Patent Issued for Wearable Health Monitoring System (USPTO 10,314,489)

2019 JUN 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Chang, Hisao (Medina, MN); Ji, Lusheng (Randolph, NJ); Renger, Bernard S. (New Providence, NJ), filed on May 4, 2016, was published online on June 24, 2019.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,314,489 is AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P. (Atlanta, Georgia, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Visiting a doctor is often important to ensure the health of an individual, not only when the individual is sick, but also for regular check-ups. However, doctor visits can be costly, time consuming, and sometimes unpleasant. Many illnesses require constant visits to the doctor for monitoring. This monitoring may simply be monitoring an individual’s blood pressure, determining if any changes have occurred, etc. Unfortunately, to receive this monitoring, the individual may have to drive a long distance, sit in a waiting room, see the doctor, and then drive the long distance home. This is not ideal, as it may end up taking most of, if not all of, the day.

“Today there are many health statistics that are important to diagnosing the average individual. Besides statistics like pulse and temperature, muscular flexibility, hand-eye coordination, and basic reflexes are not only useful in everyday circumstances, but are indications of general health. However, since the enactment of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), certain precautions must be taken to keep this information between the patient and his or her doctor.

“When visiting the doctor, people often complain about past conditions or episodes. However, a doctor can only test the patient’s current status and ask them questions to recall how they felt during the past episode. Patient accounts can be uninformative and unreliable. Patients largely do not recall things such as instant pulse, blood pressure, temperature, etc. For instance, a patient may remember feeling cold, which can indicate a high temperature, but there is no way for the doctor to determine the exact temperature or even if the patient had a fever at all.

“Many individuals would much rather stay in the privacy of their own home. However, the cost of frequent house calls by a doctor or other health care professional is too much for most individuals. Thus, staying at home is currently not a real option.

“IPTV is a system through which digital television service is delivered using the architecture and networking methods of Internet protocols over a packet-switched network infrastructure, such as the Internet and broadband Internet access networks, instead of being delivered through traditional radio frequency broadcast and cable television formats.

“What is needed is a way to monitor an individual’s health while the individual is at home or away from the doctor’s office.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present invention provides devices and methods for remotely monitoring the health of an individual. The individual wears a health monitoring device, with an attached strap, capable of sensing characteristics of the individual. These characteristics may include voice level and tone, movements, blood pressure, temperature, etc. The device allows the individual to constantly monitor his or her health without having to physically visit a doctor or other health care professional. Wireless communication, for instance with an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) set-top box allows measurements to be made and evaluated by a `computerized` healthcare service provider. For a more accurate evaluation, measurements are sent over the INTERNET to a service. The device communicates with services in order to diagnose the individual based upon the characteristics.

“Embodiments of the present invention work with an IPTV-based application where an individual uses a health monitoring device, in the form of a wearable wireless voice remote, to interact with a `computerized` healthcare service provider at his or her home. The individual interacts with the service using their voice and body movements, such as touching the nose or the toe within a defined time window, according to the video instructions showing on the IPTV screen. The invention collects data based upon these interactions as well as inputs of the individual’s health statistics, such as pulse, temperature, etc. in order for a live or virtual health care professional to diagnose the individual.

“In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the invention is a device for monitoring health. The device includes a processor, a memory in communication with the processor, a remote health monitor logic on the memory, a health profile database on the memory, a wireless transceiver in communication with the processor, a housing enclosing the processor, the memory, and the wireless transceiver, a microphone in communication with the processor, a speaker in communication with the processor, and a strap coupled with the housing. A set-top box receives a voice sample and detects a distance of the wireless transceiver from the set-top box to monitor a user’s health by producing an audio tone from a speaker; sending a data packet from the set-top box at the same time the audio tone is produced; and calculating the distance using the difference in time between receipt of the audio tone by the microphone and the data packet by the wireless transceiver.

“In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the invention is a system for monitoring health. The system includes a wireless health monitoring device, a set-top box having a box memory in communication with the wireless health monitoring remote, and a box health monitor logic on the box memory. The set-top box receives a voice sample and detects a distance of the wireless transceiver from the set-top box to monitor a user’s health by producing an audio tone from a speaker; sending a data packet from the set-top box at the same time the audio tone is produced; and calculating the distance using the difference in time between receipt of the audio tone by the microphone and the data packet by the wireless transceiver.

“In a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the invention is a method for monitoring health. The method includes connecting a health monitoring device to a set-top box, receiving a health sample from the health monitoring device, receiving a voice sample from the health monitoring device, evaluating the voice sample with a voice baseline, instructing a user to perform a physical move, receiving a position sample determinative of the physical move, and evaluating the position with a position baseline using time difference of arrival between an audio tone and a data packet.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A device, comprising: a processing system including a processor; and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising: obtaining a baseline health performance sample of a user of the device, wherein the baseline health performance sample comprises a first measurement corresponding to a first movement of the user; receiving a request for a new health performance sample; capturing an input representing the new health performance sample according to the request, wherein the input comprises a second measurement corresponding to a second movement of the device relative to a second processor, wherein the second movement is determined according to arrival time data associated with signals that are transmitted according to instructions from the second processor; comparing the second measurement to the first measurement to determine a difference in user health performance; and transmitting information associated with the difference in user health performance to the second processor.

