Patent Application Titled “Information Processing Apparatus, Information Processing Method, And Information Processing Program” Published Online (USPTO 20240006081): Patent Application

2024 JAN 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors HIRAGAMI, Tomohide (Kanagawa, JP); HOSONO, Yasuyuki (Kanagawa, JP); KANEKO, Yasuhisa (Kanagawa, JP); KITAMURA, Nobuya (Kanagawa, JP); NAGAMIYA, Kenji (Kanagawa, JP), filed on August 24, 2023, was made available online on January 4, 2024.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “

“Technical Field

“The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information processing program.

“Related Art

“In the related art, a technique is known in which pieces of biological information acquired using a biological information acquisition apparatus that acquires biological information of a user are associated with each other so as to be utilized for diagnosis, health management, and the like. For example, JP2018-101255A discloses that biomedical information measured by a medical device and biological information ascertained by a biological information ascertaining device which is a non-medical device are associated with each other in time series and are utilized for health management.

“In recent years, biological information of an unspecified number of users has been acquired by thermometers, a sphygmomanometer, a urine examination apparatus, and the like disposed in a town. Further, biological information such as a heart rate and arterial blood oxygen saturation is acquired by a wearable terminal worn by a user. As described above, there is a demand for a technique that enables utilization of a plurality of pieces of biological information (that is, not originally associated with each other) acquired from different users or different biological information acquisition apparatuses.

“JP2018-101255A describes that biomedical information and biological information (that is, which are originally associated according to a user) acquired from the same user are associated with each other in time series, but does not describe that pieces of biological information that are not originally associated with each other are associated with each other. Therefore, in the technique described in JP2018-101255A, it is not possible to utilize a plurality of pieces of biological information that are not originally associated with each other.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The present disclosure provides an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information processing program capable of utilizing biological information that is not originally associated.

“According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising at least one processor, in which the processor acquires a plurality of pieces of biological information which is biological information of a user and to which attribute information including at least one of user information regarding the user or environmental information regarding an environment at a time point when the biological information is acquired is assigned, and associates the pieces of biological information in which at least one piece of information included in the attribute information is the same.

“According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, in the above aspect, the user information may include identification information of the user, and the processor may acquire the biological information to which identification information of a plurality of different users has been assigned, and associate the pieces of biological information to which the same identification information is assigned.

“According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, in the above aspects, the user information may include action information indicating an action of the user as an acquisition source of the biological information at a time point when the biological information is acquired from the user or within a predetermined period until the time point when the biological information is acquired from the user.

“According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, in the above aspects, the environmental information may include weather information indicating at least one of a temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, or weather at a time point when the biological information is acquired from the user.

“According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, in the above aspects, the environmental information may include location information indicating a location where the biological information is acquired from the user.

“According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, in any one of the second to fifth aspects, date and time information indicating a date and time when the biological information is acquired from the user may be assigned to the biological information, and the processor may associate the pieces of biological information with each other based on the date and time information.

“According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, in the above aspects, the processor may acquire the plurality of pieces of biological information of different types, and may associate the pieces of biological information of different types in which at least one piece of information included in the attribute information is the same.

“According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, in the above aspects, a type of the biological information may be at least one of a body temperature, a heart rate, an electrocardiogram, an electromyogram, blood pressure, a weight, a body fat percentage, a muscle mass, a bone density, a blood glucose level, arterial blood oxygen saturation, urine sugar, urine protein, or urine occult blood.

“According to a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, in the above aspects, the biological information may be acquired by a first biological information acquisition apparatus that is publicly used by an unspecified number of users and that acquires the biological information of the unspecified number of users.

“According to a tenth aspect of the present disclosure, in the ninth aspect, the first biological information acquisition apparatus may acquire the biological information in a sporadic manner.

“According to an eleventh aspect of the present disclosure, in the ninth or tenth aspect, the first biological information acquisition apparatus may acquire the biological information without receiving an instruction to acquire the biological information.

“According to a twelfth aspect of the present disclosure, in the above aspects, the biological information may be acquired by a second biological information acquisition apparatus that is privately used by an individual user and that acquires the biological information of the user.

“According to a thirteenth aspect of the present disclosure, in the twelfth aspect, the second biological information acquisition apparatus may acquire the biological information over time.

