System for evaluating infant movement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8961438-B2
Application number	US-201113218528-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 26, 2011
Priority date	Aug 26, 2010
Publication date	Feb 24, 2015
Grant date	Feb 24, 2015

Abstract

A system and method for measuring movements, utilizing one or more wireless accelerometers attached to one or more limbs of a human subject for the purpose of determining certain temporal and spatial gestures of the subject.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for determining an infant's risk for experiencing a medical disorder, comprising:
one or more wireless accelerometers for attachment to one or more extremities of an infant subject, each accelerometer configured to measure physical movement from one of the subject's extremities;
a base station in wireless communication with the accelerometers; and
a processing circuit electrically coupled to the base station, the processing circuit being adapted to measure a maximum acceleration magnitude of the subject's extremities over a period of 2 seconds, perform statistical analyses of data from the accelerometers, and compare the processed data to a reference standard in order to determine whether the subject is at risk of experiencing the medical disorder.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the medical disorder is selected from the group consisting of a neurological disorder and a motor skills disorder.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the medical disorder is selected from the group consisting of cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism and intraventricular hemorrhage.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more extremities are selected from the group consisting of a right arm, a left arm, a right leg, and a left leg.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit utilizes a statistical machine learning technique selected from the group consisting of Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machines, and a pruned Decision Tree.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the wireless accelerometer weighs less than 5 grams.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the wireless accelerometer has a surface area of 1 cm 2 or less.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is adapted to measure the maximum acceleration magnitude for all the extremities of the subject.

9. A method for diagnosing whether an infant subject is at risk for a predetermined medical condition, comprising:
measuring movements from a plurality of limbs of the subject, wherein the measuring is performed by a plurality of wireless accelerometers attached to the plurality of limbs, the plurality of accelerometers providing data wirelessly to a base station;
normalizing the data;
calculating one or more features using the normalized data, wherein the one or more features include a maximum acceleration magnitude of the limbs of the subject over a predetermined period of time, the maximum acceleration magnitude being measured over a period of 2 seconds; and
comparing the features to a standard to determine whether the subject demonstrates certain predetermined movements which indicate that the subject is at risk for the medical condition.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the subject is a premature infant.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the comparing step utilizes a statistical machine learning technique selected from the group consisting of Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machines and a pruned Decision Tree.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the presence of the predetermined movements indicates that the subject is at risk for a neurological or motor skills impairment.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the medical condition is selected from the group consisting of cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism and intraventricular hemorrhage.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the predetermined movements comprise Cramped-Synchronized General Movements.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the maximum acceleration magnitude is measured for all the limbs of the subject.

Assignees

• Gravem Dana
• Patterson Donald
• Chou Pai
• Cooper Daniel
• Univ California

Inventors

• Gravem Dana
• Patterson Donald
• Chou Pai
• Cooper Daniel

Classifications

• A61B5/16

  Devices for psychotechnics (using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00); Testing reaction times {; Devices for evaluating the psychological state} · CPC title

• A61B5/1124 Primary

  Determining motor skills · CPC title

• A61B5/0002

  Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network (endoradiosondes A61B5/07) · CPC title

• A61B2503/04

  Babies, e.g. for SIDS detection · CPC title

• A61B5/1114

  Tracking parts of the body · CPC title