Patent Issued for Wearable health monitoring system (USPTO 11191432): AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P.

2021 DEC 28 (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, US), Ji, Lusheng (Randolph, NJ, US), Renger, Bernard S. (New Providence, NJ, US), filed on April 29, 2019, was published online on December 7, 2021.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11191432 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:

“1. A wearable device, comprising: a processing system including a first 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 wearable device, wherein the baseline health performance sample comprises a first measurement corresponding to a first movement of the user; obtaining a second measurement corresponding to a second movement of the wearable device relative to a second processor, wherein the second processor is located remotely from the wearable device, wherein the second movement is determined according to arrival time data associated with signals that are received at the wearable device from the second processor, wherein the obtaining of the second measurement is responsive to a request presented by the second processor on a display in data communication with the second processor, wherein the signals comprise a first signal comprising a data packet and a second signal comprising an audio tone, the signals originating from the second processor, and wherein determining the second movement according to arrival time data comprises determining a distance between the wearable device and a device including the second processor according to a time difference of arrival between the first signal and the second signal at the wearable device; comparing the second measurement to the first measurement to determine a difference in user health performance; and transmitting information associated with the difference in the user health performance to the second processor.

“2. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the request presented by the second processor is via a game presented at the display.

“3. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the request presented by the second processor is via video instructions presented at the display.

“4. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: obtaining a subsequent performance sample of the user; comparing the subsequent performance sample to a downloaded baseline performance sample to determine an updated difference of user health performance; determining an updated health condition of the user based on the updated difference of user health performance; and transmitting information associated with the updated health condition of the user to the second processor.

“5. The wearable device of claim 4, wherein the downloaded baseline performance sample is received from an interactive television network.

“6. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the baseline health performance sample is obtained after an injury to the user to determine whether the injury of the user is improving.

“7. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the baseline health performance sample is captured when the user is determined to be healthy to determine limitations in motion of the user.

“8. 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: identifying a user according to an evaluation of a voice sample of the user against a voice baseline; obtaining, from a sensor of a wearable health monitoring device, a performance sample of the user corresponding to a movement of the sensor; providing at least two signals to the wearable health monitoring device and determining the movement according to a time difference of arrival at the sensor between the two signals, wherein the providing at least two signals to the wearable health monitoring device comprises providing at least one of a first signal and a second signal via a wireless transceiver; 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.

“9. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the first signal comprises a data packet and the second signal 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 of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise providing a request for the performance sample to a communication device of the user.

“11. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise providing audio to a speaker of the wearable health monitoring device as the request for the performance sample, the audio originating from a doctor via an interactive television network.

“12. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise providing video to a display as the request for the performance sample, the video including video instructions shown on the display.

“13. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise providing an interactive video session with a communication device of the user.

“14. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein obtaining from the sensor the performance sample of the user corresponding to the movement of the sensor comprises obtaining information about a movement of the user from an accelerometer of the wearable health monitoring device.

“15. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising obtaining information about a pulse of the user from the accelerometer of the wearable health monitoring device.

“16. A method comprising: communicatively connecting, a processing system comprising a processor, to a wearable health monitoring device; providing, by the processing system, an instruction to the wearable health monitoring device that a user associated with the wearable health monitoring device perform a physical movement, including providing, by the processing system, an instruction to the wearable health monitoring device that the user associated with the wearable health monitoring device perform a movement of a specified body part of the body of the user; obtaining, by the processing system, from a first sensor of the wearable health monitoring device, a movement sample determined relative to a position of the processor, the movement sample being determined according to arrival time data associated with signals that are transmitted for reception at the wearable health monitoring device; evaluating, by the processing system, the movement sample against a movement baseline for the user to determine a health condition of the user, the evaluating the movement sample comprising receiving, from the wearable health monitoring device, user health information including information about at least one of distance of movement, speed of movement and angle of movement of the specified body part of the body of the user in response to the instruction, and comparing, by the processing system, the user health information with baseline data for the user to identify a limited range of movement of the user; and transmitting, by the processing system, information about user movement limitation to an application server.

“17. The method of claim 16, wherein the baseline data is obtained after an injury to the user to determine whether the injury of the user is improving.

“18. The method of claim 16, wherein the baseline data is captured when the user is determined to be healthy to determine limitations in motion of the user.

“19. The method of claim 16, wherein the obtaining a movement sample comprises obtaining, by the processing system, the movement sample while the user is holding the wearable health monitoring device.

“20. The method of claim 16, wherein the movement sample is determined according to arrival time data associated with a first signal comprising a data packet and a second signal comprising an audio tone, the first signal and the second signal originating from a remote device, and wherein the movement the movement sample is determined according to arrival time data responsive to determining a distance between the wearable health monitoring device and the remote device according to a time difference of arrival between the first signal and the second signal at the wearable device.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Chang, Hisao. Wearable health monitoring system. U.S. Patent Number 11191432, filed April 29, 2019, and published online on December 7, 2021. 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=11191432.PN.&OS=PN/11191432RS=PN/11191432

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