Biomechanical motion measurement and analysis for self-administered tests

• US 10,444,980 B1
• Filed: 10/13/2015
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Cognitive Healthcare Company
• Original Assignee: The Cognitive Healthcare Company
• Inventors: Glenn, Shenly, Mefford, Joel
• Primary Examiner(s): Lam, Vinh T
• Application Number:
  US14/882,393
• Time in Patent Office: 1,463 Days
• Field of Search: 345173
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4064 Evaluating the brain A61B5/031, A61B5/369, A61B5/14553 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4082 Diagnosing or monitoring movement diseases, e.g. Parkinson, Huntington or Tourette
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4088 Diagnosing of monitoring cognitive diseases, e.g. Alzheimer, prion diseases or dementia
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• 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 20/70 relating to mental therapies, e.g. psychological therapy or autogenous training
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

A client device is configured with a test administration application for conducting self-administered tests. A user interface of the test administration application includes motion restriction regions configured to prevent select types of body motion during particular segments of self-administered tests, and testing regions configured to receive a touch input performed by a specific digit of the user. For example, a touch input involves touching, holding, or tapping a single digit within the bounds of a testing region in accordance with instructions provided by the test administration application. The test administration module records motion data comprising one or more touch events, each touch event describing a touch input performed by the user. Undesired touch inputs that may obscure or degrade the reliability of biomechanical data are identified. The test administration module determines whether a user has successfully completed the test in accordance with instructions provided by the test administration application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

configuring a touch-sensitive surface of a client device configured to present a self-administered test of biomechanical motor functions of digits of a user, the touch-sensitive surface configured to include a plurality of predetermined motion restriction regions and at least one testing region, wherein;

the motion restriction regions are arranged on the touch-sensitive surface to biomechanically isolate a specified digit contacting the testing region when a plurality of other digits of the user are anchored to the motion restriction regions, and

locations of the plurality of motion restriction regions and the at least one testing region are displayed on the touch-sensitive surface;

prior to a start of the self-administered test, receiving touch inputs on the touch-sensitive surface in the motion restriction regions indicating that the plurality of other digits of the user are anchored to the plurality of motion restriction regions, and responsive to such inputs, starting the self-administered test;

receiving, during the self-administered test, first touch inputs in the testing region;

receiving, during the self-administered test, second touch inputs in at least one of the motion restriction regions, and determining from the second touch inputs whether at least one of the plurality of other digits is no longer anchored to at least one of the motion restriction regions; and

responsive to determining that at least one of the plurality of other digits is no longer anchored to at least one of the motion restriction regions, indicating that touch inputs received in the testing region are invalid touch inputs.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising presenting instructions to the user to anchor digits of the user to at least one of the motion restriction regions.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising presenting instructions to the user to perform a first touch input using the specified digit of the user within the testing region.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each received touch input comprises:

a timestamp associated with the touch input;

a location associated with the touch input; and

a type of the touch input.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the type of the touch input includes a designation of the touch input as one of:

a finger-down event;

a finger-up event; and

a finger-move event.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the determining from the touch inputs whether at least one of the plurality of other digits is no longer anchored to at least one of the motion restriction regions comprises determining that a touch input in at least one of the motion restriction regions is a finger-up event.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the determining from the touch inputs whether at least one of the plurality of other digits is no longer anchored to the motion restriction region comprises determining that a touch input in at least one of the motion restriction regions is a finger-move event, and a location of the touch event is outside of at least one of the motion restriction regions.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a number of invalid touch inputs during the self-administered test; and

responsive to the number of invalid touch inputs exceeding a threshold, terminating the self-administered test.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer instructions that, when executed by a hardware processor, perform steps comprising:

configuring a touch-sensitive surface of a client device configured to present a self-administered test of biomechanical motor functions of digits of a user, the touch-sensitive surface configured to include a plurality of predetermined motion restriction regions and at least one testing region, wherein;

the motion restriction regions are arranged on the touch-sensitive surface to biomechanically isolate a specified digit contacting the testing region when a plurality of other digits of the user are anchored to the motion restriction regions, and

locations of the plurality of motion restriction regions and the at least one testing region are displayed on the touch-sensitive surface;

prior to a start of the self-administered test, receiving touch inputs on the touch-sensitive surface in the motion restriction regions indicating that the plurality of other digits of the user are anchored to the plurality of motion restriction regions, and responsive to such inputs, starting the self-administered test;

receiving, during the self-administered test, first touch inputs in the testing region;

receiving, during the self-administered test, second touch inputs in at least one of the motion restriction regions, and determining from the second touch inputs whether at least one of the plurality of other digits is no longer anchored to at least one of the motion restriction regions; and

responsive to determining that at least one of the plurality of other digits is no longer anchored to at least one of the motion restriction regions, indicating that touch inputs received in the testing region are invalid touch inputs.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising presenting instructions to the user to anchor digits of the user to at least one of the motion restriction regions.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising presenting instructions to the user to perform a first touch input using the specified digit of the user within the testing region.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein each received touch input comprises:

a timestamp associated with the touch input;

a location associated with the touch input; and

a type of the touch input.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the type of the touch input includes a designation of the touch input as one of:

a finger-down event;

a finger-up event; and

a finger-move event.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the determining from the touch inputs whether at least one of the plurality of other digits is no longer anchored to at least one of the motion restriction regions comprises determining that a touch input in at least one of the motion restriction regions is a finger-up event.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the determining from the touch inputs whether at least one of the plurality of other digits is no longer anchored to the motion restriction region comprises determining that a touch input in at least one of the motion restriction regions is a finger-move event, and a location of the touch event is outside of at least one of the motion restriction regions.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising:

determining a number of invalid touch inputs during the self-administered test; and

responsive to the number of invalid touch inputs exceeding a threshold, terminating the self-administered test.