Electronic nicotine delivery device assessment system and method of use thereof
AssigneesVirginia Commonwealth University, Pennington Biomedical Research Institute, East Carolina University
InventorsBernard Fuemmeler, Thomas Eissenberg, Corby Martin, Eric Soule
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Abstract
Provided are systems and methods of identifying the functional characteristics and operational settings of any electronic inhalants or apparatuses that are designed to provide nicotine vapors to a user. The system includes a mobile device having a built-in camera to receive images of a nicotine delivery device, a system of remote backend servers with at least one image database for identifying the nicotine delivery device, and at least one processor for calculating an amount of nicotine delivered by the nicotine delivery device.
Claims18
A computer-implemented method of determining an amount of delivered active agent emitted from a plurality of different electronic vaporizers to a subject over a period of time, comprising:
- obtaining a plurality of images with a camera on a mobile device of each of the plurality of different the electronic vaporizers the subject consumes over the period of time, wherein the plurality of images capture information for identifying a type of electronic vaporizer being used by the subject, and wherein sequential images of the plurality of images associated with any single electronic vaporizer of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time are useable to determine a depletion in volume from the single electronic vaporizer;
- transmitting the plurality of images to a server or system of servers,
- wherein the server or system of servers comprises a memory having an image database comprising
- i) a plurality of images associated with a plurality of different electronic vaporizers, and
- ii) device information associated with each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers;
- at the server or system of servers, identifying a match between each single electronic vaporizer of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time and at least one image of the plurality of the images in the image database of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, wherein the identifying step produces an identified electronic vaporizer;
- at the server or system of servers, and for each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, detecting the depletion in volume from the sequential images of the plurality of images associated with the identified electronic vaporizer for each of a plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time, and calculating a volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time;
- and
- using, at the server or system of servers, at least a portion of the device information for the identified electronic vaporizer and the volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the period of time to compute an amount of active agent emitted to the subject over the period of time from all of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers.
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions embodied in the computer readable medium that when executed by a processor of a computer control the computer to perform steps comprising:
- obtaining a plurality of images with receiving one or more inputs including at least one image of each electronic vaporizer from a camera on a mobile device of a plurality of different electronic vaporizers a subject consumes over a period of time, wherein the plurality of images capture information for identifying a type of electronic vaporizer being used by the subject, and wherein sequential images of the plurality of images associated with any single electronic vaporizer of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time are useable to determine a depletion in volume from the single electronic vaporizer;
- transmitting the plurality of images to a server or system of servers,
- wherein the server or system of servers comprises a memory having an image database comprising
- i) a plurality of images associated with a plurality of different electronic vaporizers and
- ii) device information associated with each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers;
- at the server or system of servers, identifying a match between each single electronic vaporizer of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time and at least one image of the plurality of the images in the image database of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, wherein the identifying step produces an identified electronic vaporizer;
- at the server or system of servers, and for each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, detecting the depletion in volume from the sequential images of the plurality of images associated with the identified electronic vaporizer for each of a plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time, and calculating a volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time;
- and
- using, at the server or system of servers, at least a portion of the device information for the identified electronic vaporizer and the volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the period of time to compute an amount of active agent emitted to the subject over the period of time from all of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers.
A system for determining an amount of delivered active agent emitted from a plurality of different electronic vaporizers to a subject over a period of time, comprising:
- a remote server or system of remote servers in communication with a mobile device configured to obtain a plurality of images with a camera on the mobile device of each of the plurality of electronic vaporizers the subject consumes over the period of time, wherein the plurality of images capture information for identifying a type of electronic vaporizer being used by the subject, and wherein sequential images of the plurality of images associated with any single electronic vaporizer of the one or more electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time are useable to determine a depletion in volume from the single electronic vaporizer;
- wherein the remote server or system of remote servers is operatively coupled to one or more processors and a memory having an image database comprising
- i) a plurality of images associated with a plurality of different electronic vaporizers, and
- ii) device information associated with each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, wherein the remote server or system of remote servers is configured to:
- receive the plurality of images of each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers the subject consumes over the period of time;
- identify a match between each single electronic vaporizer of the one or more electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time and at least one image of the plurality of images in the image database of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers to produce an identified electronic vaporizer;
- for each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, detect the depletion in volume from the sequential images of the plurality of images associated with the identified electronic vaporizer for each of a plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time, and calculate a volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time;
- and
- use at least a portion of the device information for the identified electronic vaporizer and the volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the period of time to compute an amount of active agent emitted to the subject over the period of time from all of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.