Multi-application-transceiver device and methods for target monitoring

• US 9,746,551 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2014
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eric Moskwa, Ulrich Scholten
• Original Assignee: Eric Moskwa, Ulrich Scholten
• Inventors: Scholten, Ulrich, Moskwa, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Charioui, Mohamed
• Application Number:
  US14/276,380
• Publication Number:
  US 20150276925A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• Field of Search: 702150, 600300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0507 using microwaves or terahertz waves
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1102 Ballistocardiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/113 occurring during breathing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/117 Identification of persons methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/444 Evaluating skin marks, e.g. mole, nevi, tumour, scar
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4818 Sleep apnoea
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/02 Systems using reflection of radio waves, e.g. primary radar systems; Analogous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/66 Radar-tracking systems; Analogous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/02 using reflection of acoustic waves G01S15/66 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/02 Systems using the reflection of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves G01S17/66 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations

Abstract

A multi-application-transceiver device, control computer, computer implemented method and computer program product for operating the multi-application-transceiver device is disclosed. At least one signal transceiver receives a reflected signal in response to an original signal sent by the at least one signal transceiver. The reflected signal is reflected from at least one target object. A signal conversion unit converts the reflected signal into digital format. A digital signal processor component pre-processes the converted reflected signal using an alterable rule engine with a received rule set to discriminate a state inn change of the at least one target object against an earlier state of the at least one target object in the context of a particular monitoring application. A middleware component communicates with at least one remote computing device wherein communicate includes to send the pre-processed signal to the remote computing device, and to receive from the at least one remote computing device the rule set for the alterable rule engine. The received rule set defines an application specific setting for the at least one signal transceiver and for the digital signal processor component to enable the particular monitoring application.

Claims

1. A multi-application-transceiver device for monitoring a health of a person, comprising:

a middleware component configured to receive a rule set, over a network, from a remote computing device storing a plurality of rule sets, each rule set corresponding to a different health monitoring application, the received rule set defining application specific settings for a first health monitoring application to be enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the application specific settings including sensor configuration parameters, digital signal processing parameters, and event condition action rules, which are used to implement and execute the first health monitoring application;

a digital signal processor component having a micro-processor and memory, the digital signal processor component including an alterable rule engine configured to store the received rule set in the memory and implement the first health monitoring application by loading the application specific settings of the received rule set,

the alterable rule engine adapted to configure sensors on the multi-application-transceiver device according to the sensor configuration parameters such that at least one sensor is configured to transmit one or more signals and receive one or more reflected signals reflected from the person in accordance with the sensor configuration parameters,

a signal conversion unit configured to convert the reflected signals into digital format,

the digital signal processor component configured to signal process the converted reflected signals using the digital signal processing parameters of the received rule set to detect a heartbeat frequency of the person in a context of the first health monitoring application; and

an interface configured to communicate results of the signal processing to a user or the remote computing device according to the event condition action rules of the received rule set, the interface including an actuator configured to communicate the results to the user in accordance with the event condition action rules of the received rule set such that the multi-application-transceiver device can react to specific events independently and without connection to the remote computing device, wherein the actuator is activated when the heartbeat frequency meets an event condition of the event condition action rules,

the middleware component is further configured to receive from the remote computing device a secondary rule set for the alterable rule engine, wherein the secondary rule set defines application specific settings for a second health monitoring application to be enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the second health monitoring application being a monitoring application that monitors the person or another person for a health condition that is different than the first health monitoring application,

the digital signal processor component is further configured to signal process the received signals in accordance with the application specific settings of the first health monitoring application and in parallel with the application specific settings of the second health monitoring application.

2. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the sensors include two or more sensors selected from the group of:

radar sensor, sonar sensor, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor, and infrared sensor.

3. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the second health monitoring application is configured to monitor a breathing frequency of the person.

4. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, further comprising:

a Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) unit configured to control the sensors according to the application specific settings of the received rule set of the first health monitoring application.

5. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the first health monitoring application is configured to monitor for sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

6. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the sensors include a plurality of antennas, wherein the plurality of antennas are configured to be controlled independently and concurrently according to the application specific settings of the received rule set of the first health monitoring application.

7. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the multi-application-transceiver device is a mobile phone.

8. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the second health monitoring application is configured to discover a presence of a macromolecule in a sample of the person and to estimate a concentration of the macromolecule in the sample through magnitude of re-emitted electromagnetic radiation having a frequency within a resonance frequency range of the-macromolecule.

9. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the sensors include a plurality of image sensors and at least one non-imaging sensor, and the digital signal processing component is configured to receive sensor data from the at least one non-imaging sensor, and to use the sensor data from the at least one non-imaging sensor in combination with sensor data from the plurality of image sensors when signal processing the converted reflected signals.

10. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the digital signal processing component is configured to pre-process the converted reflect signals to generate a pre-processed signal, and send the pre-processed signal, over the network, to the remote computing device, the middleware component configured to receive the rule set of the first health monitoring application, over the network, from the remote computing device in response to the pre-processed signal.

11. A computer implemented method for operating a multi-application transceiver device for monitoring a health of a person, comprising:

receiving, over a network, at a multi-application transceiver device, a rule set from a remote computing device storing a plurality of rule sets, each rule set corresponding to a different health monitoring application, the received rule set defining application specific settings for a first health monitoring application to be enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the application specific settings including sensor configuration parameters, digital signal processing parameters, and event condition action rules, which are used to implement and execute the first health monitoring application;

implementing the first health monitoring application by loading the application specific settings of the received result set including configuring sensors using the sensor configuration parameters of the received rule set;

receiving, by at least one sensor, one or more reflected signals reflected from a target object;

signal processing the reflected signals using the digital signal processing parameters of the received result set to detect a heartbeat frequency of the person in a context of the first health monitoring application;

communicating results of the signal processing, over the network, to a user or the remote computing device for further analysis according to the event condition action rules of the received rule set, wherein the results are communicated to the user, via an actuator, in accordance with the event condition action rules of the received rule set such that the multi-application-transceiver device can react to specific events independently and without connection to the remote computing device, wherein the actuator is actuated when the heartbeat frequency meets an event condition of the event condition action rules;

receiving from the remote computing device a secondary rule set for the alterable rule engine, wherein the secondary rule set defines application specific settings for a second health monitoring application to be enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the second health monitoring application being a monitoring application that monitors the person or another person for a health condition that is different from the first health monitoring application; and

implementing the second health monitoring application by loading the application specific settings for the second health monitoring application such that the first health monitoring application and the second health monitoring application can be executed in parallel.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 11, wherein the sensors include a plurality of image sensors and at least one non-imaging sensor.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving sensor data from the at least one non-imaging sensor, and using the sensor data from the at least one non-imaging sensor in combination with sensor data from the plurality of image sensors when signal processing the reflected signals.

14. A computer program product having executable instructions that when loaded into a non-transitory computer readable medium of a computing device and executed by at least one processor of the computing device are configured to:

receive, over a network, at a multi-application transceiver device for monitoring a health of a person, a rule set from a remote computing device storing a plurality of rule sets, each rule set corresponding to a different health monitoring application, the received rule set defining application specific settings for a first health monitoring application to be enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the application specific settings including sensor configuration parameters, digital signal processing parameters, and event condition action rules, which are used to implement and execute the first health monitoring application;

implement the first health monitoring application by loading the application specific settings of the received result set;

configure sensors using the sensor configuration parameters of the received rule set including setting a distance range of at least one sensor between the multi-application-transceiver device and the person;

receive, by the at least one sensor, one or more reflected signals reflected off the target object within the set distance range;

convert the reflected signals to a digital format;

signal process the converted reflected signals using the digital signal processing parameters of the received result set to detect a heartbeat frequency of the person in the context of the first health monitoring application;

communicate results of the signal processing, over the network, to a user or the remote computing device according to the event condition action rules of the rule set, wherein the results are communicated to the user, via an actuator, in accordance with the event condition action rules of the received rule set such that the multi-application-transceiver device can react to specific events independently and without connection to the remote computing device, wherein the actuator is actuated when the heartbeat frequency meets an event condition of the event condition action rules of the rule set;

receive, over the network, a secondary rule set from the remote computing device, the secondary rule set defining application specific settings for a second health monitoring application to be also enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the second health monitoring application being a monitoring application that monitors the person or another person for a health condition that is different from the first health monitoring application; and

implement the second health monitoring application by loading the application specific settings of the secondary rule set such that the first health monitoring application and the second health monitoring application can be executed in parallel.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions to signal process the reflected signals includes applying synthetic aperture radar algorithms to the converted reflected signals to create a resulting three-dimensional (3D) image, and the resulting 3D image is sent to the remote computing device for a time-frequency analysis.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions include executable instructions to:

receive and implement updates for the first health monitoring application and the second health monitoring application from the remote computing device.