Continual monitoring of infection risk during an epidemic and pandemic

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11864930-B2
Application number	US-202117514018-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2021
Priority date	Oct 10, 2013
Publication date	Jan 9, 2024
Grant date	Jan 9, 2024

Abstract

A method, system, and/or apparatus for automatically monitoring for possible infection or other physical health concerns, such as from Covid-19. The method or implementing software application uses or relies upon location information available on the mobile device from any source, such as cell phone usage and/or other device applications. The method and system automatically uses and/or learns user location and activity patterns and determines and infection risk that can be communicated as a warning to community members.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of determining infection risks for individuals during an epidemic or pandemic, the method executed by a computer system and comprising:
automatically determining positional destinations of a user using a first mobile electronic device of the user;
automatically determining context information about each of the positional destinations without input by the user;
automatically deducing as user information a location type and/or user activity of each of the positional destinations from the context information;
assigning a user risk assessment to the user, wherein the user risk assessment is a compilation of a plurality of risk metrics including risk metrics determined for locations and/or activities during a predetermined time period;
providing the user risk assessment to a community member via a community member electronic device before an in-person meeting with the user, wherein the user risk assessment is automatically displayed to the community member upon an electronic meeting request and/or the meeting being entered into an electronic calendar; and
updating the user risk assessment according to updated risk metrics determined for the user during a second predetermined timeframe.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing the user risk assessment and an updated user risk assessment to an employer of the user for determining whether to have contact with the user.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the updating comprises adjusting the user risk assessment based upon an employment situation and a general health condition of the user.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updating comprises adjusting the user risk assessment based upon a general health condition of the user.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating the user risk assessment according to updated locations and/or activities during the second predetermined timeframe.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined time period is at least a predetermined incubation or latency period of a contagion or pathogen.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining risk metrics for the user during the predetermined time period;
computing the user risk assessment from the plurality of risk metrics; and
determining further risk metrics for the user during the second predetermined timeframe; and
updating the user risk assessment from the further risk metrics.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the risk metrics and further risk metrics are each determined from a current assessment score for each location and any activity performed at the location, as a function of time at the location and/or performing the activity.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining a corresponding user participation time for the each of the locations and/or activities; and
scaling the risk metric for the each of the locations and/or activities according to the corresponding user participation time.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining the risk metric for the each of the locations and/or activities comprises comparing a location and/or an activity to a predetermined risk scale.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising increasing a risk metric of the user risk assessment upon an in-person contact at the locations and/or activities with a person having a negative risk assessment.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining any in-person contact of the user for the each of the locations and/or activities;
obtaining a contact person risk assessment for the in-person contact; and
adjusting the user risk assessment as a function of the contact person risk assessment.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
automatically associating the user with a second user at the positional destination, wherein a second user location and/or second user activity is determined;
automatically inferring the location type and/or user activity from the second user location and/or activity; and
adjusting the user risk assessment due to in-person contact with the second user.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising for each of the locations, determining an assessment score by normalizing a number of infected people in an area around each of the locations.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user risk assessment and the updated risk assessment each comprises a summation of a risk metric for each of a location, an activity, and a duration of the activity and/or at the location.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computer system comprises the first user electronic device in wireless communication with a server computer, and the computer system comprises more than one non-transitory recordable medium collectively including a series of preprogrammed instructions that, when executed by the first user electronic device and the server computer, cause the computer system to perform the method.

17. A method of determining infection risks for individuals during an epidemic or pandemic, the method executed by a computer system and comprising:
automatically determining positional destinations of a user using a first mobile electronic device of the user;
automatically determining context information about each of the positional destinations without input by the user;
automatically deducing as user information a location type and/or user activity of each of the positional destinations from the context information;
automatically monitoring destinations and user activities performed at the positional destinations of the user via the first mobile electronic device, wherein the user activities comprise an eating activity or an exercise activity, each at a location or with one or more community members;
assigning a user risk assessment to the user, wherein the user risk assessment is a compilation of a plurality of risk metrics including risk metrics determined for locations and/or activities during a predetermined timeframe, wherein the predetermined timeframe is at least a predetermined incubation or latency period of a contagion or pathogen;
providing the user risk assessment to a community member via a community member electronic device before an in-person meeting with the user, wherein the user risk assessment is automatically displayed to the community member upon an electronic meeting request and/or the in-person meeting being entered into an electronic calendar; and
updating the user risk assessment according to updated risk metrics determined for the user during a second predetermined timeframe.

18. A method of determining infection risks for individuals during an epidemic or pandemic, the method executed by a computer system and comprising:
automatically determining positional destinations of a user using a first mobile electronic device of the user;
automatically determining context information about each of the positional destinations without input by the user;
automatically deducing as user information a location type and/or user activity of each of the positional destinations from the context information;
automatically monitoring destinations and user activities performed at the positional destinations of the user via the first mobile electronic device;
receiving user information comprising a first user activity performed at each of the positional destinations upon the user arriving at the each of the positional destinations;
automatically learning activity patterns for the first user activity by automatically associating the user information with the at least one of the positional

Assignees

• Aura Home Inc

Inventors

• Frieder Ophir
• Chowdhury Abdur
• Jensen Eric

Classifications

• A61B5/746 Primary

  Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms · CPC title

• A61B5/1112

  Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS · CPC title

• A61B5/1118

  Determining activity level · CPC title

• A61B5/1123

  Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running (A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence) · CPC title

• A61B5/4866

  Evaluating metabolism (using breath test A61B5/083) · CPC title