Workstation for monitoring and improving health and productivity of employees

• US 9,492,120 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2012
• Issued: 11/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Government of Saudi Arabia)
• Original Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Government of Saudi Arabia)
• Inventors: Horseman, Samantha J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jackson, Gary
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAHAKIS, MANOLIS Y
• Application Number:
  US13/540,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20130012786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,597 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0008 Temperature signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0015 characterised by features of the telemetry system
• 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 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0537 Measuring body composition by impedance, e.g. tissue hydration or fat content
• 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 5/1114 Tracking parts of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4842 Monitoring progression or stage of a disease
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4866 Evaluating metabolism A61B5/083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4872 Body fat
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6891 Furniture
• 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 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/744 Displaying an avatar, e.g. an animated cartoon character
• CPC Class Codes: F04C 2270/041 Controlled or regulated
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Provided are embodiments of systems, computer medium and computer-implemented methods for sensing health characteristics of a user using a chair pad including a set of health sensors integrated therewith and including temperature sensors, body position sensors, and body fat sensors. A method for sensing health characteristics of a user including receiving, from the temperature sensors, temperature data corresponding to a sensed body temperature of the user, receiving, from the body position sensors, body position data corresponding to a sensed body position of the user, receiving, from the body fat sensors, body fat data corresponding to a sensed body fat of the user, and transmitting, to a computer workstation, health data corresponding to the temperature data, the body position data, and the body fat data for use in determining the body temperature, the body position, and the body fat of the user.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring health parameters of an employee seated in a workstation, the system comprising:

the employee workstation, comprising;

a workstation surface located above and parallel to a floor;

an employee computer with a display;

a chair located on a portion of the floor, the chair having a chair pad;

the chair pad comprising;

a chair pad controller;

a seat-pad;

a back-pad coupled to the seat-pad; and

a set of chair pad health sensors integrated within the seat-pad and the back-pad, the set of chair pad health sensors comprising;

one or more chair pad temperature sensors configured to sense a body temperature of the employee and output chair pad temperature data that is indicative of the body temperature of the employee;

one or more chair pad position sensors configured to sense a body position of the employee and output chair pad position data that is indicative of the body position of the employee, wherein the one or more chair pad position sensors comprise one or more chair pad force transducers configured to sense a force applied to the chair pad by the employee seated in the chair, wherein the chair pad position data comprises data corresponding to force sensed by the one or more chair pad force transducers;

one or more chair pad body fat sensors configured to sense the employee'"'"'s body fat and output chair pad body fat data indicative of the body fat of the employee,

the chair pad controller configured to;

collect the chair pad temperature data output by the one or more chair pad temperature sensors, the chair pad position data output by the one or more chair pad position sensors, and the chair pad body fat data output by the one or more chair pad body fat sensors; and

transmit, to the employee computer, chair pad health sensor data corresponding to the chair pad temperature data, the chair pad position data, and the chair pad body fat data collected;

a floor mat disposed on a portion of the floor of the workstation, the floor mat comprising;

a floor mat controller; and

one or more floor mat force transducers configured to sense a force applied to the floor mat by the employee seated in the chair, and

output floor mat force data corresponding to force sensed by the one or more floor mat force transducers, the floor mat controller configured to;

collect the floor mat data force data output by the one or more floor mat force transducers; and

transmit, to the employee computer, floor mat health sensor data corresponding to the floor mat data force data collected;

a computer mouse comprising a temperature sensor, a blood pressure sensor, and an oxygen saturation sensor;

the employee computer configured to;

receive, from the chair pad controller, the chair pad health sensor data;

receive, from the floor mat controller, the floor mat health sensor data;

collect temperature, blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation measurements from the computer mouse; and

transmit health data including the chair pad health sensor data, the floor mat health sensor data, and the measurements from the computer mouse;

a computer server configured to;

continuously collect, from the employee computer, the health data;

derive a body weight of the seated employee based on forces sensed by the chair pad and the floor mat force transducers;

determine, in real time based on the health data collected and the derived body weight, a health profile for the employee;

predict a health risk and determine a health plan for the employee based on the health profile, the health plan including an exercise for the employee based on the predicted health risk;

and serve, in real time to the employee computer, health content corresponding to the health profile and the health plan for the employee, the health content including an animated demonstration of the exercise by a coaching avatar;

serve to an employer computer associated with an employer of the employee the health profile of the employee;

wherein the employee computer is configured to display the health content via the display of the employee computer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein deriving the body weight of the seated employee comprises adding the forces sensed by the one or more floor mat force transducers and the one or more chair pad force transducers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more chair pad force transducers comprise one or more force transducers disposed in the seat-pad.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the chair pad comprises one or more chair pad neural sensors configured to sense brain activity of the employee seated in the chair, and wherein the chair pad data output by the chair pad corresponds to brain activity sensed by the one or more chair pad neural sensors.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the floor mat comprises one or more floor mat body fat sensors configured to sense a body fat of the employee seated in the chair, and wherein the floor mat data output by the floor mat corresponds to a body fat sensed by the one or more floor mat body fat sensors.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the employee workstation comprises:

