Systems, devices, and methods for tracking abdominal orientation and activity

• US 9,585,614 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2015
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smart Human Dynamics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Smart Human Dynamics, Inc.
• Inventors: Dugan, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): MANUEL, GEORGE C
• Application Number:
  US14/625,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20150305668A1
• Time in Patent Office: 747 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/02 Foetus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• 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 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02411 of foetuses
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/053 Measuring electrical impedance or conductance of a portion of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/065 Determining position of the probe employing exclusively positioning means located on or in the probe, e.g. using position sensors arranged on the probe
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/067 using accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/08 Detecting, measuring or recording devices for evaluating the respiratory organs A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1072 measuring distances on the body, e.g. measuring length, height or thickness A61B5/1076 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1073 Measuring volume, e.g. of limbs
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1075 for measuring dimensions by non-invasive methods, e.g. for determining thickness of tissue layer A61B8/0858 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1107 Measuring contraction of parts of the body, e.g. organ, muscle apparatus for measuring work or force in general G01L
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1114 Tracking parts of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1121 Determining geometric values, e.g. centre of rotation or angular range of movement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14542 : for measuring blood gases A61B5/14551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14552 : Details of sensors specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4343 : Pregnancy and labour monitoring, e.g. for labour onset detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4356 : Assessing uterine contractions A61B5/033 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4362 : Assessing foetal parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6804 : Garments; Clothes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6823 : Trunk, e.g., chest, back, abdomen, hip
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6831 : Straps, bands or harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6832 : using adhesives A61B5/259 takes 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: A61B 5/746 : Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 : for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 : for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

The various embodiments herein relate to systems, devices, and methods for tracking abdominal orientation and activity for purposes of preventing or treating conditions of pregnancy or other types of medical conditions. In certain specific embodiments, the system, device, or method relates to identifying abdominal orientation risk values, calculating and updating a cumulative risk value, comparing the cumulative risk value to a threshold, and outputting a warning when the cumulative risk value crosses the threshold.

Claims

1. A wearable device system for reducing risks associated with birth, the wearable device comprising:

(a) one or more sensors for generating sensor data indicative of an orientation of an abdomen of a user; and

(b) a processor coupled with the one or more sensors, the processor configured to;

monitor the orientation of the abdomen of the user by processing the sensor data to estimate the orientation of the abdomen of the user;

identify orientation risk values associated with the estimated orientations of the abdomen to produce a time series of identified orientation risk values;

calculate and update a first cumulative risk value by calculating a first moving average for a subset of the time series of identified orientation risk values associated with the estimated orientations of the abdomen, the subset for the first moving average having a first size;

compare the first cumulative risk value to a first threshold; and

output a warning when the first cumulative risk value crosses the first threshold.

2. The wearable device system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data comprises a recline angle (pitch) and a sideways tilt angle (roll) and wherein the orientation risk values are a function of the recline angle and the sideways tilt angle.

3. The wearable device system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to receive blood pressure data of the user, and wherein the processor raises or lowers the first threshold in response to the received blood pressure data.

4. The wearable device system of claim 1, further comprising a respiration sensor configured to generate respiration data of the user, the respiration sensor coupled with the processor, wherein the processor is configured to identify and assess risk associated with types of sleep disordered breathing based on the respiration data and output a warning when the risk level crosses a threshold.

5. The wearable device system of claim 1, further comprising a blood pressure sensor for generating blood pressure data of the user, the blood pressure sensor coupled with the processor, and wherein the processor raises or lowers the first threshold in response to the blood pressure data from the blood pressure sensor.

6. The wearable device system of claim 1, further comprising a blood-oxygen level sensor for generating blood-oxygen level data of the user, the blood oxygen level sensor coupled with the processor, and wherein the processor raises or lowers the first threshold in response to the blood-oxygen level data from the blood oxygen level sensor.

7. The wearable device system of claim 1, further comprising an input coupled with the processor, the input configured to receive a user input of pregnancy factors comprising at least one of a multiple pregnancy of the user, body mass index (BMI) of the user, prior live births of the user, and preexisting hypertension of the user, and wherein the processor raises or lowers the first threshold in response to the user input of pregnancy factors.

8. The wearable device system of claim 1, wherein the first size comprises at least the last two minutes of sensor data;

and wherein the processor is further configured to;

calculate and update a second cumulative risk value by calculating a second moving average for a subset of the time series of identified orientation risk values, the subset for the second moving average comprising at least the last 5 seconds of sensor data;

compare the second cumulative risk value to a second threshold; and

output a warning when the second cumulative risk value crosses the second threshold.

9. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to monitor user activity by processing the sensor data to calculate user experienced force changes to identify clinically significant user activity.

10. The wearable device of claim 9, wherein the force changes are calculated by identifying a difference between a max force and a minimum force in the sensor data during a time interval, and wherein processor is further configured to produce a time series of calculated force changes.

11. The wearable device of claim 10, wherein the processor identifies clinically significant user activity by:

calculating and updating a user activity moving average for a subset of the time series of calculated force changes associated with the user activity;

comparing the user activity moving average to an activity threshold to determine whether the user is engaged in clinically significant activity; and

record a cumulative time duration of the clinically significant activity engaged by the user over a period of time.

12. The wearable device of claim 11, further comprising an input coupled with the processor and configured to receive user input of a gestational age of a pregnancy of the user.

