Localized collection of biological signals, cursor control in speech-assistance interface based on biological electrical signals and arousal detection based on biological electrical signals

Inventors

Low, Philip

Assignees

Neurovigil Inc

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a device with electrodes configured to record electrical activity that are confined to a restricted area, using recorded biological electrical signals to control cursor position in a speech-assistance interface, and using recorded biological signals to detect arousals during sleep.

Core Innovation

The disclosed invention provides a physiological data acquisition assembly with a housing having a single cluster of electrodes consisting of an active electrode and a reference electrode, with the active and reference electrodes in close proximity separated by less than 3 inches. The assembly includes a processor and electronic circuitry configured to receive a reference signal collected using the reference electrode and generate a differential signal by subtracting the reference signal from the active electrode to reduce noise in an active signal collected using the active electrode.

The invention processes the differential signal by generating a spectrogram and normalizing the spectrogram one or more times to generate a normalized spectrogram. A temporal gradient of the normalized spectrogram is determined, and for each of multiple time bins represented in the normalized spectrogram, a corresponding spectrogram segment is identified. For each time bin, a fragmentation value is determined based on a portion of the temporal gradient that corresponds to the time bin, and the normalized spectrogram segment is assigned to a group of a set of groups based on the fragmentation value.

Based on the normalized spectrogram segments assigned to the set of groups, the invention generates an output that characterizes a plurality of micro-arousals occurring within a sleep state. The output includes a movement-control signal, synthetic speech, and/or text presented at or transmitted by a speech-assistance interface.

Claims Coverage

The independent claims are directed to a system and a corresponding method. Across the independent claims, the core inventive features include five elements: closely spaced active and reference electrodes generating a differential signal for noise reduction, spectrogram generation and repeated spectrogram normalization, temporal-gradient-derived fragmentation values per time bin, assigning normalized spectrogram segments to groups based on fragmentation values, and generating an output that characterizes micro-arousals within a sleep state and/or supports additional speech or movement-control outputs.

Both independent claims share the same processing chain: differential signal generation using closely spaced active and reference electrodes, spectrogram generation followed by one or more normalizations, determination of a temporal gradient to compute a fragmentation value per time bin, assignment of normalized spectrogram segments to groups based on fragmentation values, and generation of an output that characterizes micro-arousals within a sleep state and/or provides a movement-control signal and/or speech-assistance output.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications