Smart carpet systems and methods of using same for monitoring physical and physiological activities

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10478126-B2
Application number	US-201615760118-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 15, 2016
Priority date	Sep 15, 2015
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for using a smart carpet to monitor a health status of an individual. The smart carpet has electronics and a plurality of pressure sensing areas for sensing plantar pressure of the individual. A monitoring computer comprising a processor and a memory including machine readable instructions processes carpet data. A first part of the smart carpet is scanned at a first frequency and a second part of the smart carpet is scanned at a second frequency greater than the first frequency. Plantar pressures are received from the second part of the carpet and the instructions evaluate the plantar pressures to determine at least one of a physical activity and a physiological activity. Where an emergency condition is determined, an alarm is communicated to monitoring personnel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of using a smart carpet to monitor a health status of an individual, the smart carpet comprising a plurality of pressure sensors arranged as a two-dimensional array, each pressure sensor including a block of foam situated between at least two perpendicularly oriented yarns, the foam having resistance that decreases with increasing pressure, the method comprising:
operably coupling, to the smart carpet, a monitoring computer having a processor and memory with computer implemented instructions stored thereon;
simultaneously scanning a first part of the smart carpet at a first frequency and a second part of the smart carpet at a second frequency greater than the first frequency;
receiving carpet data from the smart carpet over a communication pathway;
processing the carpet data using the computer implemented instructions to determine each of a physiological activity and a physical activity; and
generating an alarm upon determining an emergency condition from the carpet data, the alarm specifying the emergency condition, wherein the alarm is communicated to remote monitoring personnel in real time, and wherein the emergency condition is determined by a detected balance problem, wherein the balance problem is determined when the carpet data indicates at least one of an asymmetrical standing balance, an abnormal walking speed, and an irregular walking pattern;
processing the carpet data to categorize the physical activity as one of a static activity and a dynamic activity, wherein the categorized dynamic activity includes at least one of walking, running, and falling, and wherein the categorized dynamic activity is falling, and the alarm is generated upon a determination that the individual has fallen and is unable to rise from the smart carpet for a time period;
processing the carpet data to measure the timing and distance of two consecutive steps to determine temporal and spatial parameters of gait;
processing the carpet data to detect an urgent event selected from the group including (a) a slow or stopped heart rate during an identified sitting event or an identified fall event, (b) a slow or stopped respiration rate during the identified sitting event or the identified fall event, and (c) an inability of the person to rise from the carpet after the identified fall event; and
sending an alert in response to the detected urgent event.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising processing the carpet data to identify a frailty status based upon at least one of (i) a non-linear postural transition duration, (ii) a number of steps required to complete a turn, (iii) a number of flopping and cautious sitting occurrences during a predefined period, (iv) a difference between heart rate during static sitting and static standing, (v) spatial and temporal parameters of gait, (vi) a number of steps required to complete gait initiation, (vii) a duration of static standing and static sitting, and (viii) gait variability.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising situating the smart carpet on stairs to determine an up-the-stairs activity.

Assignees

• Univ Arizona

Inventors

• Najafi Bijan
• Lee Hyoki
• Zhou He

Classifications

• G01L1/225

  Measuring circuits therefor · CPC title

• A61B5/113

  occurring during breathing · CPC title

• A61B5/1116

  Determining posture transitions · CPC title

• A61B5/0816

  Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency (measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00) · CPC title

• A61B5/1118

  Determining activity level · CPC title