MENTAL BALANCE OR IMBALANCE ESTIMATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20140288401A1
• Filed: 11/12/2012
• Published: 09/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Ouwerkerk, Martin, Westerink, Joanne Henriette Desiree Monique, Lashina, Tatiana Aleksandrovna, Holenderski, Leszek
• Granted Patent: US 10,085,695 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/345
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0531 Measuring skin impedance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0533 Measuring galvanic skin response
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14546 for measuring analytes not otherwise provided for, e.g. ions, cytochromes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1477 non-invasive
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/165 Evaluating the state of mind, e.g. depression, anxiety
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7225 Details of analog processing, e.g. isolation amplifier, gain or sensitivity adjustment, filtering, baseline or drift compensation A61B5/30, A61B5/316 take precedence; transformers for specific applications H01F38/00; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• 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: F04C 2270/0421 Controlled or regulated
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

The present invention relates to a mental balance or imbalance estimation system (100) and method for estimating a level of mental balance or imbalance of a user (1). The system comprises a skin conductance sensor (20) for sensing the skin conductance of the user (1), the skin conductance over time forming a skin conductance trace (22). The system further comprises a processing unit (10) for receiving and processing the skin conductance trace (22), the processing unit configured to determine at least one stimulus response (24) in the skin conductance trace (22), to determine an estimated cortisol level trace (28) of the user (1) based on the determined at least one stimulus response (24), and to determine the estimated level of mental balance or imbalance of the user (1) based on the estimated cortisol level trace (28).

Claims

1. A cortisol level estimation system comprising:

a processing unit for receiving and processing a skin conductance trace formed from a skin conductance over time of a user, the processing unit configured to determine at least one stimulus response in the skin conductance trace, and to determine an estimated cortisol level trace of the user based on the at least one stimulus response.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a memory for storing the estimated cortisol level trace which is determined by cumulating multiple estimated cortisol time responses, wherein each estimated cortisol time response is based on one stimulus response.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the processing unit is configured to estimate each cortisol time response as

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the estimated cortisol time response depends on an input information indicating the sex of the user which is input into the system.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine one of the at least one stimulus response at a specific start point of time, and the corresponding estimated cortisol time response has its start point at the specific start point of time and lasts to its end point at a predefined end time in the future.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the corresponding estimated cortisol time response rises to its peak point, which is at a predefined peak point of time, with a predefined rise coefficient and falls to its end point, which is at the predefined end time, with a predefined decay coefficient.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the predefined peak point of time is about 30 minutes after the specific start point of time.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the predefined end point of time is about 90 minutes after the specific start point of time if an input information indicates a female as the user, and/or wherein the predefined end point of time is about 150 minutes after the specific start point of time if an input information indicates a male as the user.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine the estimated level of mental balance or imbalance for the current point of time.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine the estimated level of mental balance or imbalance for a future point of time or future period of time.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising an output unit for outputting the level of mental balance or imbalance to the user.

12. A wearable device wearable by a user, the device comprising a skin conductance sensor for sensing the skin conductance of the user, and the estimation system of claim 1.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine the estimated level of mental balance or imbalance of the user based on the estimated cortisol level trace.

13-15. -15. (canceled)