Heart rate data collection

• US 9,402,552 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2015
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Yuen, Shelten Gee Jao, Richards, Peter W., Elliot, Thomas Samuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Lamprecht, Joel
• Application Number:
  US14/954,753
• Publication Number:
  US 20160183818A1
• Time in Patent Office: 246 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/185 Optical shielding, e.g. baffles
• 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 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• 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 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes 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 5/02433 for infrared radiation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0816 Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14539 for measuring pH
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14552 Details of sensors specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4812 Detecting sleep stages or cycles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7203 for noise prevention, reduction or removal
• 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: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

One innovative aspect is directed to heartrate data collection. In some implementations, a circuit includes a light detector for generating a detected signal based on received light. The circuit includes a switching circuit configured to receive a first signal based on the detected signal and to switch among a first and a second configuration. In some implementations, the circuit includes a first and a second sampling circuit for sampling a value of the first signal when the switching circuit is in the first configuration and second configurations, respectively. In some implementations, the circuit includes an ambient light cancellation circuit for countering a first component of the first signal while the first switching circuit is in the first configuration. In some implementations, the circuit includes an adjustable gain circuit for adjusting a gain of the first signal while the first switching circuit is in the first configuration.

Claims

1. A method executable by a portable monitoring device including a photoplethysmograph (PPG) sensor, the method comprising:

generating, by a light detector of the PPG sensor, a first electrical signal based on ambient light detected by the light detector;

capturing a sample of the first electrical signal;

emitting, by a light emitter of the PPG sensor, light after the sample of the first electrical signal is captured;

generating, by the light detector, a second electrical signal based on the emitted light;

countering a component of the second electrical signal associated with ambient light based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal; and

capturing a sample of the second electrical signal as countered based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal.

2. The method of claim 1, further including causing the light emitter to stop emitting light after the sample of the second electrical signal is captured.

3. The method of claim 2, further including repeating the method of claim 2 for each of a plurality of cycles, and digitizing the captured samples of the second electrical signals for each of the plurality of cycles to provide a digital signal.

4. The method of claim 3, the digital signal indicative of a heartrate of a user to whom the portable monitoring device is coupled.

5. The method of claim 1, further including generating or updating at least one physiological metric based on the captured sample of the second electrical signal.

6. The method of claim 1, the countering of the component of the second electrical signal associated with the ambient light including setting an impedance of an ambient light cancellation circuit, the ambient light cancellation circuit providing a countering signal based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal and the set impedance.

7. The method of claim 1, further including causing a switching circuit to transition to a first configuration to enable the capturing of the sample of the first electrical signal.

8. The method of claim 7, further including causing the switching circuit to transition to a second configuration to enable the capturing of the sample of the second electrical signal.

9. The method of claim 1, further including setting an impedance of a gain circuit, the gain circuit providing a gain adjustment signal based on the set impedance for setting a gain of the second electrical signal.

10. The method of claim 1, further including grounding the light detector after the sample of the second electrical signal is captured.

11. A portable monitoring device comprising:

a light detector to generate electrical signals based on light detected by the light detector;

a sampling circuit to capture samples of the electrical signals;

a light emitter to emit light; and

a controller to control operation of the light detector, the sampling circuit and the light emitter, the controller configured to cause;

the light detector to generate a first electrical signal based on ambient light detected by the light detector while the light emitter is not emitting light,

the sampling circuit to capture a sample of the first electrical signal,

the light emitter to emit light after the sample of the first electrical signal is captured,

the light detector to generate a second electrical signal based on the emitted light,

a countering of a component of the second electrical signal associated with ambient light based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal, and

the sampling circuit to capture a sample of the second electrical signal as countered based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal.

12. The device of claim 11, the controller being further configured to cause the light emitter to stop emitting light after the sample of the second electrical signal is captured.

13. The device of claim 12, the controller being configured to:

cause, for each of a plurality of cycles;

the light detector to generate a first electrical signal based on ambient light detected by the light detector while the light emitter is not emitting light,

the sampling circuit to capture a sample of the first electrical signal,

the light emitter to emit light after the sample of the first electrical signal is captured,

the light detector to generate a second electrical signal based on the emitted light,

a countering of a component of the second electrical signal associated with ambient light based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal,

the sampling circuit to capture a sample of the second electrical signal as countered based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal, and

the light emitter to stop emitting light after the sample of the second electrical signal is captured; and

cause an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to digitize the captured samples of the second electrical signals for the plurality of cycles to provide a digital signal.