a camera disposed in the employee workstation, the camera configured to capture three dimensional images of the employee seated in the chair, and the camera configured to output camera data corresponding to the images of the employee,

wherein the health data collected by the health monitoring server comprises the camera data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the health monitoring server is further configured to:

determine that a user associated with the employer computer is an employer having permission to review employee health information, and

serve a reviewer interface to the employer computer in response to determining that the user associated with the employer computer is an employer having permission to review employee health information.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the health monitoring server is further configured to:

determine whether an alert condition exists based on the health data;

in response to determining that an alert condition exists, prompt the employee to select to override sending an alert indicative of the alert condition to an entity to be alerted;

in response to receiving a selection to override sending the alert, not send the alert to the entity to be alerted; and

in response to not receiving a selection to override sending the alert, send the alert to the entity to be alerted.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of deriving the body weight of the seated employee is based on a summation of the forces sensed by the one or more floor mat force transducers and the one or more chair pad force transducers.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more chair pad force transducers comprise one or more force transducers disposed in the seat-pad.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

collecting, by the employee computer from a camera disposed in the employee workstation, camera data, the camera configured to capture three dimensional images of the employee while the employee is seated in the chair, and the camera data corresponding to the images of the employee,

wherein the health data collected by the health monitoring server comprises the camera data.

9. A computer-implemented method for monitoring the health of an employee, the method comprising:

collecting, by an employee computer, from a floor mat disposed on a floor of an employee workstation, floor mat data, the floor mat comprising one or more floor mat force transducers configured to sense a force applied to the floor mat by an employee seated in a chair of the employee workstation, and the floor mat data corresponding to force sensed by the one or more floor mat force transducers and a body position of the employee;

collecting, by the employee computer, from a chair pad of the chair, chair pad data, the chair pad comprising;

one or more chair pad force transducers configured to sense a force applied to the chair pad by the employee seated in the chair;

one or more body fat sensors configured to sense the employee'"'"'s body fat;

and

one or more chair pad temperature sensors configured to sense a body temperature of the employee seated in the chair, and

the chair pad data including the force sensed by the one or more floor mat force transducers, the body fat of the employee sensed by the body fat sensor, and a body temperature of the employee sensed by the one or more chair pad temperature sensors;

collecting, by an employee computer, from a computer mouse disposed on a workstation surface located above and parallel to the floor of the employee workstation, computer mouse data, the computer mouse comprising a temperature sensor, a blood pressure sensor, and a blood oxygen saturation sensor, the computer mouse data including the employee'"'"'s temperature, blood pressure, and blood oxygen saturation;

continuously collecting, from the employee computer and by a health monitoring server, health data including the floor mat data the chair pad data, and the computer mouse data;

deriving, by the health monitoring server, a body weight of the seated employee based on forces sensed by the chair pad and the floor mat force transducers;

determining, in real time, by the health monitoring server and based on the health data collected and the derived body weight, a health profile for the employee;

predicting a health risk and determining a health plan for the employee based on the health profile, the health plan including an exercise for the employee based on the predicted health risk;

serving, in real time, by the health monitoring server to the employee computer, health content comprising the health profile and the health plan for the employee;

serving, by the health monitoring server to an employer computer associated with an employer of the employee for display via the employer computer, a reviewer interface providing for review the health profile for the employee; and

displaying, by the employee computer, the health content, including an animated demonstration of the exercise by a coaching avatar.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the chair pad comprises one or more chair pad neural sensors configured to sense brain activity of the employee seated in the chair, and wherein the chair pad data corresponds to brain activity sensed by the one or more chair pad neural sensors.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the floor mat comprises one or more floor mat body fat sensors configured to sense a body fat of the employee seated in the chair, and wherein the floor mat data corresponds to a body fat sensed by the one or more floor mat body fat sensors.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, by the health monitoring server, that a user associated with the employer computer is an employer having permission to review employee health information, and

serving, by the health monitoring server to the employer computer in response to determining that the user associated with the employer computer is an employer having permission to review employee health information, the reviewer interface.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the health profile for the employee comprises one or more predicted health issues, the method further comprising:

identifying, by the health monitoring server, a health plan comprising one or more exercises for alleviating the one or more predicted health issues,

wherein the health content served to the employee computer comprises a coaching avatar comprising an animated demonstration of the one or more exercises, and

wherein the employee computer is configured to display the coaching avatar comprising an animated demonstration of the one or more exercises.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining, by the health monitoring server and based on the health data, whether an alert condition exists;

prompting, by the health monitoring server and in response to determining that an alert condition exists, the employee to select to override sending an alert indicative of the alert condition to an entity to be alerted; and

not sending, by the health monitoring server and in response to receiving a selection to override sending the alert, the alert to the entity to be alerted, or

sending, by the health monitoring server and in response to not receiving a selection to override sending the alert, the alert to the entity to be alerted.