Mobile device having health care function based on biomedical signals and health care method using the same

• US 8,109,874 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2003
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kong, Donggeon, Bang, Seokwon, Lee, Hyoungki, Kim, Kyunghwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Johnson, III, Henry M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rajan, Kai
• Application Number:
  US10/681,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20040117212A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,043 Days
• Field of Search: 600/300, 600/301, 128903-905, 128/920
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0462 Apparatus with built-in sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0468 Built-in electrodes
• 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: A61B 5/0008 Temperature signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0531 Measuring skin impedance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0537 Measuring body composition by impedance, e.g. tissue hydration or fat content
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6887 mounted on external non-worn devices, e.g. non-medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7435 Displaying user selection data, e.g. icons in a graphical user interface
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7475 User input or interface means, e.g. keyboard, pointing device, joystick
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

The present invention relates to a mobile device capable of performing biomedical signal measurement and a health care method using the same. It is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile device capable of efficiently performing health care functions for a user by checking a user'"'"'s state of health using a handheld mobile device mounted with a biomedical signal measurement module, which can be used both as a mobile device and in measuring the emotional state and physical condition of a user if necessary, and a health care method using the same. In order to achieve the above object, the mobile device of the present invention comprises a biomedical signal measurement module for detecting biomedical signals from a user'"'"'s body, classifying the detected biomedical signals by respective signals and outputting the classified signals; and a health care module for analyzing a user'"'"'s emotional state and physical condition based on the biomedical signals input from the biomedical signal measurement module and user'"'"'s physical information.

Claims

1. A mobile device with an input unit, a display unit, a memory unit and a central control unit, the mobile device comprising:

a biomedical signal measurement module that detects biomedical signals from a user'"'"'s body, and classifies the detected biomedical signals by respective signals outputting the classified signals; and

a processor that;

analyzes an emotional state and physical condition of the user based on the classified signals input from the biomedical signal measurement module and physical information of the user,

extracts feature values of the classified biomedical signals input from the biomedical signal measurement module,

obtains differences between the extracted feature values and predetermined feature values,

classifies the user'"'"'s emotional state by respective emotions in accordance with the differences of the feature values,

analyzes the user'"'"'s physical condition based on the classified biomedical signals input from the biomedical signal measurement module and the user'"'"'s physical information, and

selects values related to a specific emotion among values of the plurality of classified emotions and calculates and outputs an index and a level for the specific emotion.

2. The mobile device are claimed in claim 1, wherein the biomedical signal measurement module comprises:

a sensor unit for detecting one or more biomedical signals from the user'"'"'s body; and

a sensor control unit for controlling the sensor unit, classifying the biomedical signals input from the sensor unit by the respective biomedical signals and outputting the classified biomedical signals.

3. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sensor unit comprises a hear rate sensor for detecting heartbeat-related biomedical signals.

4. The mobile device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the biomedical signals of heartbeat are photoelectric pulse plethysmograph (PPG) signals.

5. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sensor unit comprises a skin temperature sensor for detecting skin temperature-related biomedical signals.

6. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the biomedical signals of skin temperature are skin temperature (SKT) signals.

7. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sensor unit comprises a skin resistance sensor for detecting skin resistance-related biomedical signals.

8. The mobile device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the biomedical signals of skin resistance are electrodermal activity (EDA) signals.

9. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sensor unit comprises a body fat sensor for measuring body impedance required for calculation of a body fat percentage.

10. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sensor unit comprises at least one of a heart rate sensor, skin temperature sensor, skin resistance sensor and body fat sensor, and the sensor unit further comprises a filter for filtering the detected biomedical signals and an amplifier for amplifying the filtered biomedical signals.

11. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sensor unit comprises at least one of heart rate sensor, skin temperature sensor, skin resistance sensor and body fat sensor and wherein the sensor unit is installed at a position on the mobile device with which user'"'"'s hand comes into contact when the user holds the mobile device.

12. The mobile device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the sensor control unit corrects user-to-user variation of the biomedical signals that are output from the sensor unit.

13. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the biomedical signal measurement module is constructed to be detachably coupled to the mobile device.

14. The mobile device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the biomedical signal measurement module is constructed in the form of a case capable of accommodating the mobile device therein.

15. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor

receives photoelectric pulse plethysmograph (PPG) signals to detect heartbeat signals and extracts feature values related to the heartbeat signals;

receives electrodermal activity (EDA) signals and extracts feature values related to a skin conductive response; and

receives skin temperature (SKT) signals and extracts feature values related to skin temperature.

16. The mobile device as claimed in claim 15, wherein the processor further

receives the PPG signals to detect the heartbeat signals and converts the detected heartbeat signals into time series signals of heart rate variability;

analyzes a spectrum of the heartbeat signals in response to the time series signals of the heart rate variability; and

calculates a mean value and standard deviation value of the heartbeat signals in response to the time series signals of the heart rate variability.

17. The mobile device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the processor further

extracts signals falling within a specific band of the PPG signals;

removes noise existing in the filtering results of the band pass filter;

calculates a difference between the filtering results of both the band pass filter and the median filter by adding a reciprocal number of the filtering result of the median filter to the filtering result of the band pass filter;

extracts the heartbeat signals from output signals of the adder; and

performs zero clipping for the heartbeat signals.

18. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor uses feature values of a normal emotional state for the user as the predetermined feature values on which the user'"'"'s emotional state is determined.

19. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor further

classifies the user'"'"'s emotional state into a plurality of emotions by analyzing the differences of the features values obtained from the processor.

