CN210835473U

CN210835473U - Ear-wearing electrode structure and wearable physiological sensing device

Info

Publication number: CN210835473U
Application number: CN201920494027.9U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 周常安
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2016-01-22
Filing date: 2017-01-18
Publication date: 2020-06-23
Anticipated expiration: 2027-01-18
Also published as: CN106994013A; CN206920734U; CN106994014A; CN106997106A; CN206920740U; CN106994012A; CN106997107A; CN210811043U

Abstract

The utility model discloses an ear-wearing electrode structure and wearing formula physiology sensing device, wherein, this ear-wearing electrode structure is implemented to be made by elastic material for at least partly to elastic restoring force through elastic material reaches the steady top contact between electrode and the duct skin, and in addition, this wearing formula physiology sensing device includes that the wrist wears the structure, and is connected to the electrode that this wrist wore the structure, in order to gain the brain electrical signal.

Description

Ear-wearing electrode structure and wearable physiological sensing device

The application is a divisional application of the utility model patent application with the application number of 201720063235.4, the application date of 2017, 1 month and 18 days, and the name of the utility model is a wearable physiological activity sensing device and sensing system. Meanwhile, the present application claims priority from the following chinese patent applications: ZL 201620064819.9 filed 2016, 1, 22, ZL 201610044155.4 filed 2016, 1, 22, ZL 201620064213.5 filed 2016, 1, 22, 5, 30, 2016, ZL 201620508920.9 filed 2016, 5, 30, 201610374046.9 filed 2016, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an ear-worn electrode structure and a wearable physiological sensing device, and more particularly to a wearable physiological sensing device that can capture electrophysiological signals by contacting electrodes with ears.

Background

Traditionally, the electrical brain activity measured by placing electrodes on the scalp is called electroencephalogram (EEG), which can be used to detect and diagnose many physiological conditions, and the obtained brain activity information can also be used for many other applications, such as learning concentration, fatigue, and brain-computer interface (BCI).

Generally, the measurement of electrical brain activity is divided into two types, a reference combinatorial paradigm (referencemontage) and a bipolar combinatorial paradigm (bipolar montage). In the reference combination paradigm, the electrical brain activity at the same location is used as a reference, for example, the reference electrode is usually set at a location without electrical brain cortical activity, the activity detection electrode obtains brain waves relative to the reference electrode, and the bipolar combination paradigm obtains brain waves through the difference in electrical brain activity potentials at two locations.

However, the conventional brain electrical activity detecting device has the disadvantages of being heavy, complicated in wiring, requiring a professional to assist in arranging electrodes, and the like, and is difficult to generalize, so that various improved forms have been gradually developed to solve these problems, and one of them is an ear-worn brain activity detecting device.

For example, Looney D, et al, "The in-The-ear recording concept: user-center and spare broad monitoring," IEEE PULSE,2012 Nov-Dec; 32-42, the method for obtaining the EEG signal through the auditory canal is given out, and the similar waveform change between the EEG signal obtained from the auditory canal and the EEG signal obtained from the temporal lobe area is also verified; in addition, there are many patent documents disclosing various ways of taking the position of the electroencephalogram signal by the ear, for example, US20070112277 discloses an ear plug in the ear canal as a medium for arranging the electroencephalogram electrode; US20120209101 discloses the use of an ear-conforming hearing aid as a medium for the placement of electroencephalogram electrodes; US8565852 discloses a way of achieving an electrode-securing effect by an ear-hook structure cooperating with an ear clip; US20060094974 describes the concept of providing electrodes using the structure of the pinna; and US7197350 and US8781570 use ear cups as a medium for placing electrodes.

However, since the space in the ear canal is very narrow, not only is the positioning of the electrode difficult, but also the manufacturing of the sampling device becomes very complicated, which is not easy to implement, and the ear canal has a problem in sampling, and the ear wax in the ear canal is a substance naturally generated by the human body, which reduces the contact area between the electrode and the skin of the ear canal, even completely isolates the electrode, and is not easy to achieve good contact between the electrode and the skin, so that the electrode needs to be cleaned particularly before being worn every time, which is actually a very troublesome procedure for the user.

Furthermore, when the electrode is located in the contact area between the auricle and the skull, since the area is a plane closely attached to the skull, the electrode must be fixed by a force toward the skull to maintain the contact with the plane, but the auricle has no structure for providing the force in the direction within the area, so how to fix the electrode is always the most important problem to overcome, and meanwhile, attention must be paid to the fact that the comfort level of use cannot be sacrificed in order to maintain the stable contact of the electrode.

For example, in US2006/009497, a reference electrode (reference electrode) is disposed on an ear lobe by a conventional and common clamping method, and a detection electrode (detection electrode) is fixed by a physiological structure of an auricle, which is a good standing method, but it is obvious that the detection electrode is difficult to be fixed due to almost completely lack of fixing force, the contact between the electrode and the skin is unstable, and the head is liable to swing due to rotation and movement, which directly affects the quality of the acquired signal.

In addition, in US8565852, in order to fix the detection electrode (detection electrode) in the space between the triangular fossa and the crus of helix (crus of helix) and the superior crux of the antihelix and to make the electrode contact the area of the space where the electrode contacts the skull, a specially shaped clamp is used, however, for a long time, the user is likely to feel uncomfortable due to the clamping force, and furthermore, another way of maintaining the detection electrode at the desired contact position by the ear hanging structure is provided in this document, but it has been found that the contact with the skin is not stable for a long time due to the failure to provide the force directly applied to the electrode, and thus, the quality of the signal is naturally reduced.

In US2012/0209101, although the ear-type hearing aid is used to support the electrodes and ensure the contact between the electrodes and the ear canal and the auricle skin, the fixing force is mainly from the friction force between the part entering the ear canal and the ear canal, and the shape of the hearing aid and the hanging part extending to the back of the ear are only used for positioning, the electrodes outside the ear canal lack the direct fixing force, so that the electrodes are separated from the surface of the auricle skin as long as the part entering the ear canal is loosened from the ear canal, and the unstable contact of the electrodes is still easy to occur.

In addition, in US20070112277, in addition to the embodiment related to the placement of the electrode in the ear canal, the method of placing the electrode on the surface of the behind-the-ear housing to contact the skull is also disclosed, which is the common placement method and contact position in the ear-worn brain activity detection device, however, such a structure does not easily generate a force toward the skull on the behind-the-ear housing, so that the behind-the-ear housing is usually maintained behind the ear, and is very easy to generate shaking, and the contact between the electrode and the skin is not stable.

Recently, it has been developed to use 3D scanning to make each user have an in-ear device that fully conforms to his ear shape, for example, US2015/016996 describes that the in-ear device is formed by 3D scanning technology to install sensors, and United Sciences even provides the cyclic service of ear type scanning, so that the objective of the troublesome and labor-consuming process is to make the physiological sensing element be stably installed in the ear without being influenced by movement to obtain high-quality signals.

Therefore, as can be seen from the above, in the field of ear-worn apparatuses having a physiological sensing component, the solution to the above problems in the prior art is still a key issue in the field of ear-worn brain activity detection apparatuses.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

In the process of searching for a solution, in addition to the position which is commonly used for acquiring the electroencephalogram signal in the prior art, the applicant finds a new electroencephalogram signal sampling position, namely, an auricle part which protrudes out of the skull in appearance and is supported by auricular cartilage, and further finds that the signal intensity of the electroencephalogram signal acquired on the auricle is enough to perform related electroencephalogram signal analysis and provide brain activity information through experiments.

The utility model discloses an ear-wearing electrode structure, include: an elastic member made of a conductive material and having an elastic restoring force; and an insulating material configured to cover an exterior of the elastic member and expose at least one conductive area, wherein the elastic member is configured to be electrically connected to a physiological signal acquisition circuit, and the at least one conductive area is used as an electrode constituting a sampling loop for acquiring an electrophysiological signal; and when the elastic part is arranged in an ear canal, stable propping force can be generated between the at least one conductive area and the ear canal through the elastic restoring force.

The utility model discloses an ear-wearing electrode structure, include: an elastic member made of a conductive material and having an elastic restoring force; and a conductive part combined with the elastic part and forming an electric connection, wherein the elastic part is constructed to be electrically connected to a physiological signal acquisition circuit through the conductive part to serve as an electrode constituting a sampling loop for acquiring an electrophysiological signal; and when the elastic part is arranged in an auditory canal, the elastic part and the auditory canal can achieve stable propping force through the elastic restoring force.

