Wearable biosensor devices with adaptive power consumption

Inventors

Nicholson, Charles • He, David • Schiffer, Brian

Assignees

Verily Life Sciences LLC

Abstract

One disclosed example method includes receiving sensor data from a biosensor; determining an event using a first analysis based on the sensor data, the first analysis having a first power cost; determining to perform a second analysis based on the event; in response to determining to perform the second analysis, performing the second analysis based on the sensor data, the second analysis having a second power cost greater than the first power cost; and wirelessly transmitting results of the second analysis to a remote device.

Core Innovation

Wearable hermetically sealed biosensor devices adaptively manage power consumption by running a low-cost, low-power first analysis continuously using sensor data from a biosensor to determine an event. Based on the event, the device determines whether to perform a higher-power, higher-complexity second analysis, and the second analysis is performed in response to that determination using second sensor data received from the biosensor.

The devices wirelessly transmit results of the second analysis to a remote device, with the document describing activation of the radio in relation to urgency and thresholds. The radio subsystem can be activated only when results are sufficiently urgent, and the radio can be deactivated after transmission.

System-level components described include a biosensor, a processor, memory, a radio subsystem, and an analysis control component that coordinates first analysis, event determination, conditional second analysis, and conditional wireless transmission. The disclosed examples include monitoring a pulse using optical photoplethysmography where sampling fidelity and/or biosensor operating mode can be escalated for the second analysis based on an event or threshold, such as arrhythmia detection.

Claims Coverage

The independent claims cover a conditional two-stage biosensor analysis workflow that escalates from a first analysis with lower computational complexity and lower power cost to a second analysis with higher computational complexity and higher power cost only in response to an event, and then wirelessly transmits second-analysis results to a remote device. Across the independent claim set, there are three claim types: a method, a device, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium.

Across the independent claims, the inventive core is conditional escalation from a lower-complexity, lower-power first analysis to a higher-complexity, higher-power second analysis only when an event is determined, followed by wireless transmission of the second-analysis results to a remote device. The device and computer-readable medium claims implement this same event-driven escalation and transmission using a biosensor, processor, memory, and a radio subsystem.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications