POWER MANAGEMENT FOR MEDICAL SENSING DEVICES EMPLOYING MULTIPLE SENSOR SIGNAL FEATURE DETECTION

• US 20080232604A1
• Filed: 03/20/2008
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Solventum Intellectual Properties Company (Solventum Corp.)
• Original Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company (3M Company)
• Inventors: Carim, Hatim M., Drummond, Thomas E., Dufresne, Joel R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,594,339 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/67
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0209 adapted for power saving
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0204 Acoustic sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/061 Determining position of a probe within the body employing means separate from the probe, e.g. sensing internal probe position employing impedance electrodes on the surface of the body A61B1/00158 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6843 Monitoring or controlling sensor contact pressure
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/04 Electric stethoscopes microphones, acoustic transducers therefor H04R
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/00 Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves imaging of objects using sonar G01S15/00

Abstract

Power management circuitry of a portable electronic biosensor implements conditional power management logic to control biosensor power usage and to discriminate between intended use and nonuse of the biosensor by a clinician. The biosensor is configured to sense a property of the human body, such as a manifestation of acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin or an action potential of the human body. An output signal is produced that is representative of the sensed property. A sensor of the biosensor produces a signal having a plurality of sensor signal features that are received by a detector of the power management circuitry. The power management circuitry or a processor of the biosensor discriminates between intended use and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician using the sensor signal features. Power supplied to biosensor components is controlled based on the sensor signal features.

Claims

1. An electronic biosensor, comprising:

a housing configured for hand-held manipulation by a clinician relative to a patient;

a transducer supported by the housing and configured to sense a manifestation of acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin;

an output device configured to output a signal comprising signal information produced by the transducer;

a processor disposed in the housing;

a sensor; and

power management circuitry disposed in the housing and coupled to the processor and the sensor, the power management circuitry comprising detection circuitry configured to detect a plurality of features of a signal produced by the sensor, the power management circuitry implementing conditional power management logic by which the power management circuitry discriminates between intended use and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician using the plurality of sensor signal features, the power management circuitry and the processor cooperating to control power supplied to biosensor components based on the plurality of sensor signal features.

2. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter of the patient and a parameter indicative of sensor proximity to a body surface of the patient or clothing of the patient.

3. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter of the patient and a parameter indicative of contact between the biosensor and a body surface of the patient or clothing of the patient.

4. The biosensor of claim 3, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a physiologic parameter of the patient.

5. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter of the patient and a parameter of the clinician.

6. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of proximity with or contact between the biosensor and the clinician and a parameter indicative of proximity with or contact between the biosensor and the patient.

7. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the plurality of features comprises a transient portion of the sensor signal and a non-transient portion of the sensor signal.

8. The biosensor of claim 7, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of sensor proximity to a body surface of the patient or clothing of the patient.

9. The biosensor of claim 7, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of sensor contact with a body surface of the patient or clothing of the patient.

10. The biosensor of claim 7, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of sensor contact with a body surface of the clinician or clothing of the clinician.

11. The biosensor of claim 7, wherein the sensor is configured to sense at least one of temperature, capacitance, impedance, pressure, and force.

12. The biosensor of claim 7, wherein the sensor is configured to sense acceleration.

13. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises the transducer of the biosensor.

14. The biosensor of claim 13, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a transient portion of a signal indicative of the acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin and a non-transient portion of the signal indicative of the acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin.

15. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the power management circuitry discriminates between intended and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician based at least in part on a comparison of the sensor signal to a predefined sensor profile that characterizes an excitation response of the sensor.

16. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a single sensor element.

17. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a plurality of sensor elements.

18. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the power management circuitry and processor cooperate to control application and removal of power respectively to and from the biosensor components based on the sensor signal features.

19. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the processor is coupled to volatile memory and non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory configured to store programmed instructions executable by the processor for facilitating operation of the biosensor by the clinician, the programmed instructions transferred from the non-volatile memory to the volatile memory for execution by the processor in response to a command signal.

20. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the power management circuitry discriminates between intended and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician based on a time duration between sensing of the respective sensor signal features.

21. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the power management circuitry disables implementation of some or all of the conditional power management logic in response to a command signal.

22. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the power management circuitry implements or modifies biosensor power management in accordance with a predefined power management profile selectable by the clinician.

23. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the power management circuitry implements or modifies biosensor power management in accordance with an adaptive power management profile based on a history of biosensor power consumption.

24. The biosensor of claim 1, comprising a headset configured to communicatively couple to the output device and convert the signal comprising signal information produced by the transducer to a user-perceivable form.