The utility model discloses a wearing formula physiology sensing device, include: the physiological signal acquisition circuit is arranged on two ears of a user respectively, and is electrically connected with the first ear-wearing electrode structure and the second ear-wearing electrode structure, wherein the first ear-wearing electrode structure and the second ear-wearing electrode structure are made of elastic conductive materials at least partially respectively so as to achieve the contact with the two ears of the user respectively, and further the physiological signal acquisition circuit can obtain an electroencephalogram signal of the user through the elastic conductive materials of the first ear-wearing electrode structure and the second ear-wearing electrode structure.

The utility model discloses a wearing formula physiology sensing device, include: a wrist-worn structure disposed on a wrist of a user; a physiological signal capturing circuit, at least partially disposed in the wrist-worn structure; a first electrode and a second electrode electrically connected to the wrist-worn structure; and an inner ear shell having a conductive region on a surface thereof as the first electrode, wherein the inner ear shell is configured to be stably maintained on an ear of the user to generate a stable abutting force between the first electrode and the skin of the ear; and the physiological signal acquisition circuit is constructed to acquire an electroencephalogram signal of the user through the first electrode and the second electrode.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an ear-worn brain activity sensor different from the previous design concept, which utilizes an at least partially in-ear shell conforming to the shape of the cymba concha and/or the cavum concha, so that the activity detection electrode thereon can be stably contacted with the concha wall (concha wall) of the auricle, thereby facilitating the acquisition of the brain electrical signal of the temporal lobe area adjacent to the cerebral cortex.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ear-worn brain activity sensor, which utilizes an ear inner shell conforming to the shape of the concha and/or intertragic notch at least partially, so that a reference electrode thereon can be stably contacted with the tragus and/or intertragic notch, and further obtain an electroencephalogram signal together with an activity detection electrode.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an ear-worn brain activity sensor, which is capable of detecting the activity of the electrode or the reference electrode on the extension part through the relative force application between the ear front part and the extension part, and achieving stable contact with the skin at the back of the auricle, thereby facilitating obtaining the electroencephalogram signal.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a glasses-type electroencephalogram sensor, which can achieve stable contact between the electrode and the skin on the back of the auricle and/or the skin near the ear through the glasses structure, so as to facilitate obtaining of electroencephalogram signals.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a brain activity sensor, which further includes a light emitting module and a light receiving module to obtain the physiological information of the heart rate and/or blood oxygen, and further serve as the basis for physiological feedback and/or respiratory training.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a brain activity sensor, which further comprises an electrocardiograph electrode to obtain an electrocardiogram, and further provide related information of the electrocardiogram.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ear-worn electrode structure, which is stably connected to the ear canal through the elastic material.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a brain activity sensing device, which is integrated with an earphone into the daily life of a user.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a brain activity sensing device, which has a wearable structure that can be variably disposed on the neck or head, so as to provide a multipurpose usage.

Drawings

FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of the location of the cerebral cortex in the cranium and the location of the auricles;

FIG. 2 shows a comparison graph of EEG signals obtained by the electrode arrangement of the present invention and the existing scalp electrode arrangement;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic view of the inner side of the auricle;

fig. 4a-4c illustrate an in-the-ear housing and its combination with the pinna in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5a-5b illustrate schematic views of the inner housing of the same ear accommodating different pinna sizes;

fig. 6a-6b illustrate a schematic view of an electrode positioned in an in-the-ear housing in contact with the bottom of the concha, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 7a-7e, 8a-8c, 9 illustrate possible embodiments of electrodes in the ear canal according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 10a-10d, 11a-11d, 12, 13a-13d illustrate possible embodiments of electrode contact ensuring structures of the inner housing of the ear according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

figures 14a-14d illustrate an earhook configuration and a combination earhook configuration with an auricle in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 shows an enlarged schematic view of a V-shaped depression between a pinna and the skull;

FIGS. 16a-16c illustrate a schematic view of a possible implementation of the electrode arrangement using the in-the-ear housing according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 17, 18a-18d, 19a-19e, and 20 illustrate possible embodiments for providing electrodes using an earhook configuration, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 21 illustrates a schematic view of an electrode, a light emitting device and a light receiving device disposed on an in-ear housing according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 22a-22f, 23a-23e are schematic views of possible embodiments of the electrode configuration using a spectacle structure according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 24a-24c illustrate a wearing configuration that can be placed on the head and neck, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 25a-25b illustrate schematic views of a wrist-worn brain activity sensing apparatus, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 26a-26c illustrate schematic views of a brain activity sensing device with a connection structure, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 27a-27c illustrate schematic views of the connection of electrode patches according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

fig. 28a-28b illustrate an example of an ear-worn structure coupled with a head-worn structure according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In the drawings

10 ear inner housing 100,102 electrode

191,192 electrode 104 circuit

12 support 121 conductive part

122 raised 14 resilient member

141 connecting line 142 conductive substance

143 elastomeric portion 144 conductive material portion

145 first portion of insulating coating 146

147 insulating portion 148 second portion

16 hollow part 18 extension member

20 sets of parts 22 extension members

200 active detection electrode 202 reference electrode

204 additional structure 206 projection

210 light emitting assembly 212 light receiving assembly

60

ear front part

62, 102 extension part

64 connecting line 70 ear-wearing structure

72 glasses structure 701 combined structure

702

electrodes

721, 723 electrodes

722 electrical contact region 73 port

80 connecting structure 82 electrode

84 external connection component 901 skull part

902 pinna portion 903 connection portion

Detailed Description

First, please refer to fig. 1, which is a schematic diagram of the position of the cerebral cortex in the skull and the position of the auricle, wherein the cerebral cortex is located in the upper part of the skull, and the auricle (also called pinna) is located on both sides of the skull and protrudes out of the skull, wherein, roughly speaking, the auditory canal (ear canal) is used as the partition, and the cerebral cortex is located roughly inside the auricle in the upper part.

Experimental results show that good brain wave signals can be measured in the upper part of the auricle part, brain electrical signals are weaker in the lower part, after the physiological structure of the head is observed, the brain waves can be measured in the upper part of the auricle through the transmission of skull and ear cartilage because the inside of the skull corresponding to the upper auricle is just the position of the cerebral cortex, and the auricle in the lower part is far away from the cerebral cortex and is spaced from the auditory canal, so the strength of the brain electrical signals in the lower part becomes weaker, therefore, the utility model discloses an in principle, the auditory canal is used as the boundary, the upper auricle part is regarded as the position where the brain electrical signals can be measured, and is suitable for arranging movable detecting electrodes, and the lower auricle is regarded as the position where the brain electrical signals are weak, so the utility model is suitable for arranging reference electrodes.

One of the reference electrode placement positions to be particularly emphasized is the tragus (tragus), which belongs to the auricle part protruding out of the skull in terms of physiological structure, and there is no cerebral cortex below the position, and in the experiment, the position is not easy to measure the brain electrical signal, and the structure is independent, which is a particularly suitable reference electrode placement position.

Please refer to fig. 2, which shows a comparative chart of electroencephalogram signals obtained by using the electrode configuration of the present invention and the existing scalp electrode configuration, wherein the upper chart is an electroencephalogram obtained by disposing the active detection electrode at the scalp above the auricle (i.e., at the position of T7/T8 in the conventional 10-20 system), and the lower chart is an electroencephalogram obtained by disposing the active detection electrode at the upper part of the auricle on the same side, and the active detection electrode at the tragus.

It can be seen from the figure that both have the same trend, so that when the activity detection electrode is disposed on the upper part of the auricle, the activity detection electrode and the electrode disposed on the scalp can both obtain the electroencephalogram of the temporal lobe area.

The following describes how this novel electroencephalogram electrode contact location can improve upon the shortcomings described in the prior art.

Please refer to fig. 3, which shows a schematic view of the inner structure of the auricle. The auricle is a part of the ear protruding out of the skull, and is mainly composed of skin-covered cartilage, wherein the lobe (also called lobue) at the lowest end position only contains subcutaneous tissues; the inner face (concave side) of the pinna includes various convex and concave regions as shown in the figures.

