Physiological monitoring devices and methods using optical sensors

Inventors

LeBoeuf, Steven Francis • Tucker, Jesse Berkley • Aumer, Michael Edward • Just, Steven Matthew • Felice, Mark Andrew

Assignees

Yukka Magic LLC

Abstract

A monitoring device configured to be attached to a subject includes a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor configured to detect/measure physiological information from the subject, and a processor configured to process the physiological information to detect subject stress, and to determine an origin of the subject stress. The processor can determine the origin of the subject stress by increasing a sampling rate of the PPG sensor to collect higher acuity physiological information. The processor also can determine the origin of the subject stress by processing data from the PPG sensor to determine whether the subject is likely to have atrial fibrillation. In response to determining that the subject is likely to have atrial fibrillation, the processor can increase a frequency of pulsing of an optical emitter of the PPG sensor and/or increase a sampling rate of the PPG sensor to collect higher acuity data for diagnosing that atrial fibrillation is truly occurring.

Core Innovation

A monitoring device configured to be attached to a subject detects and/or measures physiological information using a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that includes at least one optical emitter and at least one optical detector. The device also includes a motion sensor configured to detect subject motion. At least one processor processes PPG data in context of motion information to detect subject stress outside of an acceptable range for the subject.

The processor determines an origin of the subject stress by further processing the PPG data in context of the motion information to determine whether the subject is likely to have atrial fibrillation. In response to determining that the subject is likely to have atrial fibrillation, the processor increases a frequency of pulsing of the optical emitter and/or increases a sampling rate of the PPG sensor to collect higher acuity PPG data.

The processor then diagnoses whether or not atrial fibrillation is truly occurring using the higher acuity PPG data. The disclosed approach includes adaptive processing considerations tied to motion artifacts and optical coupling, and it uses digital signal processing including time-domain and frequency-domain processing to improve analysis based on the collected PPG data.

Claims Coverage

The independent claims cover a wearable monitoring device and a corresponding monitoring method that use motion-context PPG processing to detect stress, infer likely atrial fibrillation, and then collect higher-acuity PPG data for confirming whether atrial fibrillation is truly occurring. Across the independent claims, the core workflow involves three inventive stages: stress detection outside an acceptable range, stress-origin determination for likely atrial fibrillation, and adaptive higher-acuity PPG acquisition via increased emitter pulsing frequency and/or PPG sampling rate followed by diagnosis.

The independent claims collectively require motion sensor-based contextual processing of PPG to detect stress outside an acceptable range, additional contextual processing to determine a likely atrial fibrillation stress origin, and conditional adjustment of PPG emitter pulsing frequency and/or PPG sampling rate to obtain higher-acuity data for diagnosing whether atrial fibrillation is truly occurring.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications