Performance of a diagnostic procedure using a wearable computing device

• US 9,451,915 B1
• Filed: 02/29/2012
• Issued: 09/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Wong, Adrian, Ho, Harvey
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomson, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): JIAN, SHIRLEY XUEYING
• Application Number:
  US13/408,763
• Time in Patent Office: 1,672 Days
• Field of Search: 600300-301
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/22 Motor vehicles operators, e.g. drivers, pilots, captains
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/113 for determining or recording eye movement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0004 characterised by the type of physiological signal transmitted
• 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 5/1124 Determining motor skills
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/163 by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4803 Speech analysis specially adapted for diagnostic purposes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7405 using sound
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/747 in case of emergency, i.e. alerting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/00 Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00 , e.g. haptic signalling
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/00 Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/385 : Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/3866 : carried on the head
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 : Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

The present disclosure describes example systems and methods for identifying an indication of an injury of a user of a wearable computing device. The systems and methods may be directed to determining that an acceleration experienced by the wearable computing device exceeds a threshold value. In response, the wearable computing device may perform a diagnostic procedure in order to identify an indication of an injury experienced by the user of the wearable computing device. The diagnostic procedure may include one or more of an eye response test, a verbal response test, a motor response test, and a visual diagnostic test.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a wearable computing device, an indication of an acceleration experienced by the wearable computing device, wherein the indication of the acceleration comprises at least a signal from a sensor coupled to a vehicle air bag;

based on the indication of the acceleration, determining, by the wearable computing device, that the acceleration exceeds a threshold value corresponding to deployment of the vehicle air bag; and

in response to determining that the acceleration exceeds the threshold value corresponding to deployment of the vehicle air bag, performing, by the wearable computing device, a diagnostic procedure including one or more of the following procedures;

an eye response test using a detector of the wearable computing device, a verbal response test using a microphone of the wearable computing device, a motor response test using at least one sensor of the wearable computing device, and a visual diagnostic test using at least one sensor of the wearable computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the wearable computing device is a head-worn computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an additional indication of whether the wearable computing device is being worn;

wherein determining that the acceleration exceeds the threshold value is conditioned upon determining that the wearable computing device is being worn.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing the wearable computing device to provide an output of a result of the diagnostic procedure.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the wearable computing device includes a visual indicator, and wherein causing the wearable computing device to provide the output includes displaying an indication of the result on the visual indicator.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the wearable computing device includes an audio output component, and wherein causing the wearable computing device to provide the output includes providing an audio output indicating the result of the diagnostic procedure.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein causing the wearable computing device to provide the output includes sending the output to a second computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

based on a result of the diagnostic procedure, causing the wearable computing device to initiate a call to a predetermined telephone number.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a result of the diagnostic procedure that includes a summation of two or more of an eye response score, a verbal response score, and a motor response score, wherein the eye response score, the verbal response score, and the motor response score indicate a score of the eye response test, the verbal response test, and the motor response test, respectively.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the eye response test includes at least one of:

assigning a first value to the eye response score upon receiving an indication of a spontaneous eye movement;

assigning a second value to the eye response score upon receiving an indication of the eye movement in response to a verbal stimulus, wherein the second value is less than the first value; and

assigning a third value to the eye response score upon receiving an indication of an absence of the eye movement, wherein the third value is less than the second value.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the verbal response test includes at least one of:

assigning a first value to the verbal response score upon receiving an indication that each of a plurality of responses to a plurality of questions includes a correct response;

assigning a second value to the verbal response score upon receiving an indication that at least one of the plurality of responses to the plurality of questions includes the correct response and at least one of the plurality of responses to the plurality of questions includes an incorrect response, wherein the second value is less than the first value;

assigning a third value to the verbal response score upon receiving an indication that each of the plurality of responses to the plurality of questions includes the incorrect response, wherein the third value is less than the second value; and

assigning a fourth value to the verbal response score upon receiving an indication of an absence of the plurality of responses to the plurality of questions, wherein the fourth value is less than the third value.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the motor response test includes at least one of:

assigning a first value to the motor response score upon receiving an indication of a first movement in response to a verbal stimulus, wherein the first movement is a movement requested by the verbal stimulus;

assigning a second value to a motor response score upon receiving an indication of a second movement in response to the verbal stimulus, wherein the second movement is a movement that is different than the first movement, and wherein the second value is less than the first value; and

assigning a third value to the motor response score upon receiving an indication of an absence of a movement in response to the verbal stimulus, wherein the third value is less than the second value.

13. A non-transitory computer readable memory having stored therein instructions executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:

receiving an indication of an acceleration experienced by the wearable computing device, wherein the indication of the acceleration comprises at least a signal from a sensor coupled to a vehicle air bag;

based on the indication of the acceleration, determining that the acceleration exceeds a threshold value corresponding to deployment of the vehicle air bag; and

in response to determining that the acceleration exceeds the threshold value corresponding to deployment of the vehicle air bag, performing a diagnostic procedure including one or more of the following procedures;

an eye response test using a detector of the wearable computing device, a verbal response test using a microphone of the wearable computing device, a motor response test using at least one sensor of the wearable computing device, and a visual diagnostic test using at least one sensor of the wearable computing device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 13, further comprising instructions executable by the computing device to cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:

receiving a signal from a sensor that includes information indicating whether the wearable computing device is being worn, wherein determining that the acceleration exceeds the threshold value is conditioned upon determining that the wearable computing device is being worn.

15. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 13, further comprising instructions executable by the computing device to cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:

causing the wearable computing device to provide an output that includes information indicating a result of the diagnostic procedure, wherein the output includes at least one of;

a display of the result of the diagnostic procedure on a visual indicator of the wearable computing device; and

an audio output indicating the result of the diagnostic procedure.

16. A wearable computing device comprising:

a sensor configured to determine an acceleration of the wearable computing device;

a non-transitory computer readable medium; and

a processor;

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the processor to;

receive a first indication of an acceleration experienced by the wearable computing device from the sensor;

receive a signal from a sensor coupled to a vehicle air bag, wherein the signal provides a second indication of the acceleration experienced by the wearable computing device;

based on the indication of the acceleration, determine that the acceleration exceeds a threshold value corresponding to deployment of the vehicle air bag; and

in response to the determination that the acceleration exceeds the threshold value corresponding to deployment of the vehicle air bag, perform a diagnostic procedure including one or more of an eye response test, a verbal response test, a motor response test, and a visual diagnostic test.

17. The wearable computing device of claim 16, further comprising:

a second sensor configured to receive an indication of an eye movement;

a third sensor configured to receive a sound; and

a fourth sensor configured to detect a movement of a body part, wherein a result of the diagnostic procedure is based on an output from at least one of the second sensor, the third sensor, and the fourth sensor.

18. The wearable computing device of claim 16, further comprising:

at least one of an audio output component and a visual indicator, wherein the processor is further configured to;

provide an output that includes an indication of a result of the diagnostic procedure via at least one of the audio output component and the visual indicator.

19. The wearable computing device of claim 16, wherein performing the diagnostic procedure comprises the wearable computing device administering an eye response test using a detector of the wearable computing device operable to detect eye movement.

20. The wearable computing device of claim 16, wherein performing the diagnostic procedure comprises the wearable computing device performing a motor response test using at least one sensor of the wearable computing device.

21. The wearable computing device of claim 16, wherein performing the diagnostic procedure comprises the wearable computing device performing a visual diagnostic test using at least a camera of the wearable computing device.