13. The wearable device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to compare the cumulative time duration of clinically significant activity engaged by the user over the period of time to a preferred cumulative activity threshold specific for the gestational age of the pregnancy of the user.

14. The wearable device of claim 10, wherein, when the processor identifies clinically significant user activity, the processor stops identifying orientation risk values and wherein the processor is further configured to identify activity risk values associated with the force changes to produce a time series of identified activity risk values;

and

wherein the processor calculates and updates the first cumulative risk score by combining the time series of identified activity risk values and previously identified orientation risk values and calculating a moving average for a subset of the combined time series of identified activity risk values and previously identified orientation risk values.

15. The wearable device of claim 1, further comprising an infrared sensor coupled with the processor, and wherein the processor determines device use in response to infrared sensor data.

16. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

compare the first cumulative risk value to a second threshold; and

output a warning when the first cumulative risk value crosses the second threshold;

wherein the warning associated with the first threshold and the warning associated with the second threshold are different.

17. A system comprising

a processing device;

and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium accessible by the processing device,

wherein the processing device is configured to execute logic embodied in the non-transitory computer-readable medium and thereby perform operations comprising;

receiving force measurements from a sensor;

calculating force changes over time using the received force measurements;

determining whether the user is engaged in clinically significant activity based on the calculated force changes and an activity threshold;

when the user is determined to not be engaged in clinically significant activity;

(a) receiving a recline angle and a sideways tilt angle from a sensor;

(b) identifying orientation risk values associated the received recline angle and the received sideways tilt angle; and

(c) recording a time series of orientation risk values;

when the user is determined to be engaged in clinically significant activity;

(a) identifying activity risk values associated with the force changes; and

(b) recording a time series of activity risk values;

combining the recorded time series of orientation risk values with the recorded time series of activity risk values to generate a continuous time series of risk values;

calculating a cumulative risk on a subset of the continuous time series of risk values by calculating a moving average for a subset of the continuous time series of risk values;

comparing the cumulative risk to a cumulative risk threshold value; and

outputting a warning when the cumulative risk crosses the cumulative risk threshold value.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing device, by executing the logic, is further configured to perform additional operations comprising:

when the user is determined to be engaged in activity, recording a cumulative time duration of the clinically significant activity by the user over a period of time;

comparing the cumulative time duration of the clinically significant activity engaged by the user over the time period to a preferred cumulative activity threshold.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the preferred cumulative activity threshold is dependent on a pregnancy stage of the user.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising the sensor, and wherein the sensor is housed in a first housing and wherein the processor is housed in a second housing separate from the first housing and wherein the sensor is wirelessly coupled with the processor.

21. A method for reducing risks associated with birth, the method comprising:

receiving sensor data from a sensor coupled with a user;

determining whether the user is engaged in activity based on the received sensor data;

when the user is determined to not be engaged in activity, monitoring the orientation of the abdomen of the user by processing the sensor data to estimate the orientation of the abdomen of the user;

identifying orientation risk values associated with the estimated orientations of the abdomen to produce a time series of identified orientation risk values;

calculating and updating a cumulative risk value by calculating a first moving average for a subset of the time series of identified orientation risk values associated with the estimated orientations of the abdomen;

comparing the cumulative risk value to a first threshold and a second threshold; and

outputting a first warning when the cumulative risk value crosses the first threshold and a second warning when the cumulative risk value crosses the second threshold.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein, when the user is determined to be engaged in clinically significant activity, the method further comprises:

stopping the producing of the time series of identified orientation risk values;

identifying activity risk values associated with the sensor data to produce a time series of identified activity risk values; and

wherein the calculating and updating of the cumulative risk score comprises;

combining the time series of identified activity risk values and previously identified orientation risk values; and

calculating a moving average for a subset of the combined time series of identified activity risk values and previously identified orientation risk values.

23. A wearable device system for reducing risks associated with birth, the wearable device comprising:

one or more sensors for generating force data indicative of an activity of the user; and

a processor coupled with the one or more sensors, the processor configured to;

monitor the activity of the user by processing the force data to identify force changes in the force data to estimate a vigorousness of the activity of the user;

compare the identified force changes to a force change threshold value to determine whether the user is engaged in clinically significant activity;

when the user is engaged in clinically significant activity, the processor is configured to identify activity risk values associated with the identified force changes to produce a time series of identified activity risk values;

calculate and update a cumulative risk value by calculating a moving average for a subset of the time series of identified activity risk values associated with the identified force changes;

compare the cumulative risk value to a threshold; and

output a warning when the first cumulative risk value crosses the first threshold.

24. The wearable device of claim 23, wherein the force changes are calculated by identifying a difference between a max force and a minimum force in the force data during a time interval, and wherein processor is further configured to produce a time series of calculated force changes.

25. The wearable device of claim 24, wherein the processor identifies clinically significant user activity by:

calculating and updating a user activity moving average for a subset of the time series of calculated force changes associated with the user activity;

comparing the user activity moving average to an activity threshold to determine whether the user is engaged in clinically significant activity; and

record a cumulative time duration of the clinically significant activity engaged by the user over a period of time.

26. The wearable device of claim 25, further comprising an input coupled with the processor and configured to receive user input of a gestational age of a pregnancy of the user.

27. The wearable device of claim 26, wherein the processor is further configured to compare the cumulative time duration of clinically significant activity engaged by the user over the period of time to a preferred cumulative activity threshold specific for the gestational age of the pregnancy of the user.