System and method for detecting inflammation in a foot

Inventors

Ma, Ran • Fu, Jie • Scholten, Henk Jan

Assignees

Siren Care Inc

Abstract

One variation of a method for detecting inflammation in a foot includes: accessing a first temperature measured through a left temperature sensor and a second temperature measured through a right temperature sensor at approximately a first time, the left temperature sensor arranged in a left sock and the right temperature sensor arranged in a right sock worn on the user's feet; calculating a baseline difference between the first and second temperatures based on confirmation of absence of inflammation in the user's left and right feet at the first time; accessing a third temperature measured through the left temperature sensor and a fourth temperature measured through the right temperature sensor at approximately a second time; and in response to a second temperature difference—between the third and fourth temperatures—differing from the baseline difference by more than a threshold difference, issuing an alarm through the user interface.

Core Innovation

A method and system are described for monitoring a user for foot inflammation using temperature measurements obtained from garments placed on both feet. The method receives a first plurality of temperature measurements at a first sampling rate, determines a user state based at least in part on the first plurality of temperature measurements, and in response to the determined user state receives a second plurality of temperature measurements at a second sampling rate greater than the first sampling rate during a monitoring period.

The method determines a plurality of sampled temperature differences from spatially corresponding regions by calculating a temperature difference between a first target region on a first foot and a second target region on a second foot. The sampled temperature differences are used to predict inflammation in at least one of the first target region and the second target region based on the sampled temperature differences exceeding a predetermined threshold difference. The method triggers an alarm in response to the predicted inflammation.

The documented description includes establishing a baseline temperature difference between corresponding left/right regions after user confirmation of no inflammation at a first time, and later computing temperature differences from new measurements. The method compares deviation from the baseline to a threshold difference, including region-specific threshold differences and activity-adaptive threshold adjustments, and applies false-positive rejection using time-rate changes. The system issues alarms/notifications via a user interface, and includes proximity-based sock presence detection with sleep/standby states and optional remote monitoring/compliance tracking.

Claims Coverage

The disclosed claims include one independent method for monitoring a user for foot inflammation using dual-foot garments and temperature-difference prediction, with a predetermined threshold difference and alarm triggering. The relevant independent claim is supported by multiple dependent refinements that add specific threshold handling and alarm/notification context.

Overall, claim coverage centers on increasing sampling during monitoring based on a determined user state, computing temperature differences between spatially corresponding regions on two foot garments, and predicting inflammation when those differences exceed a predetermined threshold difference, with an alarm triggered in response.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications