Networked system for interactive communication and remote monitoring of individuals

• US 20060294233A1
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Health Hero Network Incorporated (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Health Hero Network Incorporated (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Inventors: Brown, Stephen J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,533,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/24 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/905 Feedback to patient of biological signal other than brain electric signal
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

A system for remotely monitoring an individual. The system includes a server system for generating a script program from a set of queries. The script program is executable by a remote apparatus that displays information and/or a set of queries to the individual through a user interface. Responses to the queries that are entered through the user interface together with individual identification information are sent from the remote apparatus to the server system across a communication network. The server system also includes an automated answering service for providing a series of questions from a stored set of questions for an individual at the remote apparatus to respond to, storing responses to each provided question in the series of questions and providing a service based on the individual'"'"'s response to the questions.

Claims

1. A monitoring system for communicating with at least one individual, the monitoring system comprising:

a server configured to broadcast a script program to at least one remotely situated apparatus through at least one communication medium;

a user interface configured to communicate with the server and adapted for (i) entering, authoring, selecting, or any combination thereof, a set of queries to be answered by the individual and (ii) entering, authoring, selecting, or any combination thereof, corresponding response choices for each of the queries;

a script generator configured to generate the script program to be broadcast to the remotely situated apparatus, wherein the script program represents the queries and the response choices to the individual; and

one or more databases accessible by the server for storing the script program and the responses received from the remotely situated apparatus.

2. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one communication medium comprises one or more media selected from the group consisting of an over-the-air transmission, a cable network, a network linking a plurality of computers, a closed-circuit television network, a digital broadcast network and a satellite link.

3. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the script program is encoded for decoding by only one individual or a member of a group of individuals.

4. The monitoring system according to claim 1, further comprising a digital broadcast network.

5. The monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein the digital broadcast network comprises hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software for broadcasting the script program.

6. The monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein the digital broadcast network comprises hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software for generating a broadcast program including one or more script programs and entertainment or advertisement content for later broadcast to the individual when the individual is not presently viewing the entertainment or advertisement content.

7. The monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein the digital broadcast network comprises hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software for broadcasting one or more script programs along with entertainment or advertisement content being viewed by an individual.

8. The monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein the digital broadcast network comprises hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software for encoding the script program for the individual and combining the encoded script program with entertainment or advertisement content for broadcast.

9. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein a broadcast including said script program comprises video on demand.

10. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein a broadcast including said script program comprises accessing one or more web pages.

11. The monitoring system according to claim 1, further configured to communicate with a plurality of individuals through the at least one communication medium using a corresponding plurality of remotely situated apparatus, wherein (i) the one or more databases are further configured for storing one or more script programs, (ii) the server further includes a script assignment unit configured to access the one or more databases for assigning to each of the individuals at least one of the script programs, and (iii) the one or more databases are further configured for storing a list of the individuals, and for each of the individuals, a respective pointer to the script program assigned to the individual.

12. The monitoring system according to claim 11, wherein the one or more script programs are broadcast to each of the plurality of remotely situated apparatus and access to the at least one of the script programs assigned to each of the plurality of individuals associated with the respective one of the plurality of apparatus is controlled based on an identification code associated with each of the plurality of individuals.

13. The monitoring system according to claim 11, wherein the one or more script programs are encoded for each of the plurality of individuals and each of the remotely situated apparatus associated with each of the plurality of individuals is configured to decode a respective script program directed to the associated individual.

14. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the script program is combined with entertainment or advertisement content to form a broadcast program.

15. The monitoring system according to claim 14, wherein a first portion of the script program is combined with entertainment or advertisement content to form the broadcast program and a second portion of the script program is broadcast in response to a request received from the remotely situated apparatus.

16. The monitoring system according to claim 14, wherein the individual can interact with the script program while simultaneously viewing the entertainment or advertisement content.

17. The monitoring system according to claim 14, wherein the entertainment or advertisement content can be paused while the individual is interacting with the script program.

18. The monitoring system according to claim 14, wherein the script program contains one or more instructions to pause the entertainment or advertisement content until the individual has completed the script program.

19. The monitoring system according to claim 14, wherein the script program contains one or more instructions to cause the remotely situated apparatus to display an indication that a script program is available for the individual.

20. The monitoring system according to claim 19, wherein the individual activates the script program using the displayed indication that a script program is available for the individual.

21. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein communication from the server to the remotely situated apparatus is transmitted on a first type of communication medium and communication from the remotely situated apparatus to the server is transmitted on a second type of communication medium.

22. A method for communicating with at least one individual, the method comprising the steps of:

A) entering queries and corresponding response choices into a server;

B) generating one or more script programs using the queries;

C) broadcasting the one or more script programs to one or more remotely situated apparatus through at least one communication medium, wherein the one or more script programs represent the queries and the response choices to the at least one individual; and

D) receiving the responses through the at least one communication medium and storing the responses on the server.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein the at least one communication medium comprises one or more media selected from the group consisting of an over-the-air transmission, a cable network, a network linking a plurality of computers, a closed-circuit television network, a digital broadcast network and a satellite link.

24. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the step of encoding the script program for decoding by only one individual or by a member of a group of individuals.

25. The method according to claim 22, wherein a broadcast including said script program comprises video on demand.

26. The method according to claim 22, wherein a broadcast including said script program comprises accessing one or more web pages.

27. The method according to claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

entering in the server a plurality of sets of queries;

generating a plurality of script programs such that each of the plurality of script programs corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of sets of queries;

assigning to each of a plurality of individuals at least one of the plurality of script programs;

storing in the server the plurality of script programs, a list of the plurality of individuals, and for each of the plurality of individuals, a respective pointer to the at least one of the plurality of script programs assigned to each of the plurality of individuals; and

transmitting to each of a plurality of remotely situated apparatus the at least one of the plurality of script programs assigned to each of the plurality of individuals associated with the respective one of the plurality of apparatus.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the at least one of the plurality of script programs is broadcast to the one or more remotely situated apparatus and access to at least one of the script programs associated with a respective one of the one or more apparatus is controlled based on an identification code associated with the respective individual.

29. The method according to claim 27, wherein the at least one of the plurality of script programs assigned to an individual is encoded for the individual and each of the remotely situated apparatus associated with each of the plurality of individuals is configured to decode a respective script program directed to the associated individual.

30. The method according to claim 22, wherein the script program is combined with entertainment or advertisement content to form a broadcast program.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein a first portion of the script program is combined with entertainment or advertisement content to form the broadcast program and a second portion of the script program is broadcast in response to a request received from the remotely situated apparatus.

32. The method according to claim 30, wherein the individual can interact with the script program while simultaneously viewing the entertainment or advertisement content.

33. The method according to claim 30, wherein the entertainment or advertisement content can be paused while the individual is interacting with the script program.

34. The method according to claim 30, wherein the script program contains one or more instructions to pause the entertainment or advertisement content until the individual has completed the script program.

35. The method according to claim 30, wherein the script program contains one or more instructions to cause the remotely situated apparatus to display an indication that a script program is available for the individual.

36. The method according to claim 35, wherein the individual activates the script program using the displayed indication that a script program is available for the individual.

37. A broadcast system configured to allow monitoring of at least one individual using a server and an apparatus remotely situated from the server, wherein the apparatus comprises:

a communication interface for establishing a communication link between the apparatus and the server through at least one communication medium;

a user interface for presenting queries and response choices provided by a script program broadcast from the server through the at least one communication medium and for receiving responses to the queries from the at least one individual;

a memory for storing the script program and the responses; and

a processing unit connected to the communication interface, the user interface and the memory, wherein the processing unit is configured to execute the script program to present the queries and the response choices and to receive the responses.

38. The broadcast system according to claim 37, wherein the script program is encoded for decoding by only one individual or by a member of a group of individuals.

39. The broadcast system according to claim 37, wherein:

the apparatus further comprises a device interface connected to the processing unit and configured for receiving measurements from at least one monitoring device for producing measurements of a physiological condition of the individual and for transmitting the measurements to the apparatus;

the script program includes a collect command to collect the measurements from the at least one monitoring device;

the memory is further configured to store the measurements; and

the communication interface is further configured to transmit the measurements to the server for storage in one or more databases.

40. The broadcast system according to claim 37, wherein the at least one communication medium comprises one or more media selected from the group consisting of an over-the-air transmission, a cable network, a network linking a plurality of computers, a closed-circuit television network, a digital broadcast network and a satellite link.

41. The broadcast system according to claim 37, wherein a broadcast including said script program comprises video on demand.

42. The broadcast system according to claim 37, wherein a broadcast including said script program comprises accessing one or more web pages.

43. The broadcast system according to claim 37, wherein the processing unit comprises a multimedia processor.

44. The broadcast system according to claim 37, wherein the script program is combined with entertainment or advertisement content to form a broadcast program.

45. The broadcast system according to claim 44, wherein a first portion of the script program is combined with the entertainment or advertisement content to form the broadcast program and the first portion of the script program causes the processing unit to send a request to the server for a second portion of the script program in response to an input received from the at least one individual.

46. The broadcast system according to claim 44, wherein the processing unit is directed by embedded software instructions, software instructions included in the broadcast program or a combination of embedded and broadcast instructions.

47. The broadcast system according to claim 44, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine whether (i) an icon is displayed over the entertainment or advertisement content to reference the script program or (ii) the script program is displayed on a portion of a display with the entertainment or advertisement content.

48. The broadcast system according to claim 44, wherein the apparatus further comprises a decoding component configured to decode an encoded script program received with the broadcast program.

49. The broadcast system according to claim 48, wherein the encoded script program is encoded to limit access to the script program to a predetermined individual.

50. The broadcast system according to claim 37, wherein the processing unit is further configured (i) to receive the broadcasted script program through a first communication medium and (ii) to transmit and receive data through a second communication medium.