Selectively disabling a restricted mode of a user equipment based on detection of an emergency health condition

• US 9,959,746 B1
• Filed: 02/27/2017
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Krishnamoorthy, Parthasarathy, Ghosh, Priyangshu, Mitra, Soumen, Raghunathan, Shravan Kumar, Dhanapal, Muthukumaran, Mohan, Prashanth, Pasunooru, Naveen Kumar, Kitabi, Ammar, Bathija, Jayesh, Appani, Praveen Kumar, Bansal, Hargovind, Shah, Sagar
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US15/444,263
• Time in Patent Office: 428 Days
• Field of Search: 34053912
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0461 integrated or attached to an item closely associated with the person but not worn by the person, e.g. chair, walking stick, bed sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/60 for the operation of medical equipment or devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72418 for supporting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

In an embodiment, a user equipment (UE) determines an emergency health condition for a user that is defined based on a set of health-related parameters crossing a corresponding set of thresholds. The UE receives health data from a set of health monitoring sensors that are each configured to monitor one or more health-related parameters of the user. The UE detects, while a restricted mode restricting access to a set of communicative functions of the UE is active, that the emergency health condition for the user exists based on the received health data indicating that the set of health-related parameters have crossed the corresponding set of thresholds. The UE disables the restricted mode in response to the detecting. The UE conveys, using one or more communicative functions from the set of communicative functions that are made available by the disabling of the restricted mode, an alarm related to the detected emergency health condition for the user.

Claims

1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising:

determining an emergency health condition for a user that is defined based on a set of health-related parameters crossing a corresponding set of thresholds;

receiving health data from a set of health monitoring sensors that are each configured to monitor one or more health-related parameters of the user;

detecting, based on execution of a given application at the UE while a restricted mode restricting access to a set of communicative functions of the UE is active, that the emergency health condition for the user exists based on the received health data indicating that the set of health-related parameters have crossed the corresponding set of thresholds;

verifying that the given application has permission to disable the restricted mode of the UE;

disabling the restricted mode in response to the detecting and the verifying; and

conveying, using one or more communicative functions from the set of communicative functions that are made available by the disabling of the restricted mode, an alarm related to the detected emergency health condition for the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the restricted mode is a do-not-disturb (DND) mode, a silent mode, a Wi-Fi-disabled mode and/or a cellular-disabled mode.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the set of health monitoring sensors includes a plurality of health monitoring sensors that are each associated with a different health-related parameter,

wherein the set of health-related parameters include each of the different health-related parameters of the plurality of health monitoring sensors.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the corresponding set of thresholds includes multiple thresholds for at least one health-related parameter in the set of health-related parameters,

wherein the multiple thresholds include an upper threshold and a lower threshold, and

wherein the detecting detects the emergency health condition based in part upon the at least one health-related parameter rising above the upper threshold or by falling below the lower threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the corresponding set of thresholds includes at least one user-defined threshold.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing a user interface at the UE that allows the user to configure one or more of the corresponding set of thresholds for the set of health-related parameters,

wherein the at least one user-defined threshold is configured via the user interface.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a user interface at the UE that allows the user to configure which applications installed on the UE have permission to disable the restricted mode,

wherein the verifying is based upon whether the user grants permission to the given application via the user interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is coupled to at least one health monitoring sensor in the set of health monitoring sensors via a local wireless connection or a wired connection.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the local wireless connection is a Bluetooth connection or a Near Field Communication (NFC) connection.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein the conveying includes outputting the alarm by the UE locally, and/or

wherein the conveying includes transmitting the alarm to one or more external devices.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a list of contacts to alert in response to a detection that the emergency health condition exists for the user,

wherein the conveying transmits the alarm to one or more external devices associated with one or more of the listed contacts.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the conveying transmits the alarm to the one or more external devices via a device-to-device (D2D) connection or via a communications network.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing a user interface at the UE that allows the user to configure the list of contacts to alert in response to a given detection that the emergency health condition exists for the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the conveying includes broadcasting the alarm to any in-range UE via a wireless communications protocol.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the wireless communications protocol is Long-Term Evolution Direct (LTE-D).

