Head mounted video and touch detection for healthcare facility hygiene

• US 9,659,367 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2014
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Herger, Lorraine M, Keller, Neal M, Kozloski, James R, McCarthy, Matthew, Wyskida, Andrew P, Pickover, Clifford A
• Primary Examiner(s): HEIDEMANN, JASON E
• Application Number:
  US14/245,021
• Publication Number:
  US 20150287182A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,145 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20072 Graph-based image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20076 Probabilistic image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20081 Training; Learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/03 Recognition of patterns in medical or anatomical images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/28 Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language static hand signs G06V40/113
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/51 Housings

Abstract

A system and method tracks touches in a healthcare environment in order to analyze paths of transmission and contamination for the purpose of eliminating and containing transmission of colonizing, drug-resistant pathogens. Touches are identified and tracked with the use of recording devices. Each touch is logged and a touch graph is generated to identify transmission paths.

Claims

1. A method for touch detection and analysis, comprising

using a processor device, performing steps of:

receiving from a first device, data comprising an indication that a touch has occurred within a setting comprising a plurality of identified persons, a plurality of identified objects, and a plurality of identified surfaces, the data received from the first device including touch identification from a touch identification system comprising at least one of;

a head-mounted display camera and an intrabody near-field communication network;

automatically analyzing the data to identify the touch;

logging the touch occurrence in a touch store;

generating a transmission graph from logged touches to identify deleterious entity transmission paths, said transmission graph comprising;

a node representing each person, each object, and each surface involved in the touch occurrence; and

edges between the nodes representing the touch occurrence; and

analyzing the touch graph to identify candidate transmission paths; and

using the touch identification system to increase confidence levels in the identification of the candidate transmission paths from the touch graph.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising using the processor device to perform proposing a mitigating action to prevent the deleterious entity transmissions, wherein a mitigation benefit derived from performing said mitigating action is a function of the likelihood of the transmission path playing a role in said transmission of the deleterious entity, the expected impact of the said mitigating action on reducing transmission, and costs, benefits and risks associated with said mitigating action.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising using the processor device to perform evaluating effects of the mitigating action.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising using the processor device to perform updating the touch graph according to the evaluation.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising ranking the candidate transmission paths based on the mitigation benefit.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the possible deleterious entity transmissions from the touch graph comprises performing a sampling of at least one of:

the plurality of identified persons, the plurality of identified objects, and the plurality of identified surfaces represented in the touch graph to test for contamination.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

receiving results of the sampling; and

using the results to automatically generate a set of candidate transmission paths of the deleterious entity.

8. An information processing system for touch detection and analysis comprising:

a processor device;

a memory operably coupled with the processor device, said memory comprising computer-executable instructions for performing;

receiving from a first device, data comprising an indication that a touch has occurred within a setting comprising;

a plurality of identified persons, a plurality of identified objects, and a plurality of identified surfaces;

automatically analyzing the data to identify the touch;

logging the touch occurrence in a touch store;

generating a transmission graph from logged touches to identify deleterious entity transmission paths, said transmission graph comprising;

a node representing each person, each object, and each surface involved in the touch occurrence; and

edges between the nodes representing the touch occurrence; and

analyzing the transmission graph to identify candidate transmission paths, wherein analyzing the transmission graph further comprises determining the transmission paths that are not candidate transmission paths for pathogens.

9. The information processing system of claim 8 wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise ranking the candidate transmission paths by likelihood of transmission.

10. The information processing system of claim 8 wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise proposing a mitigating action to prevent the deleterious entity transmissions, wherein a mitigation benefit derived from performing said mitigating action is a function of the likelihood of the transmission path playing a role in the transmission of the deleterious entity, the expected impact of the said mitigating action on reducing transmission, and costs, benefits and risks associated with said mitigating action.

11. The information processing system of claim 8 wherein the first device is a touch identification system comprising at least one of:

a head-mounted display and an intrabody near-field communication network; and

wherein the data is a combination of video data and audio data.

12. The information processing system of claim 11 wherein the first device is to increase confidence levels in the identification of candidate transmission paths.

13. The information processing system of claim 8 wherein the setting comprises a healthcare facility.

14. A method for touch detection and analysis, comprising

using a processor device, performing steps of:

receiving from a first device, data comprising an indication that a touch has occurred within a setting comprising a plurality of identified persons, a plurality of identified objects, and a plurality of identified surfaces;

automatically analyzing the data to identify the touch;

logging the touch occurrence in a touch store;

generating a transmission graph from logged touches to identify deleterious entity transmission paths, said transmission graph comprising;

a node representing each person, each object, and each surface involved in the touch occurrence; and

edges between the nodes representing the touch occurrence;

analyzing the touch graph to identify candidate transmission paths;

proposing a mitigating action to prevent the deleterious entity transmissions, wherein a mitigation benefit derived from performing said mitigating action is a function of the likelihood of the transmission path playing a role in said transmission of the deleterious entity, the expected impact of the said mitigating action on reducing transmission, and costs, benefits or risks associated with said mitigating action;

performing evaluating effects of the mitigating action; and

ranking the candidate transmission paths based on the mitigation benefit.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising using the processor device to perform updating the touch graph according to the evaluating effects.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein analyzing the possible deleterious entity transmissions from the touch graph comprises performing a sampling of at least one of:

the plurality of identified persons, the plurality of identified objects, and the plurality of identified surfaces represented in the touch graph to test for contamination.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

receiving results of the sampling; and

using the results to automatically generate a set of candidate transmission paths of the deleterious entity.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein receiving the data from the first device comprises receiving touch identification from a touch identification system comprising at least one of:

a head-mounted display camera and an intrabody near-field communication network.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising using the touch identification system to increase confidence levels in the identification of the candidate transmission paths from the touch graph.