According to the concept of the present invention, in the auricle structure, the skin surface having cartilage portion, for example, the back surface (convex side) of the auricle, the inner surface of the auricle, etc., are all the setting and contact position of the brain electrode, wherein, except for the auricle being suitable for hanging and fixing the electrode due to the protrusion on the skull, on the other hand, as shown in fig. 3, the protrusion and the depression of the inner surface of the auricle are also suitable for setting and fixing the electrode, so, in cooperation the utility model discloses the above-mentioned novel sampling position of the utility model can provide a fixing mode which can more easily achieve the contact of the stable electrode.

For example, in the inner face of the auricle, around the concha boat (super concha) and concha cavity (inicorcha), there is a vertical surface area, called concha wall (concha wall), connected from the concha bottom (i.e. the plane parallel to the skull) up to the antihelix and antitragus (antitragus), and the natural physiological structure of the ear just provides a continuous vertical surface protruding from the concha bottom, so when this area is used as the electrode contact location, the force required to fix the electrode will be a radial force different from the prior art, i.e. a force parallel to the concha bottom; in addition, the intertragic notch immediately below the concha wall, between the antitragus and tragus, and the immediately adjacent tragus, also provide a contact area that protrudes above the base of the concha. Therefore, in the utility model discloses in, the continuous facade region that concha wall, antitragus tragus, intertragic notch and tragus constitute is particularly suitable for setting up the electrode, and the radial strength of accessible and reach a selection of stabilizing the contact, has directly solved prior art and has been difficult to provide the defect that the electrode of stable orientation conch bottom maintains the strength all the time.

Furthermore, since the elevation area extends from the upper part of the auricle to below the ear canal, according to the above mentioned experimental results, the area above the ear canal can be used as the contact position of the movable detection electrode, for example, the concha wall above the ear canal, and the area below the ear canal can be used as the contact position of the reference electrode, for example, the concha wall below the ear canal, the concha wall near the antitragus, the intertragic notch, and the tragus.

The advantage of this is that the reference electrode and/or the activity detection electrode can be set in the same ear narrow space, and the reference combination range can be effectively used to obtain the electroencephalogram signal, which completely gets rid of the limitation of the prior art, i.e. the reference electrode is usually only set on the mastoid bone or clamped on the earlobe, and the activity detection electrode must be set at the position corresponding to the upper part of the skull of the cerebral cortex, which is a major breakthrough of performability and convenience of operation for the wearable physiological detection device.

It should be noted that, in the actual physiological structure of the inner surface of the auricle, the protrusions and the depressions have smooth curve changes rather than right angle changes, so that there is no obvious right angle boundary between the vertical surface region and the bottom of the concha, but the vertical surface region and the bottom of the concha are connected through a radian change, and therefore, in this case, the contact position of the electrode is not limited to the vertical surface region, but also to the radian change according to the structure of the electrode contact.

In addition, it should be noted that, when measuring the brain electrical signal, besides the reference electrode and the activity detection electrode, a Ground electrode (Ground) is usually disposed to achieve the effect of suppressing the common noise, but some circuit designs can avoid disposing the Ground electrode, and can be selected according to the actual requirement, so that the description about the Ground electrode is omitted in the following description based on the principle of simplifying the description, but in the actual implementation, the Ground electrode can be disposed according to the requirements of the brain activity sensor and the brain activity sensing device of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited.

When the vertical surface area is contacted, the inner shell of the ear shell is the primary choice, and the shape and form of the inner shell are not limited as long as the inner shell can stably contact with the vertical surface area, for example, fig. 4a to 4c illustrate the combination of the inner shell of the ear shell and the inner surface of the ear shell according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, which respectively show the case that the inner shell 10 contacts all, the upper half and the lower half of the vertical surface area in the area formed by the concha wall, the antitragus, the intertragic notch and/or the tragus.

In particular, in the present invention, the in-ear housing is preferably fixed by radial mutual abutment against the concha boat and/or the surrounding structure of the concha cavity, and since the electrode contact location-concha wall, antitragus, intertragic notch, and/or tragus-is located around the concha boat and/or the concha cavity, the effect of stabilizing the electrode contact is achieved while fixing the in-ear housing.

One embodiment is to implement the shape of the inner housing of the ear to conform to the cymba concha and cavum concha, in which case the electrodes can easily come into contact with the default position, and installation can be the simplest; in another embodiment, a specially designed shape of the inner ear shell is used to adapt to different auricle shapes and sizes of each person by simple operation, for example, as shown in fig. 5a-5b, the inner ear shell is implemented to adapt to different auricle sizes by simple rotation and achieve abutting fixation, in which case, one electrode 102 can be disposed near the contact tragus as a reference electrode, and the other electrode 100 can be disposed on the inner ear shell at a remote position opposite to the contact position of tragus, or disposed at a position facing the bottom of concha (as shown in fig. 6a-6 b), and thus, as a movable detection electrode, fixation can be achieved while also achieving contact of the electrodes. Since the contact position of the housing in the ear may be shifted in different pinnas (as shown in fig. 5a-5 b), it is preferable to form the electrode 10 as a continuous surface that can cover a large range of movement to ensure contact is achieved.

In view of the above, the common earphone types in the market are applicable to the concept of the present invention, and as is well known, when the earphone is installed in the inner surface of the auricle, the earphone will naturally contact at least the tragus, the intertragic notch, or the antitragus, and then, the earphone will determine whether to contact the concha wall according to its actual shape, so that the electrode can be installed in these positions, and in addition, when the earphone has a part extending into the ear canal, the fixing effect can be increased, which helps to maintain the stability in the inner surface of the auricle.

Thus, similarly, the inner ear shell of the present invention may be implemented with similar options, and may be secured by only radial abutment between the shell and the facade area, and may also be added with a portion entering the ear canal to increase the securing effect, and further, the portion entering the ear canal may also be used to guide sound into the ear canal when having a sound providing function.

But may be implemented with one electrode contacting other locations, in addition to both electrodes being implemented to contact the elevational regions described above. For example, when the inner shell of the ear is implemented to have a portion entering the ear canal, the electrode can be disposed at a position contacting the tragus and a position opposite to the tragus across the ear canal, that is, near a turning point where the bottom of the concha meets the ear canal, as shown in fig. 6a, so that the effect of stable contact is achieved by radial force as well, and the advantage of such a contact position is that the electrode is set as long as the portion entering the ear canal can be set stably, which is not only convenient but also easy to achieve.

In another preferred embodiment, one of the electrodes may be placed in contact with the bottom of the concha, as shown in fig. 6b, in which case the possible relative displacement between the inner housing and the ear is minimized, since the inner housing itself is already held in stable contact with the elevation by radial forces and is thus fixed in the pinna, in which case the position of the electrode towards the bottom of the concha cavity will be fixed to a certain extent, not easily movable, and also in a very advantageous manner, e.g. the various inner housings shown in fig. 4a-4c and fig. 6a may have one of the electrodes placed on the surface contacting the bottom of the concha.

In a further preferred embodiment, an electrode may be arranged on the surface of the ear canal entering part for contacting the ear canal, wherein the electrode may be used as a movable detection electrode if the electrode is in an upward position in the ear canal, and may be used as a reference electrode if the electrode is in a downward position in the ear canal, so that various possibilities are possible.

There are various options possible as to how the electrode is arranged over the entrance ear canal section.

When the ear canal entrance part is provided, as shown in fig. 7a, the inner ear shell is implemented to extend out of a support body 12, and an elastic member 14 is mounted on the support body, and can be easily placed into the ear canal by being compressed by an elastic restoring force of the elastic member, and can be stably maintained in the ear canal by the elastic restoring force after entering the ear canal, and in addition, if the earphone function is combined, the support body can be implemented to have a hollow passage for allowing sound to pass into the ear.

Therefore, when the electrode is to be disposed, it is preferably disposed on the surface of the elastic member 14, so that the electrode can be easily introduced into and out of the ear canal, and can naturally and stably contact the ear canal by the elastic restoring force of the elastic member, which is an advantageous option, and the manner of disposition is possible.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 7a-7b, electrodes, such as thin metal, conductive fibers, etc., may be attached to the surface of the flexible member, and in this case, it is considered how the electrodes 100 on the surface of the flexible member are electrically connected to the circuit 104 in the inner housing of the ear. In a preferred embodiment, the surface of the supporting body 12 is implemented with a conductive portion 121 to achieve connection between the electrode 100 and the circuit 104 through the conductive portion, for example, as shown in fig. 7a, the electrode 100 and the conductive portion 121 can be connected by a connecting wire, and the conductive portion 121 and the circuit 104 can be connected by a connecting wire; alternatively, the conductive portion 121 and the electrode 100 may be connected in different ways, for example, as shown in fig. 7b, a conductive material 142 may be disposed between the two to contact with each other at the same time, so as to achieve the electrical connection, and such a way is more favorable for maintaining the contact between the electrode and the ear canal, which is quite advantageous. It is noted that although only a single electrode is shown in the drawings, more than one electrode may be implemented.

