Monitoring a person for indications of a brain injury

• US 9,763,571 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2015
• Issued: 09/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kozloski, James R., Lamorey, Mark C. H., Pickover, Clifford A., Rice, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): KAHELIN, MICHAEL WILLIAM
• Application Number:
  US14/744,061
• Publication Number:
  US 20160278684A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0475 Special features of memory means, e.g. removable memory cards
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0204 Acoustic sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0008 provided with illuminating means A61B3/117 takes precedence; goniolenses used for laser treatment A61F9/009; illuminating means for optical instruments G02B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0025 characterised by electronic signal processing, e.g. eye models
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/112 for measuring diameter of pupils
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/113 for determining or recording eye movement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/14 Arrangements specially adapted for eye photography apparatus or arrangements for taking photographs per se G03B
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/145 by video means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1114 Tracking parts of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4064 Evaluating the brain A61B5/031, A61B5/369, A61B5/14553 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7278 Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesising signals from measured signals A61B5/327 takes precedence
• 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 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/747 in case of emergency, i.e. alerting emergency services

Abstract

Embodiments include methods, systems and computer program products for monitoring a user of a helmet for a traumatic brain injury. Aspects include monitoring one or more eyes of the user with a camera embedded in the helmet and analyzing, by a processor, one or more characteristics of the one or more eyes of the user. Aspects also include determining whether the one or more characteristics of the eyes indicate that the user may have suffered the traumatic brain injury and creating an alert that the user of the helmet may have suffered the traumatic brain injury.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a user of a helmet for a traumatic brain injury, the method comprising:

monitoring an acceleration of a head of a user with an accelerometer embedded in the helmet;

selectively activating a camera embedded in the helmet based on the acceleration exceeding a threshold level;

monitoring one or more eyes of the user with the camera embedded in the helmet for a time period;

analyzing, by a processor, one or more characteristics of the one or more eyes of the user during the time period;

determining a cognitive state of the user and a risk category for traumatic brain injury of the user based on the acceleration and one or more environmental influences;

determining whether the user may have suffered the traumatic brain injury based on the one or more characteristics of the eyes, the cognitive state of the user and the risk category of the user;

creating an alert that the user of the helmet may have suffered the traumatic brain injury; and

transmitting the alert and one or more images captured by the camera to a separate computer system for processing and further analysis.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more characteristics of the one or more eyes of the user includes a dilation of a pupil.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination that the one or more characteristics of the eyes indicate that the user may have suffered the traumatic brain injury is based on a comparison of the one or more characteristics of the one or more eyes of the user to a baseline reading of the one or more characteristics of the one or more eyes of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination that the one or more characteristics of the eyes indicate that the user may have suffered the traumatic brain injury is based on a determination that the user has Anisocoria.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring further comprises illuminating the one or more eyes with a light source in the helmet.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the alert to a separate computer system for processing and further analysis.