Optical Detection and Analysis of Internal Body Tissues

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016206207-A1
Application number	US-201614997437-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 15, 2016
Priority date	Jan 19, 2015
Publication date	Jul 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In one embodiment, an electronic device may include a light source configured to emit light that penetrates into a portion of a user's body, a plurality of light sensors configured to detect a pattern of diffusion of the emitted light, and a controller configured to detect a gesture made by the user based on the detected pattern of diffusion of the emitted light. The controller may be configured to control the light source and the plurality of light sensors to detect the gesture made by the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electronic device comprising:
a light source configured to emit light that penetrates into a portion of a user's body; a plurality of light sensors configured to detect a pattern of diffusion of the emitted light; and a controller configured to detect a gesture made by the user based on the detected pattern of diffusion of the emitted light.

2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more light sources comprises first and second light sources, and
wherein the one or more controllers are configured to control the first and second light sources by alternating power between the first and second light sources.

3 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the pattern of diffusion of the emitted light comprises one or more of forward-scattered light and backward-scattered light.

4 . The electronic device of claim 3 , wherein the forward-scattered light comprises light detected at a first location different from a second location of the one or more light sources that emitted the light.

5 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the forward-scatter light further comprises light that penetrates though one or more internal body tissues in the portion of the user's body.

6 . The electronic device of claim 3 , wherein the backward-scattered light further comprises light that is reflected by one or more internal body tissues in the portion of the user's body.

7 . The electronic device of claim 6 , wherein the backward-scattered light comprises light that is reflected following a substantially curved path from the one or more light sources to the one or more light sensors.

8 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the detecting of the gesture comprises:
accessing, by the one or more controllers, one or more databases of gesture data on a network connected to the electronic device; and determining, by the one or more controllers, one or more gestures that correspond to the gesture made by the user from the databases of gesture data and the detected pattern of diffusion of the emitted light.

9 . The electronic device of claim 8 , wherein, prior to detecting the gesture made by the user, the one or more controllers are configured to initiate a user-calibration process.

10 . The electronic device of claim 9 , where in the user-calibration process comprises:
measuring, by the one or more controllers, one or more patterns of diffusion of the emitted light while the user is performing one or more predefined gestures; and determining, by the one or more controllers, one or more calibration parameters based on the one or more patterns of diffusion of the emitted light from the databases of gesture data, wherein the one or more calibration parameters are used to detect the gesture made by the user.

11 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein detecting the gesture made by the user further comprises detecting, by the one or more controllers, a state of one or more bones in the user's body.

12 . The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the detecting of the state of the one or more bones in the user's body comprises detecting a state of at least one of a radius bone and an ulna bone.

13 . The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the detected state of the one or more bones comprises a location of at least one of the radius bone and the ulna bone relative to the electronic device.

14 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the gesture made by the user comprises a predetermined amount of movement of the user associated with the portion of the user's body.

15 . The electronic device of claim 14 , further comprising:
a motion sensor configured to detect the movement of the user, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to control the one or more light sources and one or more light sensors to detect the gesture made by the user after receiving an indication from the motion sensor of the predetermined amount of movement.

16 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising a communication module configured to transmit the detected gesture made by the user to a second electronic device.

17 . The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a band of flexible material, at least a portion of which is configured to contact the portion of the user's body, wherein the one or more light sources, the one or more light sensors, and the one or more controllers are attached to the band of flexible material.

18 . The electronic device of claim 17 , further comprising:
a layer of coupling material covering an external surface of at least one of the one or more light sources or the one or more light sensors; and a layer of foam material disposed between the band of flexible material and at least one of the one or more light sources or the one or more light sensors.

19 . The electronic device of claim 18 , wherein at least a portion of the layer of coupling material contacts the portion of the user's body.

20 . A method for operating an electronic device, the method comprising:
emitting, by one or more light sources, light that penetrates into a portion of a user's body; detecting, by one or more light sensors, a pattern of diffusion of the emitted light; and detecting, by one or more control modules, a gesture made by the user based on the detected patter of diffusion of the emitted light, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to control the one or more light sources and one or more light sensors to detect the gesture made by the user.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Avila Santiago Ortega
• Sadi Sajid
• Rakova Bogdana

Classifications

• G06F3/011 Primary

  Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality (blind teaching G09B21/00) · CPC title

• A61B2562/0238

  Optical sensor arrangements for performing transmission measurements on body tissue · CPC title

• G06F3/017 Primary

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• A61B5/11

  Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor or mobility of a limb {(A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721)} · CPC title

• G06F3/014

  Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves · CPC title