There is a special implementation of this case, that is, the electrode and the conductive material are made of the same conductive material, that is, they can be formed as one piece, so that, as shown in fig. 7c, it is equal to the elastic component formed by combining two materials, an elastic material portion 143 and a conductive material portion 144, wherein the portion formed by the conductive material is used as both the electrode and the conductive portion, and the portion formed by the elastic material is used as the main body of the elastic component to provide the elastic restoring force to ensure the contact between the conductive material portion 144 and the ear canal; in this case, if the conductive material is also elastic, such as elastic conductive rubber, elastic conductive silicone, elastic conductive foam, etc., the elastic member is still elastic as a whole.

In addition, in another preferred embodiment, the supporting body can be directly made of conductive material, so that the whole supporting body can be regarded as the conductive part, and the implementation is further simplified.

Therefore, in a preferred embodiment, as shown in fig. 7d, the support body can be directly formed with a protrusion 122 instead of the conductive material portion, so that the exposed surface of the protrusion can be regarded as an electrode to contact the ear canal when entering the ear canal, and in this way, since the elastic member is mostly made of elastic material except for a small portion of the protrusion, the elastic restoring force thereof can still ensure stable contact between the protrusion and the ear canal, and as long as the area of the protrusion is appropriate, even if made of harder material, the support body will not feel uncomfortable; here, it should be noted that, as shown in fig. 7e, it is also possible to implement the electrode 100 on the surface where the protrusion is exposed, and it is not limited because the support is made of a conductive material.

Another implementation may be to directly form the elastic component with a conductive material, such as conductive rubber, conductive silicone, conductive foam, etc., so that if the supporting body is formed with a conductive material, it only needs to be connected to the circuit, or if the supporting body has a specific conductive portion, it only needs to determine how stably the elastic conductive component contacts the conductive portion, which is convenient in any way. In addition, the outer surface of the body can be coated with a conductive fiber, which not only makes the contact with the skin more comfortable, but also prolongs the service life, for example, the materials such as rubber, foam and the like can be peeled off due to frequent users, thus having great advantages. Such a design is particularly suitable for brain wave measurement by using electrodes disposed on both ears, because when the brain wave signal is obtained through ears, the distance between the ears is sufficient, so that the contact position of the electrodes is not limited, and even if the surface of the whole elastic component is conductive, the signal acquisition is not greatly affected.

Furthermore, if the electrode has a specific contact position, for example, the upward position is used as the active detection electrode or the downward position is used as the reference electrode, it can be achieved by further coating the outer surface of the conductive elastic component with a non-conductive material, for example, as shown in fig. 8a, the outer surface can be coated with an insulating coating 145 to expose the position to be contacted to be used as the electrode.

In another implementation, as shown in fig. 8b-8c, the conductive elastic member is implemented to have two parts, a first part 146 and a second part 148, and the two parts are electrically insulated from each other by an insulating part 147, so that two conductive areas insulated from each other can be provided by the same elastic member, and thus when the conductive elastic member is actually used for measurement, one of the options is to coat the insulating coating on the outer surface and expose the first conductive area and the second conductive area as two electrodes on the first part and the second part, respectively, and the other option is to form the first conductive area and the second conductive area by disposing a conductive material, such as a metal conductive sheet or a conductive fiber, on the surface of the first part and the second part, respectively, here, the first portion and the second portion play the role of the conductive material 142, and thus, may be selected according to actual measurement requirements without limitation.

On the other hand, it is also feasible to implement the elastic member without a support, and such a manner can further enhance the comfort of the user, in the implementation, as shown in fig. 9, the electrode 100 on the surface of the elastic member is connected to the conductive portion 121 by the connection line 141, and then the conductive portion 121 is connected to the circuit 104, and in addition, the elastic member with various forms as shown in fig. 7b, fig. 7c, fig. 8a, fig. 8b, and the like can also be implemented without a support, without limitation.

Furthermore, alternatively, in the case of using two in-ear shells, the two electrodes may be respectively contacted with the bottom of the concha, after the in-ear shells are fixed by the radial force between the in-ear shells and the auricle, the electrode facing the bottom of the concha can stably achieve the contact with the skin, which is very convenient in implementation and operation.

There are many possible ways how the butting can be achieved to ensure contact of the electrodes. For example, the material of the inner ear shell can be selected, for example, an elastic material is used to make the inner ear shell slightly larger than the scope of the cymba concha and/or the cavum concha, so that when the inner ear shell is inserted, the elastic restoring force generated by the compression of the elastic material can achieve the effect of propping up.

When the ear inner housing is formed by an elastic material, the whole ear inner housing may be formed by an elastic material, and the electrode may be disposed at a specific position on the surface, for example, a position capable of contacting the vertical surface area, and further, the elastic ear inner housing may be formed to have a hollow portion, in addition to increasing compressibility and deformation force, a part of the circuit component may be disposed in the hollow portion, for example, when the ear inner housing is implemented to have an earphone function, the sound generating component may be disposed in the elastic ear inner housing.

In this case, similar to the elastic component inserted into the ear canal, a conductive region may be formed on the surface to serve as an electrode, for example, a method for disposing an electrode on the surface may be adopted, or a method for combining different materials may be adopted, or alternatively, a conductive elastic material may be directly used to form the ear inner shell, and an insulating layer is coated on the outer portion to define the contact position of the electrode; moreover, the arrangement position of the electrode is not limited to one, and two electrodes can be provided at the same time, for example, one electrode is used as a movable detection electrode, and the other electrode is used as a reference electrode, both of which are not limited; in addition, as mentioned above, if the two-ear inner housing is implemented, the position of the electrode contact is not limited, for example, the two-ear inner housing can be simply implemented by a single elastic conductive material, which not only can achieve the acquisition of physiological signals, but also can achieve the effect of elastic propping, which is very convenient.

In addition, the elastic inner ear shell is also suitable to be formed to have a part entering the ear canal, that is, a part entering the ear canal and a part outside the ear canal and engaged with the concave-convex structure of the inner surface of the auricle, so that, besides the better fixing effect, the selection of the electrode arrangement position is more various, for example, one electrode may be located on the part entering the ear canal, the other electrode may be located on the part outside the ear canal, or both electrodes may be located on the part entering the ear canal, without limitation.

Alternatively, the inner ear shell may be radially biased by providing a contact ensuring structure, for example, as shown in fig. 10a, the inner ear shell may be implemented as a hollow portion 12 formed of an elastic material, so that the shape of the inner ear shell can freely expand and contract with the shape of the space for insertion, thereby adapting to different ear shapes of different users and allowing the electrode 100 thereon to be stably contacted with the inside of the auricle; in addition, the contact ensuring structure can be implemented in other forms, such as a Spring mechanism, a button with resilience, and an elastic extending member, etc., which can achieve the abutting fixing effect, and particularly, the abutting position can also be designed to directly occur at the position of the electrode, so as to ensure the stability of the electrode contact, as shown in fig. 10b-10d, which show three forms of electrode protrusions protruding from the surface of the ear inner housing and being capable of being contracted by being applied with force, wherein fig. 10b shows a form in which the metal electrode 100 can independently expand and contract and protrude out of the ear inner housing, for example, a Spring-loaded electrode (Spring-loaded electrode), wherein one form is a Spring thimble (pogo), fig. 10c shows a form in which the electrode 100 is embedded in the surface of the ear inner housing but has a pressing restoring force, fig. 10d shows that the electrode 100 is located on the elastic extending member 18, it provides force to the electrode against the concha wall by adapting to the shape of the concha wall, wherein either the end of the extension member is pressed against, or the entire surface of the extension member is pressed against along the concha wall, which is beneficial in any case for more precise stabilization of the contact between the electrode and the skin. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and any embodiment may be used as long as it is in a shape that is ergonomically fit to the ear and can fix the inner shell of the ear in the cymba concha and/or the cavum concha by radially abutting against the inner shell of the ear.

