System and method to measure, analyze, and model pulmonary function and disease utilizing temporal, spatial, and contextual data

An information processing system capable of analyzing airflow related health of a person, the information processing system comprising:

• a microphone circuit of the information processing system for capturing audio signals from an ambient environment in a vicinity of the information processing system and converting the audio signals to electronic audio signals;
• audio conditioning and processing circuitry, coupled with the microphone circuit and a processor of the information processing system, comprising analog-to-digital conversion circuits for converting the electronic audio signals to digitized audio signals, the digitized audio signals representative of the captured audio signals comprising at least one audio sample of a person's verbal communication while the person is using the information processing system at a geographic location;
• memory for storing the digitized audio signals;
• non-volatile memory for storing data and computer instructions;
• a GPS receiver for obtaining geographic information associated with the geographic location of the information processing system;
• a pulmonary health monitor, communicatively coupled with the non-volatile memory;
• a pulmonary health current profile stored in the non-volatile memory;
• a pulmonary health history database stored in the non-volatile memory;
• a speech characteristics model stored in the non-volatile memory;
• and
• the processor being communicatively coupled with the memory, the non-volatile memory, the GPS receiver, and the pulmonary health monitor, and wherein the processor, responsive to executing computer instructions, performs operations comprising:
• capturing, with the microphone circuit and the audio conditioning and processing circuitry, digitized audio signals representative of the captured at least one audio sample of the person's verbal communication while the person is using the information processing system at a geographic location;
• storing in the memory the captured digitized audio signals;
• obtaining, with the GPS receiver, geographic information indicative of the geographic location of the information processing system while capturing the digitized audio signals representative of the captured at least one audio sample of the person's verbal communication, and associating the geographic information with the captured digitized audio signals representative of the captured at least one audio sample of the person's verbal communication;
• querying at least an additional source of information, that is external to the information processing system, and as a result of the querying, receiving additional information, the received additional information being related to the geographic information;
• extracting contours of audio amplitude change from the digitized audio signals representative of the captured at least one audio sample of the person's verbal communication, the contours of amplitude change corresponding to changes in an airflow profile of the person, the airflow profile of the person being stored in at least one of the speech characteristics model or the pulmonary health current profile;
• correlating the contours of audio amplitude change with at least one of data stored in the pulmonary health current profile or data stored in the pulmonary health history database, the stored data including information associated with episodes typical of airflow related health problems of the person;
• determining, based at least on the additional information and the correlating of the contours of audio amplitude change, whether the contours of audio amplitude change result from at least one local environmental factor related to the geographic information, and wherein the receiving additional information comprises receiving crowd sourced information received by the information processing system exchanging anonymous data with peer information processing systems, the received crowd sourced information comprising identification of at least one geographic location where an airflow disease trigger has been detected by an information processing system of another person and that detrimentally has affected airflow related health of the another person at the at least one geographic location;
• and
• continuously providing to the person, via a user interface of the information processing system, performance reports related to the person's airflow health while using the information processing system, the performance reports being based on at least one of:
• the contours of amplitude change extracted from the digitized audio signals representative of the captured at least one audio sample of the person's verbal communication and correlated with periodic episodes typical of airflow related health problems for the person, or
• the crowd sourced information.