Biometric, physiological or environmental monitoring using a closed chamber

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10709388-B2
Application number	US-201615149526-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 9, 2016
Priority date	May 8, 2015
Publication date	Jul 14, 2020
Grant date	Jul 14, 2020

Abstract

A monitoring device configured for insertion into a conduit of a subject includes a housing, at least one physiological sensor coupled to the housing, a transmitter coupled to the housing, an expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon coupled to the housing and configured to occlude at least a portion of the conduit, a power source attached to the housing, and a processor coupled to the housing and operatively coupled to memory containing computer instruction causing the monitoring device to obtain physiological information via the at least one physiological sensor where the physiological information includes one or more of pulse rate information, body temperature information, breathing rate information, blood pressure information, cardiac output information, or blood gas level information, and processing and analyzing the physiological information to provide a result.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A monitoring device configured for placement in or insertion into a conduit of a subject, comprising:
a stent, with an acoustic channel;
a speaker, where the acoustic channel is configured to carry audio from the speaker;
an ambient sound microphone configured to measure an ambient acoustic environment;
a housing;
at least one physiological sensor coupled to the housing;
a transmitter coupled to the housing;
an occlusion component coupled to the housing and configured to occlude at least a portion of the conduit wherein the conduit is an ear canal, where the occlusion component wraps circumferentially about a portion of the stent;
a first light emitting diode within a sealed portion of the ear canal;
a power source attached to the housing; and
a processor coupled to the housing and operatively coupled to a memory containing computer instructions, the computer instructions when executed by the processor causes the monitoring device to perform operations comprising;
obtaining physiological information from a subject via the at least one physiological sensor, wherein the physiological information comprises one or more of the following: pulse rate information, body temperature information, breathing rate information, blood pressure information, cardiac output information, and blood gas level information; and
processing and analyzing the physiological information to provide a result that comprises an identification of a behavioral response of the subject.

2. The monitoring device of claim 1 , further including an environmental sensor, and further comprising obtaining environmental condition information in a vicinity of the monitoring device via the environmental sensor attached to the housing, wherein the environmental condition information includes information about one or more of the following: volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pollution, noise, light, or temperature.

3. The monitoring device of claim 2 , further comprising analyzing the processed physiological information, via the processor, to identify a correlation between the processed physiological information and the obtained environmental condition information.

4. The monitoring device of claim 3 , further comprising generating, via the processor, a health and/or environmental exposure assessment that identifies and/or predicts one or more physiological or environmental issues in response to identifying a correlation between the obtained physiological information and environmental condition information.

5. The monitoring device of claim 4 , further comprising analyzing the health and/or environmental exposure assessment, via the processor, to identify and/or predict psychological and/or physiological stress.

6. The monitoring device of claim 5 , further comprising communicating and presenting identified and/or predicted psychological stress via the processor on a user interface.

7. The monitoring device of claim 2 , further comprising transmitting the obtained environmental condition information to a device remotely located from the subject via the transmitter.

8. The monitoring device of claim 1 , wherein the occlusion component carries the at least one physiological sensor and further provides isolation from ambient interference or motion artifacts.

9. The monitoring device of claim 8 , wherein the first light emitting diode couples to a surface of the occlusion component within or exposed to a sealed side of the ear canal.

10. The monitoring device of claim 9 , wherein the first light emitting diode is configured to support a pulse oximetry measurement.

11. The monitoring device of claim 9 , further including a second light emitting diode and wherein the second light emitting diode couples to the surface of the occlusion component within or exposed to the sealed side of the ear canal.

12. The monitoring device of claim 9 , further comprises a motion sensor coupled to the housing and wherein the processor obtains subject motion information via the motion sensor wherein the motion sensor is an accelerometer, an acoustic sensor, a MEMS motion sensor, or a gyroscope and wherein the occlusion component is an expandable element, an inflatable element, a stretched membrane or a balloon.

13. The monitoring device of claim 1 , wherein the memory further includes computer instructions which when executed causes the processor to perform the operation of analyzing the processed physiological information using motion data provided to the processor from a motion sensor to identify one or more health issues associated with the subject.

14. The monitoring device of claim 1 further including a ventilation channel configured to enable air to fill an area between a stop flange and the occlusion element.

15. The monitoring device of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting via the transmitter the processed physiological information to a device remotely located from the monitoring device and wherein the first LED is a multi-wavelength LED configured measure more than one physiological parameter.

16. The monitoring device of claim 1 , further comprising processing the obtained physiological information, via the processor, into at least one of audio signals that can be heard using an audio playback device and visual signals that can be viewed by the subject using an electronic display, wherein the first LED is an infrared LED.

17. The monitoring device of claim 1 , further including a user interface, and further comprising communicating via the processor corrective action information to the user interface, in response to identifying one or more health issues associated physiological information.

18. The monitoring device of claim 1 , wherein various types of hemoglobin are differentiated by measuring and comparing optical absorption of one or more light wavelengths.

19. A method of monitoring a subject via a monitoring device attached to the subject, wherein the monitoring device includes a housing, at least one physiological sensor attached to the housing, at least one environmental sensor attached to the housing that measures one or more of the following in the vicinity of the subject: volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pollution, noise, light, and temperature, a motion sensor attached to the housing, a processor attached to the housing, an occlusion component coupled to the housing and configured to occlude at least a portion of the conduit of the subject, and wherein the occlusion component carries at least one among the at least one physiological sensor or the at least one environmental sensor; a transmitter attached to the housing, and a power source attached to the housing, the method comprising:
occluding at least a portion of a biological conduit of the subject using the occlusion component wherein a first light emitting diode couples to a surface of the occlusion component, wherein the first light emitting diode is configured to support a pulse oximetry measurement within a sealed portion of the ear canal, and wherein a second light emitting diode couples to the surface of the occlusion component within or exposed to the sealed side of the ear canal;
obtaining physiological information from the subject via the at least one physiological sensor, wherein the physiological information comprises one or more of the following: pulse rate information, body temperature information, breathing rate information, blood pressure information, cardiac output information, and blood gas level information;
measuring an ambient acoustic environment using a microphone;
playing audio

Assignees

• Staton Techiya Llc

Inventors

• Goldstein Steven Wayne

Classifications

• H04R25/00 Primary

  Electric hearing aids · CPC title

• A61B5/14507

  specially adapted for measuring characteristics of body fluids other than blood (devices for taking samples of body liquids A61B10/0045) · CPC title

• H04S7/00

  Indicating arrangements; Control arrangements, e.g. balance control · CPC title

• H04S2420/01

  Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD] · CPC title

• A61B2560/0214

  of power generation or supply · CPC title