Alternatively, the contact ensuring structure may also be implemented directly on the electrode 100. For example, as shown in fig. 11a, one electrode may be formed as a plurality of discrete contact points, for example, implemented in parallel with each other, so that whichever contact point is contacted, it may be regarded as that the contact between the electrode and the skin is completed, which is convenient, and this is particularly suitable for being arranged on a contact surface having a curvature, or in a situation where slight movement may occur, and further advantageously, if each discrete contact point may be implemented with scalability, for example, as shown in fig. 11b, in the form of a spring thimble, so as to further ensure the contact, for example, in a manner that the contact between the skin and the electrode is achieved by compressing the spring thimble, so that even a displacement of a small distance between the skin and the electrode may be overcome by the elasticity of the spring thimble.

As shown in fig. 11c to 11d, the electrode sheet may be formed to have a plurality of projections on the same electrode member 100, for example, the electrode sheet may be formed to have a plurality of projections as it is, or the electrode sheet may be formed to have a plurality of projections which are retractable, and the like, and may be formed in various forms, which also contributes to increase contact between the skin and the electrodes.

Furthermore, the electrode may be implemented in a floating manner, for example, as shown in fig. 12, a telescopic structure, such as a pogo pin, is disposed below the electrode, so as to adapt to the change of the contact surface, and the electrode may have vertical telescopic movement, and may also change the angle by using the lower pogo pin as a fulcrum, which is quite helpful for adapting to the shape of the auricle; and further, the surface of the electrode in the form of a suspension may also be formed with protrusions, for example, in combination with the embodiments of fig. 11c-11d and fig. 12, to make contact easier.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned mechanism for achieving abutting can be implemented at any position of the ear inner housing, for example, at any position of the ear inner housing, such as the position of touching the tragus, the antitragus, the bottom of the concha, the concha wall, and/or the intertragic notch, and is not limited to the position of disposing the electrode.

In addition, based on different ear sizes among different users, the ear inner housing can be implemented to have different sizes for the users to choose, or the whole size of the ear inner housing can be changed by changing the sheathing member, such as a silicone sleeve, covering the ear inner housing, so as to improve the cost effect, and at this time, it is preferable that the electrode is implemented to be penetrated through the surface of the ear inner housing and to be stretchable as described above, so that the position of the electrode and the contact with the skin are not affected even if the sheathing member is changed, or it can be implemented to achieve different sizes by changing a part of the ear inner housing, such as only changing the part of the ear inner housing sheathing around the stretchable electrode without simultaneously changing the electrode, which is also cost effective, of course, it can be implemented to change the part having the electrode, and the material of the sheathing member can be changed according to the needs, for example, materials such as silica gel, rubber, foam and the like are good choices, and further, the effect of a buffering effect can be achieved through the choice of the materials, which is quite advantageous. Thus, there are various possible ways, not limited to the described.

Accordingly, in a preferred embodiment, the inner ear housing is implemented in the manner shown in fig. 13a-13d, that is, the inner ear housing 10 can change the shape and size of the inner side of the auricle to which it can be adapted by replacing the engaging part 20 with the extending member 22, since the auricles of different sizes can be inserted into the inner ear housing with different sizes and shapes, so that the size and shape of the auricle can be adapted to various sizes and shapes as much as possible by replacing the engaging part providing different thickness, shape and material, the extending member changing different shapes, and the flexibility of the extending member itself, and it should be noted that the electrode can be implemented without replacing the engaging part, for example, the spring-loaded electrode as described above can be used to overcome the thickness of the engaging part, or can be implemented directly on the engaging part and electrically connected to the conductive contact part on the housing when engaging on the housing, all in a practicable manner without limitation.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 13a-13c, the extension member can be adapted to abut against the concha wall above the concha boat, and it can be seen that in practice the shape of the extension member may be varied, e.g. the extension member of fig. 13a is thinner and more flexible, whereas the extension member of fig. 13b is wider and more supportive, or it may be formed as a ring as shown in fig. 13c, without limitation.

Alternatively, the extension member may be disposed at other positions, as shown in fig. 13d, the extension member is disposed below the housing and is formed to have a variable thickness and shape so as to abut against the concha wall below the concha cavity (i.e., near the antitragus), or the extension member may be disposed at a position contacting the concha or at a position of the concha wall portion opposite to the concha, so that the stable maintenance of the inner housing in the inner face of the auricle can be further ensured by the provision of the extension member.

In particular, the extension member may be further embodied to have an inclination toward the bottom of the concha in addition to providing a radial abutting force parallel to the bottom of the concha, and by such a design, when the extension member is disposed in the inner surface of the auricle, in addition to the abutting against the concha wall, tragus, antitragus, etc., a component force toward the skull direction will be generated due to the inclination, thereby further enabling the inner shell of the ear to be more stably maintained in the surface of the auricle.

Furthermore, the extension member may also be implemented as a resilient protrusion located at the inner housing of the ear towards the bottom of the concha, e.g. towards the bottom of the concha, to achieve contact with the bottom of the concha, which is particularly suitable for the case where the electrode contacts the bottom of the concha.

Here, in particular, as shown in fig. 3, the physiological structure of the auricle has a separation protrusion between the concha boat and the concha cavity, and when the extension member is restrained by the concha wall above the concha boat, in particular with an inclination providing a force component towards the skull, the upper edge of the inner shell of the ear will just naturally contact the separation protrusion, which will very much help to achieve the contact of the electrode provided at this location with the bottom of the concha.

On the other hand, when the electrode is implemented to be disposed on the set of parts, it is particularly suitable for being disposed on the extension member, since the extension member is mainly abutted against the vertical surface area, so that the electrode disposed on the extension member can be used to stabilize the contact between the electrode and the skin by the abutting force, for example, the extension member contacting the upper concha wall upward or the extension member facing the bottom of the concha is a suitable position for disposing the electrode.

In addition, the above various embodiments can be combined to meet different implementation requirements according to different contact positions of the electrodes in actual implementation. For example, when one wants to obtain an electroencephalogram signal through one ear, the one can be fixed to the inner surface of the auricle by matching with the upward extending member (as shown in fig. 13a-13c) and the downward extending member (as shown in fig. 13 d), in this case, the reference electrode can be selectively contacted with the tragus or the concha wall near the antitragus (through the downward extending member), and the movable detection electrode can be selectively contacted with the concha wall above the concha (through the upward extending member) or the bottom of the concha, wherein the contact with the bottom of the concha can be directly arranged on the surface of the inner shell of the ear, and can also be achieved by the extending member facing the bottom of the concha.

In addition, when the electroencephalogram signal is acquired through two ears, the distance between the two ears is enough, so that the contact position of the electrode is not limited, the emphasis is mainly on ensuring that the inner shell of the ear can be stably maintained on the inner surface of the auricle, and the electrode can be stably contacted with the skin, for example, both ears can be selected to be contacted with the bottom of the concha, and the electrode can be selected to be contacted with the wall of the concha, the antitragus, the tragus and the like, and the combination can be carried out according to different actual requirements without limitation.

In addition, particularly, it can be implemented that the ear inner shells at both sides have two electrodes, a reference electrode and an activity detection electrode, and then two sets of reference electrodes and activity detection electrodes respectively located at different ears can obtain two-channel (two channels) electroencephalogram signals, or the reference electrode is disposed on the ear inner shell at one side, and also can obtain two-channel electroencephalogram signals, which can be used for monitoring the activity of the left and right brains, for example, and is also an advantageous implementation manner.

In view of the above, the inner shell of the ear is intended to be stable in the inner surface of the auricle, and mainly aims to achieve at least two or more supporting forces, for example, a fixing force generated by the portion entering the ear canal, and a supporting force of the portion not entering the ear canal at the upper concha wall, and/or the lower concha wall, and/or the tragus; alternatively, the pressing force of the part not entering the ear canal at the upper concha wall, and the pressing force at the tragus and/or the lower concha wall, etc. may be applied, so that the application is not limited to the specific embodiment, as long as the proper pressing position can achieve the radial pressing force and the contact between the electrode and the auricle skin can be maintained.

As another example, the back (convex) of the pinna is also a well-suited location for sampling, and when this is used as a sampling location, the hook-type is the primary choice. In the present invention, unlike the prior art, by placing the part or housing behind the ear, the electrode on it is the back of the ear, not the most common skull.

