CONTINUOUS HEART RATE MONITORING AND INTERPRETATION

• US 20150250396A1
• Filed: 03/05/2014
• Published: 09/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whoop, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Whoop, Inc.
• Inventors: Ahmed, William, Capodilupo, John, Nicolae, Aurelian
• Granted Patent: US 11,185,241 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0443 Modular apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0004 characterised by the type of physiological signal transmitted
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02427 Details of sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/053 Measuring electrical impedance or conductance of a portion of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4806 Sleep evaluation A61B5/4821 takes precedence; devices for inducing sleep A61M21/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4866 Evaluating metabolism A61B5/083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6824 Arm or wrist
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• 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: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0694 Visual indication, e.g. Indicia
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/06 Indicating or scoring devices for games or players , or for other sports activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 : Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 : Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 : relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 : for remote operation

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a device for continuous physiological monitoring as well as systems and methods for interpreting data from such a device. The device may support intelligent selection from among two or more different modes for heart rate detection. In addition, the acquisition of continuous physiological data facilitates automated recommendations concerning changes to sleep, recovery time, exercise routines and the like.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a strap shaped and sized to fit about an appendage;

a heart rate monitoring system coupled to the strap and configured to provide two or more different modes for detecting a heart rate of a wearer of the strap;

a sensor coupled to the strap;

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the strap and configured to sense a condition based on a signal from the sensor and to select one of the two or more different modes for detecting the heart rate based on the condition, the processor further configured to operate the heart rate monitoring system to obtain continuous heart rate data using the one of the two or more different modes and to store the continuous heart rate data in the memory.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the condition is an accuracy of heart rate detection determined using a statistical analysis to provide a confidence level in the accuracy.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein the processor is configured to select a different one of the modes when the confidence level is below a predetermined threshold.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein the different one of the modes employs a frequency domain technique.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the condition includes a power consumption.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the condition includes a battery charge level.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the condition includes a user activity.

8. The device of claim 7 wherein the user activity includes one or more of exercise, rest, and sleep.

9. The device of claim 1 wherein the condition includes a location of the sensor or a motion of the sensor.

10. The device of claim 1 wherein the different modes include at least one mode using light emitted from a light source on the strap and detected by an optical detector on the strap.

11. The device of claim 10 wherein the at least one mode employs a peak detection technique applied to signals from the optical detector.

12. The device of claim 10 wherein the at least one mode employs a frequency domain technique applied to signals from the optical detector.

13. The device of claim 10 wherein the different modes include one or more modes using variable optical characteristics of the light source including at least one of a brightness of the light source, a duty cycle of the light source, and a color of the light source.

14. The device of claim 1 further comprising an accessory removably and replaceably coupled to the device, the accessory including an power source configured to charge a battery of the device without a wired coupling to other power sources.

15. The device of claim 1 wherein the different modes include at least one non-optical mode.

16. The device of claim 1 wherein the sensor includes one or more of a motion sensor, a position sensor, a timer, a temperature sensor, a Galvanic Skin Response sensor, and a humidity sensor.

17. A method comprising:

providing a strap shaped and sized to fit about an appendage, the strap including a sensor and a heart rate monitoring system configured to provide two or more different modes for detecting a heart rate of a wearer of the strap;

detecting a signal from the sensor;

determining a condition of the heart rate monitoring system based upon the signal;

selecting one of the two or more different modes for detecting the heart rate based on the condition; and

storing continuous heart rate data using the one of the two or more different modes.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising communicating the continuous heart rate data from the strap to a remote data repository.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising, detecting a change in the condition, responsively selecting a different one of the two or more different modes, and storing additional continuous heart rate data obtained using the different one of the two or more different modes.

20. A computer program product for operating a wearable physical monitoring system including a sensor and a heart rate monitoring system configured to provide two or more different modes for detecting a heart rate of a wearer of the wearable physical monitoring system, the computer program product comprising non-transitory computer executable code embodied in a computer readable medium that, when executing on the wearable physical monitoring system, performs the steps of:

detecting a signal from the sensor;

determining a condition of the heart rate monitoring system based upon the signal;

selecting one of the two or more different modes for detecting the heart rate based on the condition; and

storing continuous heart rate data using the one of the two or more different modes.

21-60. -60. (canceled)