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the conveying includes transmitting the alarm to one or more emergency response personnel.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of health monitoring sensors includes a blood pressure monitor, a heart rate monitor, a glucose monitor, a brainwave detector or any combination thereof.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of health-related parameters includes blood pressure, heart rate, glucose level, brainwave activity or any combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 1,

wherein the disabling fully disables the restricted mode by making each communicative function in the set of communicative functions available, or

wherein the disabling partially disables the restricted mode by making less than all communicative functions in the set of communicative functions available.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more communicative functions include an audio output function of the UE, a vibratory output function of the UE, a wireless communicative function of the UE, or any combination thereof.

21. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

means for determining an emergency health condition for a user that is defined based on a set of health-related parameters crossing a corresponding set of thresholds;

means for receiving health data from a set of health monitoring sensors that are each configured to monitor one or more health-related parameters of the user;

means for detecting, based on execution of a given application at the UE while a restricted mode restricting access to a set of communicative functions of the UE is active, that the emergency health condition for the user exists based on the received health data indicating that the set of health-related parameters have crossed the corresponding set of thresholds;

means for verifying that the given application has permission to disable the restricted mode of the UE;

means for disabling the restricted mode in response to the detection and the verification; and

means for conveying, using one or more communicative functions from the set of communicative functions that are made available by the disabling of the restricted mode, an alarm related to the detected emergency health condition for the user.

22. The UE of claim 21, wherein the restricted mode is a do-not-disturb (DND) mode, a silent mode, a Wi-Fi-disabled mode and/or a cellular-disabled mode.

23. The UE of claim 21, wherein the means for conveying conveys the alarm by:

outputting the alarm by the UE locally,

transmitting the alarm to one or more external devices,

broadcasting the alarm to any in-range UE via a wireless communications protocol,

transmitting the alarm to emergency response personnel, or

any combination thereof.

24. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

at least one processor coupled to memory and configured to;

determine an emergency health condition for a user that is defined based on a set of health-related parameters crossing a corresponding set of thresholds;

receive health data from a set of health monitoring sensors that are each configured to monitor one or more health-related parameters of the user;

detect, based on execution of a given application at the UE while a restricted mode restricting access to a set of communicative functions of the UE is active, that the emergency health condition for the user exists based on the received health data indicating that the set of health-related parameters have crossed the corresponding set of thresholds;

verify that the given application has permission to disable the restricted mode of the UE;

disable the restricted mode in response to the detection and the verification; and

convey, using one or more communicative functions from the set of communicative functions that are made available by the disabling of the restricted mode, an alarm related to the detected emergency health condition for the user.

25. The UE of claim 24, wherein the restricted mode is a do-not-disturb (DND) mode, a silent mode, a Wi-Fi-disabled mode and/or a cellular-disabled mode.

26. The UE of claim 24, wherein the at least one processor conveys the alarm by:

outputting the alarm by the UE locally,

transmitting the alarm to one or more external devices,

broadcasting the alarm to any in-range UE via a wireless communications protocol,

transmitting the alarm to emergency response personnel, or

any combination thereof.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to perform operations, the instructions comprising:

at least one instruction to cause the UE to determine an emergency health condition for a user that is defined based on a set of health-related parameters crossing a corresponding set of thresholds;

at least one instruction to cause the UE to receive health data from a set of health monitoring sensors that are each configured to monitor one or more health-related parameters of the user;

at least one instruction to cause the UE to detect, based on execution of a given application at the UE while a restricted mode restricting access to a set of communicative functions of the UE is active, that the emergency health condition for the user exists based on the received health data indicating that the set of health-related parameters have crossed the corresponding set of thresholds;

at least one instruction to cause the UE to verify that the given application has permission to disable the restricted mode of the UE;

at least one instruction to cause the UE to disable the restricted mode in response to the detection and the verification; and

at least one instruction to cause the UE to convey, using one or more communicative functions from the set of communicative functions that are made available by the disabling of the restricted mode, an alarm related to the detected emergency health condition for the user.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the restricted mode is a do-not-disturb (DND) mode, a silent mode, a Wi-Fi-disabled mode and/or a cellular-disabled mode.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the at least one instruction to cause the UE to convey causes the UE to convey the alarm by:

outputting the alarm by the UE locally,

transmitting the alarm to one or more external devices,

broadcasting the alarm to any in-range UE via a wireless communications protocol,

transmitting the alarm to emergency response personnel, or

any combination thereof.