Generally, the ear-hook type is usually implemented by disposing a component in front of and behind the auricle, and the component is usually fixed on the auricle by the interaction force between the two, so it is not easy to maintain the contact between the component behind the ear and the skull, and in contrast, the contact with the back of the auricle is easier to achieve, and such a situation just accords with the novel contact position provided by the present invention.

Referring to fig. 14a and 14b, an earhook structure according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention and a schematic view of the earhook structure combined with an auricle, the earhook structure herein includes an anterior component 60, preferably an inner shell as described above, and an extension component 62 extending upward from the anterior component 60 over the auricle to the back (convex) of the auricle with a relative force therebetween, so as to ensure that the earhook structure is stably maintained on the auricle, and electrodes are disposed on the extension component at positions where the electrodes can contact the skin behind the auricle, so that the contact between the electrodes and the skin is naturally stabilized by the relative force between the anterior component and the extension component.

Here, similarly, when the contact position is located at the upper part of the auricle, it can be used as the sampling point of the movable detection electrode, and if it is implemented as the reference electrode, the contact position can be designed at the lower part of the auricle, and it can also be matched with the electrode arranged on the anterior part of the auricle to contact the inner surface of the auricle, for example, the electrode on the inner shell of the ear can be implemented as the upper half part of the inner surface of the auricle to be used as the movable detection electrode, or the lower half part of the inner surface of the auricle to be used as the reference electrode, or the electrode arranged on the part entering the ear canal to contact the ear canal, etc., and thus it can be changed according to the.

There are also various possibilities as to how the relative force between the ear front part and the extension part is achieved. For example, the extending component and the ear anterior component can be dislocated through the structural design to naturally apply force to the ear; alternatively, a pivot structure can be used at the joint of the two parts, wherein the pivot axis can be parallel to (fig. 14a) or perpendicular to (fig. 14c) the bottom of the concha to generate the force toward the back of the auricle for the extension part; alternatively, a sliding structure (fig. 14d) may be used at the joint of the two parts, so that the extension part can be forced from the top to the bottom and towards the auricle.

In addition, the shape of the extension part can be designed to be more in accordance with the radian of the back surface of the auricle, so that the contact stability of the electrode can be improved; or the extension part is made of elastic material, the contact stability of the electrode is increased by the elasticity of the material, for example, the force for clamping the auricle is generated between the extension part and the ear front part by the elasticity. Thus, there are various possible embodiments, without limitation.

Therefore, by selecting a suitable extension member and a suitable relative force application method, the requirements of different electrode contact positions can be met, such as the back skin corresponding to the concha wall position of the inner face of the auricle, the back skin of the auricle near the earlobe and the like, which are easy to contact and can reach a stable position, and the manufacture and the use are very convenient.

In addition to the above-mentioned position, there is a position where contact can be easily and stably achieved by the extension member, i.e., the V-shaped depression between the auricle and the skull, as shown in fig. 15, the V-shaped depression being located between the auricle and the skull, which comprises a skull portion 901, a pinna portion 902, and a connecting portion 903 as a connection, thus constituting a physiological structure that is well suited for placing an object between a pinna and the skull, wherein, when an object is placed in the region, in addition to selectively contacting any one of the three portions 901-903, further, the pinna and skull naturally provide the force for clamping the object in the middle, and even, when the object is large enough and/or the shape is identical, the object can be embedded/plugged between the auricle and the skull to achieve better fixing effect, so that more selectivity can be provided in practical implementation.

Here, the electrodes applied to the extension member may also be adapted to adopt the contact ensuring structure as described above, for example, the electrodes applied in a distributed manner and/or in a telescopic manner, so as to adapt to the shape of the back of the auricle and/or the V-shaped recess, thereby helping to maintain the contact between the electrodes and the skin.

The manner of fixing the electrodes may be other embodiments than the above-described in-ear housing and ear hook.

For example, the fixing effect may be achieved by magnetic attraction, for example, the ear front part and the extension part are magnetically attracted to each other across the auricle, and the fixing effect may also be achieved, where the two parts are magnetically attracted or made of magnetically attractable materials, for example, one part may be magnetically attracted and the other part may be magnetically attracted, or both parts may be magnetically attracted, and various implementations are possible without limitation. In addition, it is preferable that a portion of the extension member is implemented with a soft material, for example, a connection wire, to increase the comfort of use; wherein, especially, because the fixing is achieved by magnetic force, the extension part can extend to the back of the auricle from the lower part besides crossing the auricle upwards, thereby further increasing the implementation choice.

Alternatively, the electrode arrangement method using magnetic force may be achieved by using a clamp (clamp), and the clamping force generated by the clamp simultaneously achieves the effects of maintaining the electrode position and stabilizing the electrode contact, so that there is no limitation.

The advantage of using this type of approach (fixation by magnetic and/or clamping) is that only a single size is needed to accommodate different pinna sizes, which is quite convenient in manufacturing, and moreover, provides the possibility of changing the electrode placement position, maximizing the use value.

Furthermore, the electrode contact positions according to the invention are also suitable for implementation by means of a spectacle construction. When the eyeglasses are worn, the natural contact positions of the eyeglass frame include, but are not limited to, the nose pad contacting the bridge of the nose, the mountain root and/or the interocular region, the front section of the temples contacting the temple, the rear section of the temples contacting the V-shaped concave region between the auricle and the skull, and the part of the temples falling behind the auricle contacting the skin behind the auricle, and these positions are exactly the electrode contact positions to be claimed in the present application, therefore, the electrode according to the present invention is naturally suitable for being implemented on the eyeglass structure, and the contact of the electrode is simultaneously completed by the action of wearing the eyeglass structure, which is also a very convenient choice, and since the support positions of the eyeglass structure and the head include at least two auricles and three contact positions of the nose, it can be stably installed on the head without shaking, and therefore, it is also possible to naturally generate stable force for the contact between the electrode and the skin, is a quite advantageous embodiment.

The spectacle structure described herein is a wearing structure that is provided on the head through the auricle and nose as support points and that comes into contact with the head and/or the skin of the ear, and therefore, not limited to a general spectacle structure, but also includes its modifications, for example, a structure that has a clamping force on both sides of the skull, or an elastic continuous body that does not have a pivot axis of the spectacle legs, as shown in fig. 23d, or a structure that has the spectacle legs extending to the occipital lobe area behind the brain, or a form in which the spectacle legs on both sides are asymmetrical, for example, one spectacle leg has a curved portion behind the auricle and the other spectacle leg has no curved portion only above the auricle, or a band connecting both spectacle legs may be provided for increasing the fixing effect, and the spectacle lens may not be provided, and the nose pad is not limited to a specific form, as long as it contacts the nose bridge, The portion of the area between the two eyes and/or the portion of the area between the two eyes are considered as a portion of the nose pad, and further, the Glasses may be Glasses with different purposes, for example, general optical Glasses, sunglasses, Glasses with special functions, such as blue light Glasses, Virtual Reality Glasses (VR Glasses), Augmented Reality Glasses (AR Glasses), and special Glasses with display functions, and the contact position with the head/ear is not limited, for example, some Glasses may be implemented to contact other portions around the eyes for practical use requirements or modeling, such as VR Glasses, and thus, there are various possibilities and no limitation.

In addition to the hard material of the ordinary glasses, the material can also be made of an elastic material, which not only increases the stability of the electrode contact, but also provides the comfort of use, for example, the frame can be formed by memory metal, flexible plastic material, etc., and/or the elastic rubber, silica gel, etc. can be disposed at the electrode contact position, so that the contact is more stable, and the invention is not limited.

Various possibilities exist for the manner in which the electrodes are combined with the eyewear structure, as well as the manner in which the required circuitry (e.g., processor, battery, wireless transmission module, etc.) is provided. For example, as shown in fig. 22a, 22c, and 22e, the required circuitry is directly embedded in the structure of the glasses, and the electrodes are directly exposed on the surface of the temples and frame to contact the skin of the skull and/or ears when worn.