25. The biosensor of claim 1, comprising:

a first power source coupled to the power management circuitry and defining a low power source, the first power source supplying power for continuous or intermittent operation of the power management circuitry during a sleep state of the processor; and

a second power source coupled to the processor and defining a high power source relative to the first power source, the second power source supplying power for the processor to transition the processor from the sleep state to a state that facilitates use of the biosensor by the clinician.

26. The biosensor of claim 1, wherein the output device comprises a user interface that provides user-perceivable output indicative of a plurality of a power status, a transducer signal strength, wired or wireless communication link status, and an operational status of the biosensor.

27. A method of managing power in an electronic biosensor configured for hand-held manipulation by a clinician, comprising:

sensing a manifestation of acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin;

producing an output signal representative of the sensed manifestation of acoustic energy;

receiving a sensor signal from a sensor of the biosensor;

detecting a plurality of features of the sensor signal;

discriminating between intended use and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician using sensor signal features; and

controlling power supplied to biosensor components based on the sensor signal features.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein controlling power supplied to biosensor components comprises controlling application and removal of power respectively to and from biosensor components based on the sensor signal features.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter of the patient and a parameter indicative of sensor proximity to a surface of the patient or clothing of the patient.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter of the patient and a parameter indicative of contact between the biosensor and the patient.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a physiologic parameter of the patient.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter of the patient and a parameter of the clinician.

33. The method of claim 27, wherein the plurality of features comprise a transient portion of the sensor signal and a non-transient portion of the sensor signal.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of sensor proximity to a surface of the patient or clothing of the patient.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of sensor contact with a surface of the patient or clothing of the patient.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of sensor contact with a surface of the clinician or clothing of the clinician.

37. The method of claim 33, wherein the sensor is configured to sense at least one of temperature, capacitance, impedance, pressure, and force.

38. The method of claim 33, wherein the sensor is configured to sense acceleration.

39. The method of claim 27, wherein the sensor is configured to sense the manifestation of acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin, and the sensor signal is representative of the manifestation of acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein detecting the plurality of sensor signal features comprises detecting a transient portion of the sensor signal and a non-transient portion of the sensor signal.

41. The method of claim 27, wherein discriminating between intended and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician comprises comparing the sensor signal to a predefined sensor profile that characterizes an excitation response of the sensor.

42. The method of claim 27, wherein discriminating between intended and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician is based at least in part on a time duration between sensing of the respective sensor signal features.

43. The method of claim 27, comprising disabling implementation of some or all of the conditional power management logic in response to a command signal.

44. The method of claim 27, comprising implementing or modifying biosensor power management in accordance with a predefined power management profile selectable by the clinician.

45. The method of claim 27, comprising implementing or modifying biosensor power management in accordance with an adaptive power management profile based on a history of biosensor power consumption.

46. The method of claim 27, comprising producing user-perceivable output indicative of a plurality of a power status, a transducer signal strength, wired or wireless communication link status, and an operational status of the biosensor.

47. An electronic biosensor, comprising:

a housing configured for hand-held manipulation by a clinician;

a transducer supported by the housing and configured to sense a manifestation of acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin;

an output device configured to output a signal comprising signal information produced by the transducer;

a processor disposed in the housing; and

power management circuitry disposed in the housing and coupled to the processor, the power management circuitry coupled to at least a first sensor and a second sensor of the biosensor respectively configured to produce first and second sensor signals, the power management circuitry implementing conditional power management logic by which the power management circuitry discriminates between intended use and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician based on a state of the first and second sensor signals, the power management circuitry and the processor cooperating to control power supplied to biosensor components based on the state of the first and second sensor signals.

48. The biosensor of claim 47, wherein one of the first and second sensors comprises a sensor the produces an output indicative of sensor proximity to a body surface or clothing on the body.

49. The biosensor of claim 47, wherein one of the first and second sensors comprises a contact sensor.

50. The biosensor of claim 47, wherein one of the first and second sensors comprises the transducer.

51. The biosensor of claim 47, wherein each of the first and second sensors comprises a sensor transducer other than the biosensor transducer.

52. A method of managing power in an electronic biosensor configured for hand-held manipulation by a clinician, comprising:

sensing a manifestation of acoustic energy produced by matter of biological origin;

producing an output signal representative of the sensed manifestation of acoustic energy;

receiving first and second sensor signals;

discriminating between intended use and nonuse of the biosensor by the clinician based on a state of the first and second sensor signals and using conditional power management logic; and

controlling power supplied to biosensor components based on the state of the first and second sensor signals.