“According to a fourteenth aspect of the present disclosure, in the twelfth or thirteenth aspect, the second biological information acquisition apparatus may acquire the biological information in a case where the second biological information acquisition apparatus receives an instruction to acquire the biological information.

“According to a fifteenth aspect of the present disclosure, in any one of the twelfth to fourteenth aspects, the second biological information acquisition apparatus may be wearable.

“According to a sixteenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an information processing method executed by a computer, the method comprising: acquiring a plurality of pieces of biological information which is biological information of a user and to which attribute information including at least one of user information regarding the user or environmental information regarding an environment at a time point when the biological information is acquired is assigned; and associating the pieces of biological information in which at least one piece of information included in the attribute information is the same.

“According to a seventeenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an information processing program for causing a computer to execute a process comprising: acquiring a plurality of pieces of biological information which is biological information of a user and to which attribute information including at least one of user information regarding the user or environmental information regarding an environment at a time point when the biological information is acquired is assigned; and associating the pieces of biological information in which at least one piece of information included in the attribute information is the same.

“According to the above aspects, the information processing apparatus, the information processing method, and the information processing program of the present disclosure enable utilization of biological information that is not originally associated.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An information processing apparatus comprising at least one processor, wherein the processor is configured to: acquire a plurality of pieces of biological information which is biological information of a user and to which attribute information including at least one of user information regarding the user or environmental information regarding an environment at a time point when the biological information is acquired is assigned; and associate the pieces of biological information in which at least one piece of information included in the attribute information is the same.

“2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the user information includes identification information of the user, and the processor is configured to: acquire the biological information to which identification information of a plurality of different users has been assigned; and associate the pieces of biological information to which the same identification information is assigned.

“3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the user information includes action information indicating an action of the user as an acquisition source of the biological information at a time point when the biological information is acquired from the user or within a predetermined period until the time point when the biological information is acquired from the user.

“4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the environmental information includes weather information indicating at least one of a temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, or weather at a time point when the biological information is acquired from the user.

“5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the environmental information includes location information indicating a location where the biological information is acquired from the user.

“6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: date and time information indicating a date and time when the biological information is acquired from the user is assigned to the biological information, and the processor is configured to associate the pieces of biological information with each other based on the date and time information.

“7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to: acquire the plurality of pieces of biological information of different types; and associate the pieces of biological information of different types in which at least one piece of information included in the attribute information is the same.

“8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a type of the biological information is at least one of a body temperature, a heart rate, an electrocardiogram, an electromyogram, blood pressure, a weight, a body fat percentage, a muscle mass, a bone density, a blood glucose level, arterial blood oxygen saturation, urine sugar, urine protein, or urine occult blood.

“9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the biological information is acquired by a first biological information acquisition apparatus that is publicly used by an unspecified number of users and that acquires the biological information of the unspecified number of users.

“10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the first biological information acquisition apparatus acquires the biological information in a sporadic manner.

“11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the first biological information acquisition apparatus acquires the biological information without receiving an instruction to acquire the biological information.

“12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the biological information is acquired by a second biological information acquisition apparatus that is privately used by an individual user and that acquires the biological information of the user.

“13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the second biological information acquisition apparatus acquires the biological information over time.

“14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the second biological information acquisition apparatus acquires the biological information in a case where the second biological information acquisition apparatus receives an instruction to acquire the biological information.

“15. The information processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the second biological information acquisition apparatus is wearable.

“16. An information processing method executed by a computer, the method comprising: acquiring a plurality of pieces of biological information which is biological information of a user and to which attribute information including at least one of user information regarding the user or environmental information regarding an environment at a time point when the biological information is acquired is assigned; and associating the pieces of biological information in which at least one piece of information included in the attribute information is the same.

“17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing an information processing program for causing a computer to execute a process comprising: acquiring a plurality of pieces of biological information which is biological information of a user and to which attribute information including at least one of user information regarding the user or environmental information regarding an environment at a time point when the biological information is acquired is assigned; and associating the pieces of biological information in which at least one piece of information included in the attribute information is the same.”

For more information, see this patent application: HIRAGAMI, Tomohide; HOSONO, Yasuyuki; KANEKO, Yasuhisa; KITAMURA, Nobuya; NAGAMIYA, Kenji. Information Processing Apparatus, Information Processing Method, And Information Processing Program. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240006081, filed August 24, 2023 and posted January 4, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240006081)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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