Apparatus and method for estimating component of analyte

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022167883-A1
Application number	US-202117185432-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 25, 2021
Priority date	Nov 30, 2020
Publication date	Jun 2, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

An apparatus for estimating a component of an analyte may include a sensor including a light source configured to emit light to the analyte, and a detector configured to measure a spectrum of light reflected from the analyte; and a processor configured to: based on an initial amount of received light being obtained from the analyte by operating the sensor under initial operating conditions, determine optimal operating conditions based on the initial amount of received light and the initial operating conditions; and based on a spectrum being measured from the analyte by operating the sensor under the optimal operating conditions, estimate the component of the analyte based on the spectrum.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for estimating a component of an analyte, the apparatus comprising:
a sensor including a light source configured to emit light to the analyte, and a detector configured to measure a spectrum of light reflected from the analyte; and a processor configured to:
based on an initial amount of received light being obtained from the analyte by operating the sensor under initial operating conditions, determine optimal operating conditions based on the initial amount of received light and the initial operating conditions; and
based on a spectrum being measured from the analyte by operating the sensor under the optimal operating conditions, estimate the component of the analyte based on the spectrum.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the initial operating conditions of the sensor comprise at least one of an intensity of incident light, a gain, an exposure time, or an aperture size.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the initial operating conditions are set such that a preset optimal amount of received light is detected from a standard sample having a predetermined reflectivity.

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the predetermined reflectivity comprises at least one of an average reflectivity and a maximum reflectivity of the analyte.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine the optimal operating conditions based on a ratio of the initial amount of received light to a preset optimal amount of received light and the initial operating conditions.

6 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to change the optimal operating conditions to a first threshold based on the optimal operating conditions being less than the first threshold.

7 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to change the optimal operating conditions to a second threshold based on the optimal operating conditions exceeding the second threshold.

8 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to, based on the optimal operating conditions exceeding the second threshold, repeatedly obtain an initial amount of received light by operating the sensor after increasing a light source current among the initial operating conditions.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a force sensor or a pressure sensor configured to measure a force or a pressure applied between the analyte and the sensor,
wherein the processor is further configured to operate the sensor based on the force or the pressure being greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to control an output interface to output information that guides a user to change the force or the pressure applied between the analyte and the sensor based on the force or the pressure.

11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to obtain an absorption spectrum of the analyte based on the spectrum and a reference spectrum.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to obtain the reference spectrum by normalizing a sample spectrum measured using a standard sample having a predetermined reflectivity based on the initial operating conditions and the optimal operating conditions.

13 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to normalize the spectrum by multiplying an amount of reflected light of the sample spectrum by a ratio of an exposure time among the optimal operating conditions and an exposure time among the initial operating conditions.

14 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to obtain the reference spectrum that corresponds to the optimal operating conditions by referring to a preset lookup table.

15 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to estimate the component of the analyte based on the absorption spectrum by using a preset estimation model.

16 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the component of the analyte comprises at least one of skin carotenoid, blood carotenoid, glucose, urea, lactate, triglyceride, total protein, cholesterol, or ethanol.

17 . A method of estimating a component of an analyte, the method comprising:
operating a sensor under preset initial operating conditions; detecting an initial amount of received light from the analyte under the initial operating conditions; determining optimal operating conditions based on the initial amount of received light and the initial operating conditions; measuring a spectrum from the analyte by operating the sensor under the optimal operating conditions; and estimating the component of the analyte based on the spectrum.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the initial operating conditions are set such that a preset optimal amount of received light is detected from a standard sample having a predetermined reflectivity.

19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the determining of the optimal operating conditions comprises determining the optimal operating conditions based on a ratio of the initial amount of received light to a preset optimal amount of received light and the initial operating conditions.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the determining of the optimal operating conditions comprises changing the optimal operating conditions to a first threshold based on the determined optimal operating conditions being less than the first threshold.

21 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the determining of the optimal operating conditions comprises changing the optimal operating conditions to a second threshold based on the determined optimal operating conditions exceeding the second threshold.

22 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the determining of the optimal operating conditions comprises, based on the determined optimal operating conditions exceeding the second threshold, repeatedly obtaining an initial amount of received light by operating the sensor after increasing a light source current among the initial operating conditions.

23 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising measuring a force or a pressure applied between the analyte and the sensor,
wherein the operating of the sensor under the initial operating conditions comprises operating the sensor based on the measured is the force or the pressure being greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

24 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the obtaining of the component of the analyte comprises obtaining a reference spectrum, obtaining an absorption spectrum of the analyte based on the spectrum and the reference spectrum, and estimating the component of the analyte based on the absorption spectrum.

25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the obtaining the reference spectrum comprises obtaining the reference spectrum by normalizing a sample spectrum measured using a standard sample having a predetermined reflectivity based on the initial operating conditions and the optimal operating conditions.

26 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the obtaining the reference spectrum comprises obtaining the reference spectrum that corresponds to the optimal operating conditions by referring to a preset lookup table.

27 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the estimating of the component comprise

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Eom Kun Sun
• Kim Sang Kyu
• Kim Yoon Jae
• Moon Hyun Seok
• Park Jin Young
• Ahn Sung Mo
• Jung Myoung Hoon

Classifications

• G01N21/31 Primary

  Investigating relative effect of material at wavelengths characteristic of specific elements or molecules, e.g. atomic absorption spectrometry {(G01N21/72 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• G01N33/48

  Biological material, e.g. blood, urine (G01N33/02, G01N33/26, G01N33/44, G01N33/46 take precedence); Haemocytometers (counting blood corpuscules distributed over a surface by scanning the surface G06M11/02) · CPC title

• G01N21/255 Primary

  Details, e.g. use of specially adapted sources, lighting or optical systems · CPC title

• G01N21/27

  using photo-electric detection (G01N21/31 takes precedence){; circuits for computing concentration (logarithmic circuits G06G7/24; photometric circuits in general G01J)} · CPC title

• G06F1/163

  Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt · CPC title