US 10,441,212 B2Granted

Method to determine positions and states of an activity monitoring device

AssigneeWithings

InventorsRemi Thomas, Nadine Buard, Eric Carreel

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A method to determine a position and a state of a personal activity monitor worn by a user, such personal activity monitor comprising a motion sensor formed as an at least 3-axis accelerometer and a processor unit, the method comprising the steps of determining a number of changes of predominant axis per time period, and comparing it with exceeds a first predetermined threshold in order to infer a wrist worn condition, the method comprising the steps of determining a current level of activity and a temperature criterion to infer that the personal activity monitor is actually worn by the user and that the user has entered a sleep phase, or to infer that the user has emerged from sleep.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A personal activity monitor wearable by a user, such personal activity monitor comprising a motion sensor formed as an at least 3-axis accelerometer for providing acceleration signals, defining a first local spatial reference with same axis associated with the motion sensor and independent from a spatial geographical reference, and a processor unit, wherein the personal activity monitor may be worn by the user at various body locations, and configured to determine that the device is worn at the wrist location among other possible body locations,

wherein the personal activity monitor is further configured to:
apply a low pass filter to the acceleration signals, with a cut-off frequency less than 0.5 Hz, wherein such low pass filtering eliminates the acceleration induced by alternate inertia forces due to movements and keep only the DC component of the acceleration signals such that the filtered acceleration is substantially equal to gravity, reflecting an absolute orientation of the personal activity monitor,
Wa—identify at each instant which axis of the first local spatial reference senses the largest acceleration, the largest acceleration being provided by gravity,
Wb—determine a change of predominant axis when the largest acceleration changes from one axis to another in the first local spatial reference,
Wc—determine a number of changes of predominant axis per time period,
Wd—define a wrist worn condition, meaning that the personal activity monitor is worn at the wrist of the user, and,
infer that the wrist worn condition is true, based on a determination that the number of changes of predominant axis per time period exceeds a first predetermined threshold,
We—, infer that the wrist worn condition is or has become false, based on a determination that the number of changes of predominant axis per time period is below a second predetermined threshold;
and
thereby, determine that the personal activity monitor is worn or is not worn at the wrist of the user, meaning that the personal activity monitor is worn at a body location different from a wrist or not worn at all.

7 more elements

A personal activity monitor, comprising a motion sensor, a processor unit and a temperature sensor, wherein a set of at least three states are defined regarding the personal activity monitor together with the user, the set of states comprising at least NOT WORN, WORN&AWAKE, WORN&POTENTIAL SLEEPING, WORN&SLEEPING, the personal activity monitor being configured to:

Sa—determine continuously via the motion sensor a current level of activity, and compare the current level of activity to a predefined low level of activity, and to a second predefined level of activity,
Sb—determine via the temperature sensor a current temperature at the vicinity of the activity monitor, and a first temperature profile,
Sc—determine that the personal activity monitor is being worn by the user has entered a WORN POTENTIAL SLEEPING state, based on a determination that the current level of activity is below the predefined low level of activity for at least a first period of time and concurrently that the first temperature profile meets a first predetermined temperature criterion over the first period of time
based on a determination that the current level of activity remains below the second predefined level of activity and concurrently that the first temperature profile keeps meeting the first predetermined temperature criterion over a second period of time, determine that the personal activity monitor is being worn by the user and has entered a WORN&SLEEPING state, and then include a duration of the WORN&POTENTIAL SLEEPING state into effective sleep, and otherwise exclude the duration of the WORN&POTENTIAL SLEEPING state from effective sleep count,
Sd—determine that the user has emerged from sleep, based on a first condition at least requiring that the current level of activity is above the predefined low level of activity for at least a third period of time,
Se—determine that the user has emerged from sleep, based on a second condition at least requiring that the current level of activity is above the second predefined level of activity for at least a fourth period of time, and
Sf—calculate a sleep duration of the user, between instants of entering and emerging from sleep,
calculate a total sleep duration as the addition of several consecutive sleep phases.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/251,239Filed 11 Apr 2014
Published: US 2015/0289802 A115 Oct 2015
Granted: 15 Oct 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

A61B 5/4809
Sleep evaluation: sleep detection, i.e. determining whether a subject is asleep or not
A61B 5/01
Measuring for diagnostic purposes ; Identification of persons: measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for…
A61B 5/1118
Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor or mobility of a limb: determining activity level
A61B 5/1123
Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor or mobility of a limb: discriminating type of movement, e.g.…

Family

US 2015/0289802 A1Pre-grant publication · published 15 Oct 2015
US 10,441,212 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key