20. The mobile device as claimed in claim 19, wherein the processor further stores a plurality of pieces of emotion data for training the SVM classifier, and trained results of the SVM classifier based on the emotion data.

21. The mobile device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor

calculates body fat percentage based on a body impedance value detected by the biomedical signal measurement module and user'"'"'s height, weight, age and sex;

and

a calorie consumption calculator calculating calorie consumption due to exercise based on average heart rates and body fat percentages before/after exercise detected by the biomedical signal measurement module.

22. A health care method using a mobile device, comprising the:

detecting biomedical signals from a user'"'"'s body;

classifying the detected biomedical signals by respective signals;

analyzing an emotional state of the user by extracting a plurality of feature values from the classified biomedical signals, calculating differences between the extracted feature values and predetermined feature values, and classifying the user'"'"'s emotional state by respective emotions based on support vector machine (SVM) classification in accordance with the calculated differences of the feature values; and

analyzing a physical condition of the user based on the classified signals and user'"'"'s physical information,

the analyzing the emotional state comprising selecting values related to a specific emotion among values of the plurality of emotions classified by the SVM classifier and calculating and outputting an index and a level for the specific emotion.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22, further comprising:

selecting, by the user, a health care menu on a mobile device with a biomedical signal measurement module; and

if the user selects emotional state measurement, activating the biomedical signal measurement module to detect the biomedical signal in the mobile device.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the biomedical signal measurement module is configured to be detachably coupled to the mobile device.

25. The method as claimed in claim 24, wherein the biomedical signal measurement module is constructed in the form of a case capable of accommodating the mobile device therein.

26. The method as claimed in claim 23, further comprising the steps of, if the user selects body fat measurement,

activating a body fat sensor in the biomedical signal measurement module mounted to the mobile device;

measuring body impedance from the user'"'"'s body by the body fat sensor; and

calculating a body fat percentage of the user'"'"'s body based on the measured impedance and user'"'"'s physical information and displaying the calculated the body fat percentage on the display unit.

27. The method as claimed in claim 23, further comprising the steps of, if the user selects calorie consumption measurement,

activating a heart rate sensor and a body fat sensor in the biomedical signal measurement module;

measuring heartbeat signals and body impedance before/after exercise from the user'"'"'s body by the heart rate sensor and the body fat sensor; and

analyzing the heartbeat signals and the body impedance before/after exercise to calculate average heart rates and body fat percentages before/after exercise, calculating calorie consumption due to exercise based on the calculated average heart rates and body fat percentages before/after exercise, exercise time, and user'"'"'s physical information, and displaying the calculated calorie consumption on the display unit.

28. The method as claimed in claim 23, further comprising the step of, if the user selects history management, displaying measurement results according to respective desired terms on the display unit.

29. The method as claimed in claim 22, further comprising:

classifying the user'"'"'s emotional state into a plurality of emotions by analyzing the differences of the features values; and

selecting values related to an emotion selected among the classified emotions, calculating an emotional state index and level for the selected emotion, and displaying the calculated emotional state index and level on a display unit of the mobile device.

30. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the biomedical signals detected from the user'"'"'s body include biomedical signals of heartbeat.

31. The method as claimed in claim 30, wherein the biomedical signals of heartbeat are photoelectric pulse plethysmograph (PPG) signals.

32. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the biomedical signals detected from the user'"'"'s body include skin temperature-related biomedical signals.

33. The method as claimed in claim 32, wherein the biomedical signals of skin temperature are skin temperature (SKT) signals.

34. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the biomedical signals detected from the user'"'"'s body include skin resistance-related biomedical signals.

35. The method as claimed in claim 34, wherein the biomedical signals of skin resistance are electrodermal activity (EDA) signals.

36. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the biomedical signals detected from the user'"'"'s body are filtered by a filter and then amplified by an amplifier.

37. The method as claimed in claim 22, further comprising the step of correcting user-to-user variation of the biomedical signals detected from the user'"'"'s body, the correcting the user-to-user variation comprising:

determining whether the user'"'"'s body is in contact with the biomedical signal measurement module;

if it is determined that the user'"'"'s body is in contact with the biomedical signal measurement module, determining whether the correction of the user-to-user variances of the detected biomedical signals is required;

if it is determined that the correction of the user-to-user variances of the detected biomedical signals is required, checking whether values of the detected biomedical signals are above a maximum limit level and decreasing a gain of an amplifier if the values of the detected biomedical signals are above the maximum limit level; and

if the values of the detected biomedical signals are equal to or less than the maximum limit level, checking whether the values of the detected biomedical signals are equal to or less than a minimum limit level and increasing the gain of the amplifier if the values of the detected biomedical signals are equal to or less than the minimum limit level.

38. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the step of analyzing the biomedical signals and extracting the plurality of feature values to be used for determining the user'"'"'s emotional state comprises the steps of:

receiving photoelectric pulse plethysmograph (PPG) signals to detect heartbeat signals and extracting feature values related to the heartbeat signals;

receiving electrodermal activity (EDA) signals and extracting features values related to a skin conductive response; and

receiving skin temperature (SKT) signals and extracting feature values related to skin temperature.

39. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the predetermined feature values on which the user'"'"'s emotional state is determined are feature values for a normal emotional state of the user.

40. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the step of classifying the user'"'"'s emotional state by the respective emotions uses an SVM classifier that classifies the user'"'"'s emotional state into a plurality of emotions based on a statistical learning theory.