14. The device of claim 13, the digital signal being indicative of a heartrate of a user to whom the portable monitoring device is coupled.

15. The device of claim 11, the controller being configured to generate or update at least one physiological metric based on the captured sample of the second electrical signal.

16. The device of claim 11, further including an ambient light cancellation circuit to provide a countering signal based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal to counter the component of the second electrical signal associated with the ambient light.

17. The device of claim 16, the ambient light cancellation circuit having an adjustable impedance, the controller being further configured to set an impedance of the ambient light cancellation circuit, the ambient light cancellation circuit configured to provide the countering signal based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal and the set impedance.

18. The device of claim 11, further including a switching circuit capable of transitioning among at least a first configuration and a second configuration, the controller being further configured to:

cause the switching circuit to transition to the first configuration to enable the capturing of the sample of the first electrical signal; and

cause the switching circuit to transition to the second configuration to enable the capturing of the sample of the second electrical signal.

19. The device of claim 18, the sampling circuit including:

a first sampling circuit to capture the sample of the first electrical signal while the switching circuit is in the first configuration; and

a second sampling circuit to capture the sample of the second electrical signal while the switching circuit is in the second configuration.

20. The device of claim 11, further including a gain circuit to provide a gain adjustment signal to set a gain of the second electrical signal.

21. The device of claim 20, the gain circuit having an adjustable impedance, the controller being further configured to set the impedance of the gain circuit, the gain adjustment signal being based on the set impedance.

22. The device of claim 11, further including a second circuit to ground the light detector after the sample of the second electrical signal is captured.

23. Non-transitory computer readable media including processor-executable code that, when executed, is configured to cause circuitry to:

generate, by a light detector of a photoplethysmograph (PPG) sensor, a first electrical signal based on ambient light detected by the light detector;

capture a sample of the first electrical signal;

emit, by a light emitter of the PPG sensor, light after the sample of the first electrical signal is captured;

generate, by the light detector, a second electrical signal based on the emitted light;

counter a component of the second electrical signal associated with ambient light based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal; and

capture a sample of the second electrical signal as countered based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal.

24. The media of claim 23, the code further configured to cause the light emitter to stop emitting light after the sample of the second electrical signal is captured.

25. The media of claim 24, the code configured to cause the circuitry to:

for each of a plurality of cycles;

generate, by the light detector of the PPG sensor, a first electrical signal based on ambient light detected by the light detector for the respective cycle,

capture a sample of the first electrical signal for the respective cycle,

emit, by the light emitter of the PPG sensor, light after the sample of the first electrical signal is captured for the respective cycle,

generate, by the light detector, a second electrical signal based on the emitted light for the respective cycle,

counter a component of the second electrical signal associated with ambient light based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal for the respective cycle,

capture a sample of the second electrical signal as countered based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal for the respective cycle, and

stop the light emitter of the PPG sensor from emitting light after the sample of the second electrical signal is captured for the respective cycle; and

digitize the captured samples of the second electrical signals for the plurality of cycles to provide a digital signal.

26. The media of claim 25, the digital signal indicative of a heartrate of a user to whom the portable monitoring device is coupled.

27. The media of claim 23, the code further configured to cause the circuitry to generate or update at least one physiological metric based on the captured sample of the second electrical signal.

28. The media of claim 23, the code configured to cause the circuitry to counter the component of the second electrical signal associated with the ambient light including code configured to cause the circuitry to set an impedance of an ambient light cancellation circuit, the ambient light cancellation circuit configured to provide a countering signal based on the captured sample of the first electrical signal and the set impedance.

29. The media of claim 23, the code further configured to cause the circuitry to:

cause a switching circuit to transition to a first configuration to enable the capturing of the sample of the first electrical signal; and

cause the switching circuit to transition to a second configuration to enable the capturing of the sample of the second electrical signal.

30. The media of claim 23, the code further configured to cause the circuitry to set an impedance of a gain circuit, the gain circuit configured to provide a gain adjustment signal based on the set impedance for setting a gain of the second electrical signal.