Method and apparatus for providing biofeedback during meditation exercise

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016166197-A1
Application number	US-201615043330-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 12, 2016
Priority date	Feb 12, 2016
Publication date	Jun 16, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing biofeedback during a meditation exercise are disclosed. In one aspect, the wearable device includes one or more biometric sensors and a user interface. The method may involve prompting the user, via the user interface, to perform a meditation exercise, the meditation exercise being associated with a target physiological metric related to the physiology of the user. The method may involve measuring, based on output of at least one of the one or more biometric sensors, a physiological metric of the user during the meditation exercise. The method may involve determining a performance score indicating the user's performance during the meditation exercise based on comparing the measured physiological metric with the target physiological metric. The method may involve providing, via the user interface, based on the performance score, feedback information indicative of the user's performance during the meditation exercise.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of operating a wearable device, the wearable device comprising one or more biometric sensors and a user interface, the biometric sensors including a motion sensor, the method comprising:
determining, based on output of the motion sensor, that a user's movements are within a tolerance range for movement; prompting the user, via the user interface, to perform a meditation exercise in response to the determining that the user's movements are within the tolerance range for movement, the meditation exercise being associated with a target physiological metric related to the physiology of the user; measuring, based on output of at least one of the one or more biometric sensors, a physiological metric of the user during the meditation exercise; determining a performance score indicating the user's performance during the meditation exercise based on comparing the measured physiological metric with the target physiological metric; and providing, via the user interface, based on the performance score, feedback information indicative of the user's performance during the meditation exercise.

2 . The method in claim 1 , wherein the physiological metric of the user is associated with one or more of (i) the user's motion, (ii) the user's heart rate, and (iii) the user's respiration.

3 . The method in claim 2 , wherein the physiological metric associated with the user's motion quantifies how still the user remains during portions of the meditation exercise.

4 . The method in claim 2 , wherein the physiological metric associated with the user's heart rate measures parameters of the user's heart rate during the meditation exercise comprising one or more of (i) average heart rate, (ii) minimum heart rate, (iii) maximum heart rate, and/or (iv) change of heart rate during the exercise.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the physiological metric associated with the user's respiration corresponds to a respiration metric of the user's breathing pattern, and wherein measuring the respiration metric comprises monitoring one or more of: (i) user breathing rate; (ii) user inhalation timing, depth, and/or duration; (iii) user exhalation timing, depth, and/or duration; and (iv) a consistency and/or variability of one or more of (i), (ii), and (iii).

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the prompting of the user to perform the meditation exercise comprises displaying, via the user interface, instructions regarding the target physiological metric, the target physiological metric corresponding to a target respiration metric including a target user breathing pattern; the measuring of the respiration metric comprises measuring a current user breathing pattern; and the determining of the performance score comprises comparing the current user breathing pattern to the target user breathing pattern.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the determining of the performance score comprises determining the performance score during a first part of the meditation exercise; the method further comprises generating, based on the performance score during the first part of the meditation exercise, instructions to the user to adjust the user's performance; and the providing of the feedback information comprises providing, via the user interface, the generated instructions during a second part of the meditation exercise.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface comprises at least one of a display, a light-emitting circuit, a sound-producing circuit, and a haptic drive circuit.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the prompting of the user comprises rendering a message on the display, wherein the message comprises at least one of text and graphics describing instructions associated with the meditation exercise.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the providing of the feedback information comprises rendering a message on the display, wherein the message comprises at least one of text and graphics describing at least one of (i) the performance score and (ii) instructions to the user to adjust the user's performance.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the wearable device further comprises a transceiver configured to communicate with a client device.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the client device comprises one of a personal computer, a mobile phone, and a tablet computing device.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising wirelessly transmitting, via the transceiver, instructions to the client device to display a message that comprises at least one of text and graphics describing instructions associated with the meditation exercise.

14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising wirelessly transmitting, via the transceiver, instructions to the client device to display a message that comprises at least one of text and graphics describing at least one of (i) the performance score and (ii) instructions to the user to adjust the user's performance.

15 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring, based on the output of at least one of the one or more biometric sensors, a second physiological metric of the user; and selecting the meditation exercise for the user based on the measured second physiological metric.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the measured second physiological metric comprises at least one of: user heart rate; user photoplethysmography (PPG); user blood pressure; user respiration rate; user skin conduction; user blood glucose levels; user blood oxygenation; user skin temperature; user body temperature, user electromyography; and user electroencephalography (EEG).

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein:
the wearable device comprises a memory circuit; and the meditation exercise is selected from among a set of defined meditation exercises stored in the memory circuit based on at least one of (i) the measured second physiological metric and (ii) a user performance score from a previous meditation exercise.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the feedback information comprises providing a visual image representative of the performance score.

19 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
determining a baseline respiration metric based on an output from at least one of the one or more biometric sensors received prior to prompting the user to perform the meditation exercise, wherein the determining of the performance score is further based on comparing the measured respiration metric to the baseline respiration metric.

20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining, based on the output of the motion sensor, that the user's movements are not within the tolerance range for movement; in response to determining that the user's movements are not within the tolerance range, delaying at least one of (i) the prompting of the user to perform the meditation exercise and (ii) the measuring of the physiological metric of the user.

21 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring, based on output of a heart rate monitor, the user's heart rate variability; and determining a change in the user's heart rate variability based on comparing (i) a first heart rate variability measurement before commencement of the meditation exercise and (ii) a second heart rate variability measurement after the commencement of the meditation exercise, wherein the determining of the performance score is further based on the change in the user's heart rate variability.

Assignees

• Fitbit Inc

Inventors

• Venkatraman Subramaniam
• Pantelopoulos Alexandros

Classifications

• A61B5/681

  Wristwatch-type devices · CPC title

• A61B5/0059

  using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence (photoacoustic A61B5/0093; optical measurement of heart rate A61B5/02416; optical measurement of blood flow A61B5/0261; optical measurement of analytes A61B5/1455) · CPC title

• A61B5/486 Primary

  Biofeedback (using electroencephalography [EEG] A61B5/375) · CPC title

• A61B5/7405

  using sound · CPC title

• A61B5/021

  Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels · CPC title