Alternatively, the arrangement of the electrodes and the circuit can be achieved by an additional structure, which is preferably embodied to accommodate at least part of the circuit, in order to simplify the manufacturing complexity of the spectacle structure. For example, as shown in fig. 22b, the additional structure can be implemented to be electrically connected to the glasses structure, so that the electrode 202 thereon performs signal acquisition together with the electrode 200 on the glasses structure, or, as shown in fig. 22d, the additional structure can also be implemented to have two electrodes 200, 202 at the same time and be disposed on the auricle by combining with the glasses structure, both of which are used to obtain electroencephalogram signals by contacting the auricle on one side; on the other hand, the additional structure may be implemented as a plurality of, for example, two-sided temples each combined with an additional structure and used for signal acquisition by respectively having electrodes contacting two auricles and/or the nearby skull, in which case the electrical connection between the two additional structures may be achieved by the glasses structure, or the two additional structures may be additionally connected by a connecting wire, and the required circuits may be partially or completely arranged in the glasses structure or the additional structure according to the requirement; on the other hand, the additional structure is not limited to the position behind the ear, for example, the additional structure can be arranged on the side of the head in front of the ear, or can be arranged in front of and behind the ear, as long as the additional structure does not affect the user, and the additional structure is not limited; on the other hand, the additional structure can be used for only arranging a circuit to drive the electrodes on the glasses to capture signals after the additional structure is electrically connected with the glasses structure; further, the attachment structure may be implemented in a removable form to allow the user to selectively couple the attachment structure to the eyewear structure for measurement when desired.

Yet another possibility is to combine the glasses structure with the ear-worn structure for arranging the electrodes and the circuitry together. The ear wearing structure has the advantages that the existing structure of the ear wearing structure can be stably arranged on ears, the ear wearing structure is convenient to use, the distance between the ear wearing structure and the glasses structure is short, if a connecting wire is adopted between the ear wearing structure and the glasses structure, the ear wearing structure is not obtrusive, in addition, the range of arranging electrodes is widened due to the matching of the glasses structure and the ear wearing structure, the types of signals which can be obtained are also increased, and therefore, the ear wearing structure is a combination with great advantages. In practice, the ear-worn structure may refer to the above-mentioned additional structure embodiments, for example, may be disposed on one or two sides, may have or may not have electrodes on the surface, and/or may be implemented in a removable or non-removable manner, and the like, and may have various possibilities without limitation.

When the electrodes are disposed by using the glasses structure, the connection between the electrodes and the circuit can be achieved by using the conductive parts of the glasses structure, besides the way of embedding the circuit into the glasses structure, for example, glasses made of conductive material, such as metal glasses, or conductive parts of the glasses structure, such as metal pivot shaft structure for connecting the front frame and the two side frame legs, the metal conductive parts, metal nose pads, and/or the metal conductive parts of the frame legs, which are available in the glasses structure.

In addition, the electrodes implemented on the glasses structure are also suitable for the contact ensuring structure as described above, for example, implemented as distributed electrodes, protruding electrodes, and/or telescopic electrodes, and besides the shape of the back of the auricle and/or the shape of the V-shaped recess can be adapted, especially when there is a possibility of hair appearing at the contact position of the electrodes, the structure design of spreading, protruding, telescoping, etc. is helpful to pass through the hair, so that the contact difficulty between the electrodes and the skin is reduced, as shown in fig. 22f, which shows the case of having a plurality of scattered telescopic electrodes on the glasses legs, and in addition, by implementing the electrodes as a plurality of scattered contact points, the range of the electrodes can be enlarged accordingly, thereby facilitating to overcome the size difference of different users' heads, which is quite advantageous.

It should be noted that although specific embodiments of the present invention have been described herein, it is understood that these are by way of example only and not limitation, and that any structure of glasses or ear-worn structures that achieve contact between electrodes and the skin covering the ear cartilage via ear support is within the scope of the present invention, and that various embodiments may be combined without limitation.

In addition, since the present invention is directed to provide a way for a user to obtain an electroencephalogram signal by wearing the device at any time, the device preferably adopts a dry electrode form, such as conductive metal, conductive rubber, conductive silica gel, conductive foam, conductive fiber, etc., so as to maximize the convenience of use.

Next, a possible form of electrode arrangement when actually performing brain activity detection will be described.

Referring to fig. 16a-16b, schematic diagrams of two electrodes simultaneously deployed on an in-the-ear housing are shown. As described above, the upper part of the auricle and the lower part of the auricle can be used as the positions for the activity detection electrode 200 and the reference electrode 202, so that the two electrodes required for acquiring the electroencephalogram can be arranged in a single auricle inner shell as long as the inner side of the auricle contacted by the auricle inner shell is in a proper position.

As mentioned above, two electroencephalogram electrodes can obtain electroencephalogram signals, and besides the distance between the two electroencephalogram electrodes, if there is enough independence between the two electrodes, it can also be an effective electroencephalogram signal obtaining method, so that although the range of contact of the same in-ear shell is very small, due to the space interval caused by the physiological structure of the auditory canal, even at a very small distance, it can still obtain electroencephalogram signals enough for analysis.

Thus, in fig. 16a, two electrodes are located on the upper and lower parts of the inner shell of the ear to contact the upper concha wall and the lower antitragus/intertragic notch, wherein the upper electrode is used as the active detection electrode and the lower electrode is used as the reference electrode, and in fig. 16b, one electrode contacts the concha wall opposite to the position of the concha to be the active detection electrode and the other electrode contacts the concha wall opposite to the position of the concha to be the active detection electrode; alternatively, the reference electrode contacting the tragus, intertragic notch, and/or antitragus may be used in conjunction with the activity detection electrode disposed on the contact surface between the inner ear shell and the bottom of the concha, for example, the inner ear shell shown in fig. 6b may be used to obtain the electroencephalogram signal. In determining the positions of the active detection electrode and the reference electrode, it is preferable to distribute the active detection electrode and the reference electrode as far as possible on two opposite sides of the ear canal so as to obtain an effective electroencephalogram signal.

Here, the ear inner housing may simply be provided with only electrodes and connected to a host machine containing circuits required for obtaining signals, such as a processor, a battery, etc., and a wireless transmission module, etc., and the installation position of the host machine is not limited, for example, the ear inner housing may be placed behind the ear or worn on the body, for example, in a neck wearing manner, a glasses wearing manner, a head wearing manner, a wrist wearing manner, or an arm wearing manner, etc., or the ear inner housing may be directly implemented to include the required circuits therein, so that the ear inner housing may be changed according to actual requirements without limitation.

Alternatively, the in-the-ear housing may be implemented with only a single electrode for contacting the concha wall, antitragus, tragus, and/or intertragic notch. For example, the electrodes on the in-ear shell may be matched with the electrodes directly disposed on the skull to detect brain activity, for example, the electrodes may be disposed on the parietal lobe, the prefrontal lobe and/or the occipital lobe via a wearing structure such as a headband (headband), a helmet (headgear), a patch (patch), etc., and herein, the electrodes on the in-ear shell are preferably implemented as reference electrodes; alternatively, the electrode on the in-the-ear housing can be implemented as a motion detection electrode in conjunction with a reference electrode disposed on the inside of the ear clip on the ear lobe (as shown in fig. 16 c); of course, one electrode may be disposed on each of the two ear inner housings, for example, the electrode on one ear inner housing may be configured as a reference electrode (i.e. contacting the lower part of the auricle) and the electrode on the other ear inner housing may be configured as a movable detection electrode (i.e. contacting the upper part of the auricle), however, it should be noted that, because there is a sufficient distance between the two ear inner housings, the disposition position of the electrode is not limited, and therefore, no matter whether the two ear inner housings contact the upper part or the lower part of the auricle, an electroencephalogram signal sufficient for analysis can be obtained, for example, one ear inner housing may contact the skin on the upper part of the auricle, the other ear inner housing may contact the skin on the lower part of the auricle, or the two ear inner housings may contact the skin on the upper; alternatively, the electrodes may be implemented to contact the concha base (as shown in fig. 6 b), for example, the electrodes on one of the ear inner shells contact the concha wall, antitragus, intertragic notch, and/or tragus, the electrodes on the other ear inner shell contact the concha base, or the electrodes on both ear inner shells contact the concha base, thus, there are various possibilities, without limitation.

