least one of the one or more condition sensors, the set of condition sensor values representative of the position of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors;

query at least one of the one or more physiological sensors to measure the physiological parameter of the individual if the set of condition sensor values meets or exceeds a threshold value; and

re-query at least one of the one or more condition sensors if the set of condition sensor values fails to meet or exceed the threshold value.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more condition sensors includes at least one transmission unit including an antenna configured for wireless communication with the computing device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physiological sensors include one or more non-contact physiological sensors.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physiological sensors include one or more micro impulse radar-based sensors.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more physiological sensors is configured to detect one or more physiological parameters of the individual diagnostic for heart failure.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more physiological sensors includes at least one transmission unit including an antenna configured for wireless communication with the computing device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is programmed to query the at least one of the one or more condition sensors to initiate measurement of one or more position parameters including proximity, visibility, line-of-sight, motion, or acceleration of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is programmed to query the at least one of the one or more condition sensors in response to a triggering event.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is programmed to query the at least one of the one or more condition sensors to initiate measurement of the position of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors in response to a flag indicating a need to measure the physiological parameter of the individual based on one or more need-measurement criteria.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the threshold value for a set of condition sensor values is represented as a position of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors sufficient to acquire a set of physiological sensor values from the one or more physiological sensors.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is programmed to query the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors to measure the physiological parameter of the individual if the set of condition sensor values meets or exceeds the threshold value and at least one flag indicating a need to measure the physiological parameter of the individual is active based on one or more need-measurement criteria.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more need-measurement criteria include a number of queries needed over time for a reliable diagnosis.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device including the processor is further programmed to

receive a set of physiological sensor values from at least one of the one or more physiological sensors, the set of physiological sensor values representative of the measured physiological parameter of the individual;

assign a quality value to the set of physiological sensor values received from the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors;

retain the set of physiological sensor values if the assigned quality value of the set of physiological sensor values meets or exceeds a minimum quality value threshold; and

update at least one flag indicating a need to measure the physiological parameter of the individual if the assigned quality value of the set of physiological sensor values meets or exceeds the minimum quality value threshold.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the computing device is programmed to assign the quality value to the set of physiological sensor values by comparing the set of physiological sensor values with a set of standard values.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the computing device including the processor is further programmed to report the set of physiological sensor values to a user.

34. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more condition sensors include one or more motion sensors, proximity sensors, contact sensors, or image capture devices.

35. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one biometric sensor operably coupled to the computing device and configured to assess the identity of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors.

36. The system of claim 8, wherein the triggering event includes input from at least one of a motion detector, a timing device, a light sensor, or a proximity sensor.

37. The system of claim 10, wherein the threshold value for the set of condition sensor values is represented as a position of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors sufficient to acquire an optimal set of physiological sensor values from the one or more physiological sensors.

38. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more need-measurement criteria includes at least one of a time of day and an interval of time since a previous measurement.

16. A method for controlling acquisition of information from a network of one or more sensors comprising:

receiving a set of condition sensor values for an individual from at least one of one or more condition sensors in response to one or more queries, the set of condition sensor values representative of a position of the individual relative to one or more physiological sensors;

querying at least one of the one or more physiological sensors to measure a physiological parameter of the individual if the the set of condition sensor values meets or exceeds a threshold value; and

re-querying at least one of the one or more condition sensors if the set of condition sensor values fails to meet or exceed the threshold value.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

querying the at least one of the one or more condition sensors to measure the position of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein querying the at least one of the one or more condition sensors includes querying the at least one of the one or more condition sensors in response to a triggering event.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein querying the at least one of the one or more condition sensors includes querying the at least one of the one or more condition sensors in response to at least one flag indicating a need to measure the physiological parameter of the individual.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one flag indicating the need to measure the physiological parameter of the individual is generated based on one or more need-measurement criteria.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein querying the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors includes querying the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors through one or more wireless transmissions.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein querying the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors includes querying at least one of one or more non-contact physiological sensors.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein querying the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors includes querying at least one of one or more micro impulse radar-based sensors.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein querying the at least one of one or more physiological sensors to measure the physiological parameter of the individual includes querying the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors to measure a physiological parameter of the individual diagnostic for heart failure.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein re-querying the at least one of the one or more condition sensors includes re-querying at least one of the one or more condition sensors until the set of condition sensor values meets or exceeds the threshold value.

26. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a set of physiological sensor values from the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors, the set of physiological sensor values representative of the measured physiological parameter of the individual;

assigning a quality value to the set of physiological sensor values received from the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors;

retaining the set of physiological sensor values if the assigned quality value of the set of physiological sensor values meets or exceeds a minimum quality value threshold; and

updating at least one flag indicating a need to measure the physiological parameter of the individual if the assigned quality value of the set of physiological sensor values meets or exceeds the minimum quality value threshold.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein receiving the set of physiological sensor values from the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors includes receiving the set of physiological sensor values through one or more wireless transmissions.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein receiving the set of physiological sensor values from the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors includes receiving the set of physiological sensor values from at least one of one or more non-contact physiological sensors.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein receiving the set of physiological sensor values from the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors includes receiving the set of physiological sensor values from at least one of one or more micro impulse radar-based sensors.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein assigning the quality value to the set of physiological sensor values includes assigning the quality value to the set of physiological sensor values by comparing the set of physiological sensor values with a set of standard values.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the set of standard values includes a set of standard values representing a relevant range of values for a specific physiological parameter.

32. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

reporting the set of physiological sensor values to a user.

39. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving the set of condition sensor values for the individual from the at least one of the one or more condition sensors includes receiving the set of condition sensor values from at least one of a motion sensor, a proximity sensor, or a contact sensor.

33. A system comprising:

a computing device including a processor; and

non-transitory signal-bearing medium bearing one or more instructions for controlling acquisition of information from a network of one or more sensors, the non-transitory signal-bearing medium including

one or more instructions for generating at least one flag indicating a need to measure a physiological parameter of an individual based on one or more need-measurement criteria;

one or more instructions for querying at least one of one or more condition sensors to measure a position of the individual relative to one or more physiological sensors in response to the at least one flag;

one or more instructions for receiving a set of condition sensor values from the at least one of the one or more condition sensors, the set of condition sensor values representative of the position of the individual relative to the one or more physiological sensors;

one or more instructions for re-querying at least one of the one or more condition sensors if the set of condition sensor values fails to meet or exceed a threshold value;

one or more instructions for querying at least one of the one or more physiological sensors to measure the physiological parameter of the individual if the set of condition sensor values meets or exceeds the threshold value;

one or more instructions for receiving a set of physiological sensor values from the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors, the set of physiological sensor values representative of the measured physiological parameter of the individual;

one or more instructions for assigning a quality value to the set of physiological sensor values received from the at least one of the one or more physiological sensors;

one or more instructions for retaining the set of physiological sensor values if the assigned quality value of the set of physiological sensor values meets or exceeds a minimum quality value threshold;

one or more instructions for updating the at least one flag indicating the need to measure the physiological parameter of the individual if the assigned quality value of the set of physiological sensor values meets or exceeds the minimum quality value threshold; and

one or more instructions for reporting the set of physiological sensor values to a user.