“2. The device in claim 1, wherein a first signal of the signals originates from the second processor and comprises a data packet, wherein a second signal of the signals comprises an audio tone, and wherein the determining the second movement according to arrival time data comprises determining a distance between the device and the second processor according to a time difference of arrival between the first and second signals at the device.

“3. The device in claim 1, further comprising a microphone, wherein the baseline health performance sample further comprises a first voice sample of the user received via the microphone, and wherein the input further comprises a second voice sample received via the microphone.

“4. The device in claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise: comparing the second voice sample to the first voice sample to determine the difference in user health performance; and transmitting information associated with the difference in user health performance, based on the comparing of the second voice sample to the first voice sample, to the second processor.

“5. The device in claim 1, further comprising: receiving another request for a subsequent performance sample of the user from the second processor; obtaining the subsequent performance sample of the user; comparing the subsequent performance sample to a downloaded baseline performance sample to determine an updated difference of user performance, wherein the second processor downloads the downloaded baseline from an interactive television network; determining an updated health condition of the user based on the updated difference in the user health performance; and transmitting information regarding the updated health condition to the second processor.

“6. The device in claim 1, further comprising an accelerometer, and wherein the operations further comprise: obtaining a baseline movement sample of the user by the accelerometer; capturing an additional movement sample of the user by the accelerometer; comparing the additional movement sample to the baseline movement sample to determine a movement based difference in user health performance; and transmitting the movement based difference in user health performance to the second processor.

“7. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising: receiving a voice sample of a user; evaluating the voice sample against a voice baseline to identify the user; requesting a performance sample of the user from a sensor of a health monitoring device, wherein the performance sample comprises a measurement corresponding to a movement of the sensor; providing two signals to the health monitoring device via a wireless transceiver, wherein the movement is determined according to a time difference of arrival at the sensor between the two signals; comparing the performance sample to a baseline performance sample to determine a difference of user performance; and determining a health condition of the user based upon the difference in user performance.

“8. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium in claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise uploading the health condition of the user to an interactive television network.

“9. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium in claim 7, wherein a first signal of the two signals comprises a data packet and a second signal of the two signals comprises an audio tone, and wherein a distance between the sensor and a processing system issuing the two signals is determined according to a time difference of arrival between the first and second signals at the sensor.

“10. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium in claim 7, wherein the health monitoring device further comprises an accelerometer, wherein the accelerometer measures an additional movement of the user.

“11. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium in claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise providing an audio to speaker to present the request for the performance sample to the user.

“12. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium in claim 7, wherein the request for the performance sample originates from a doctor via an interactive television network.

“13. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium in claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a baseline performance sample from an interactive television network.

“14. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium in claim 7, wherein the performance sample comprises a vocal signal.

“15. A method, the method comprising: communicatively connecting, by a processing system comprising a processor, to a health monitoring device; providing, by the processing system, an instruction to the health monitoring device; instructing, by the processing system, that a user associated with the health monitoring device perform a physical move; providing, by the processing system, a first sensor of the health monitoring device to obtain a movement sample, wherein the movement sample is determined relative to a position of the processor, wherein the movement sample is determined according to a time difference of arrival between two signals originating at the processing system; evaluating, by the processing system, the movement sample against a movement baseline for the user to determine a health condition of the user; and transmitting, by the processing system, the health condition to an application server.

“16. The method in claim 15, wherein the processor comprises a set top box, and wherein the application server transmits the health condition to a health professional in communication with the application server.

“17. The method in claim 16, further comprising receiving a professional evaluation from the health professional via the application server.

“18. The method in claim 15, further comprising instructing the user to wear the health monitoring device when outside a range of wireless communications with the processing system.

“19. The method in claim 15, further comprising providing a second sensor of the health monitoring device to acquire a health sample from the user, and wherein a first signal of the two signals comprises a data packet and a second signal of the two signals comprises an audio tone, wherein a distance between the health monitoring device and the processor is determined according to a time difference of arrival between the first and second signals at the health monitoring device.

“20. The method in claim 19, wherein the health sample comprises one of a pulse, a blood oxygen level, a breathing pattern, a blood sugar level, or a blood pressure.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Chang, Hisao; Ji, Lusheng; Renger, Bernard S. Wearable Health Monitoring System. U.S. Patent Number 10,314,489, filed May 4, 2016, and published online on June 24, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,314,489.PN.&OS=PN/10,314,489RS=PN/10,314,489

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