When implemented as an earhook, the electrodes on the extension member can be selectively placed in contact with the V-shaped recess, the upper portion of the back of the auricle, and/or the lower portion of the back of the auricle, as desired. As shown in fig. 17, two electrodes are disposed on the extension member, one contacting the auricle and the intercranial V-shaped depression and/or the upper skin on the back of the auricle as the activity detection electrode 200, and the other contacting the lower skin on the back of the auricle as the reference electrode 202; alternatively, the electrodes on the extension member may be used in conjunction with electrodes directly disposed on the skull to detect brain activity, for example, the electrodes may be disposed on the parietal lobe, the prefrontal lobe, and/or the occipital lobe via a wearing structure such as a headband (headband), a helmet (headgear), a patch (patch), etc., and herein, preferably, the electrodes on the extension member are implemented as reference electrodes; or, alternatively, the electrode on the extension component can also be matched with a reference electrode arranged on the ear lobe by using an ear clip to obtain an electroencephalogram signal; alternatively, each of the two side extensions may be provided with an electrode, for example, one side may be used as a reference electrode (i.e., contacting the lower portion of the back of the auricle) and the other side may be used as a movable detection electrode (i.e., contacting the V-shaped depression and/or the upper portion of the back of the auricle), however, the position of the electrodes is not limited because there is a sufficient distance between the two ears, and therefore, no matter whether the two side extensions contact the upper portion or the lower portion of the auricle, an electroencephalogram signal sufficient for analysis can be obtained without limitation.

Further, fig. 18a-18d show other possible embodiments according to the invention in which, figure 18a illustrates the in-the-ear shell contacting the tragus or intertragic notch on the lower part of the inner face of the pinna, and the example where the extension member contacts the V-shaped depression and/or the upper portion of the back of the pinna, in which case the electrodes on the extension member may be implemented to contact the skin of the skull in addition to the skin of the V-shaped depression and/or the back of the pinna, without limitation, in addition, fig. 18b illustrates an example in which the in-the-ear housing contacts the concha wall on the upper part of the inner face of the auricle and the extension member contacts the lower part of the back face of the auricle, and further, may be implemented as an electrode on the in-the-ear housing contacting the bottom of the concha (as with the in-the-ear housing shown in fig. 6 b), the electrode on the extension part is contacted with the V-shaped depression or the skin of the skull or the skin on the back of the auricle; alternatively, it is also possible to extend the ear clip from the extension member and place the electrode on the earlobe to match the inner surface of the auricle and obtain the electroencephalogram signal by contacting the electrode on the upper concha wall and/or the bottom of the concha with the inner shell of the auricle. It should be noted that the electrodes on the inner and back sides of the auricle are preferably still distributed on opposite sides of the ear canal to ensure that the spatial separation required to obtain the signal is achieved.

In another preferred embodiment, as shown in FIG. 18c, the length of the extension member is shortened and the extension member is moved up and down by providing an adjustment mechanism, so that not only is the electrode contact more stable, but also the electrode contact can be adapted to different user pinna sizes, in this case, the electrode on the inner shell of the ear is implemented as the reference electrode 202 and contacts the position of the tragus and/or tragus incisura, and the electrode contacting the V-shaped depression and/or the back of the pinna is implemented as the active detection electrode 200, which can contact the skin of the V-shaped depression and/or the back of the pinna or the skin of the skull, without limitation; in yet another preferred embodiment, as shown in fig. 18d, the extension member is implemented to be positioned below the inner housing of the ear such that the electrodes thereon contact the lower portion of the auricle, e.g., the back skin of the auricle above the earlobe, and the same effect of moving from bottom to top can be achieved by providing an adjustment mechanism to increase contact stability to accommodate different sizes of auricles.

Alternatively, it can be implemented as shown in fig. 19a, wherein the part of the pre-auricular part 60 not entering the ear canal is implemented with a smooth curvature, e.g. a cylinder, and the extension part 62 is also implemented with a smooth curvature, while the

electrodes

202, 200 are respectively arranged on the surface of the part not entering the ear canal and on the surface of the extension part facing the V-shaped depression/auricle dorsal skin, in which case, as long as the distribution range of the electrodes is sufficient, it can be adapted to different sizes of auricles of different users simply by rotating the whole ear-worn structure, e.g. with the cylinder as the center, e.g. fig. 19b shows the arrangement on a larger sized auricle, while fig. 19c shows the arrangement on a smaller sized auricle, since the distribution range of the

electrodes

200, 202 is sufficient to cover the displacement caused by the rotation, such a design thus allows to adapt to different pinna dimensions while also ensuring contact between the electrode and the skin, but of course, for greater simplicity of manufacture, the entire outer surface of the cylinder and/or the entire surface of the extension element facing the V-shaped recess may be embodied directly as an electrode, for example, made of an electrically conductive material, thus allowing for a wide variety of possible options without limitation.

Further, in this example, if the ear canal entrance part and the ear canal non-entrance part are formed to have an angle therebetween, the ear canal non-entrance part can be stably maintained at the inner surface of the auricle by the action of being naturally inserted into the ear canal, and the urging force in the tragus direction can be achieved at the same time, which contributes to the contact stability of the electrodes, and in addition, the ear canal entrance part having different sizes can be provided according to different users, which also contributes to the stable maintenance of the ear canal non-entrance part at the inner surface of the auricle.

On the other hand, the electrode on the part which does not enter the ear canal can also be implemented as the position contacting the antitragus, for example, the part which does not enter the ear canal can be made to face the direction of the antitragus by adjusting the angle of the inner shell of the ear, in this case, as long as the part which enters the ear canal is formed by the elastic material, no pressure can be generated on the ear canal, and the part which does not enter the ear canal can be naturally clamped into the space between the antitragus and the ear canal, thus forming a stable arrangement mode; further, in order to increase the stability of the contact between the electrode and the antitragus, the contact between the electrode and the antitragus can be further ensured by adding a protrusion, for example, as shown in fig. 19d, the protrusion 206 for providing the electrode can be formed of an elastic material, and thus, there is no limitation.

On the other hand, the extension member may be implemented to provide a force to the skin towards the V-shaped recess/the back of the auricle to ensure the contact between the electrode thereon and the skin, for example, it may be formed by an elastic material, such as elastic metal, elastic rubber, etc., as shown in fig. 19e, and the extension member is implemented to have a restoring force, which can restore to its original shape after being pulled open and placed on the auricle, and thus cling to the back of the auricle to achieve the effect of stabilizing the contact between the electrode and the skin.

While the extension member only provides an electrode function, i.e., most of the circuit is disposed in the ear inner housing, further, the extension member can be removable from the ear inner housing, e.g., by providing a port, so that the extension member can be conveniently stored and carried. In practical implementation, for example, the extension member may be made of an elastic conductive material and may be directly used as an electrode, such as elastic steel, memory metal, conductive rubber, conductive silicone, etc., or the extension member may be implemented to complete the electrical connection between the electrode on the surface of the extension member and the circuit inside the ear inner housing when the extension member is connected to the ear inner housing.

Still further, by such a removable form, the present application will provide another implementation option, i.e., the electrode on the extension member can be made to be an extension of the electrode on the inner housing of the ear, for example, when the inner housing of the ear already has two electrodes, one of the electrodes can be replaced by externally connecting the extension member, one can be used as another electrode contact option, for example, to switch from contact inside the auricle to contact V-shaped depression/auricle back, and another can also provide another fixing option, for example, to increase the relative force between the extension member and the inner housing of the ear; alternatively, the extension member may be used as a simple extension fixing structure to further increase the fixing force between the inner shell and the auricle. Therefore, different setting options can be provided according to requirements without limitation.

In another preferred embodiment, as shown in fig. 20, the ear inner housing is not provided with an electrode, but is used for fixing and providing magnetic force to attract the electrode contacting the lower half of the back of the auricle, the other electrode is carried by the extension part extending from the ear inner housing to contact the V-shaped recess and/or the skin above the back of the auricle, wherein, particularly, the extension part and the ear inner housing can be implemented with an adjusting mechanism to adapt to different ear sizes, and the electrode contacting the lower part of the auricle can be connected with the extension part by using the connecting wire 64 or soft material, therefore, even if the extension part is displaced by the adjusting mechanism, the contact position of the lower electrode is not affected, thus, not only the contact stability of the two electrodes can be ensured, but also the effect of adapting to different auricle sizes can be achieved, quite has advantages; alternatively, it is also advantageous that the extension part extending from the inner shell of the ear is implemented to be bendable in accordance with the shape of the auricle, for example, directly implemented as a connection wire, or made of an elastic material, etc., so that when the electrode contacting the lower portion of the back of the auricle is fixed by magnetic attraction with the inner shell of the ear, the electrode contacting the V-shaped depression and/or the upper portion of the back of the auricle is more stable by the tensile force generated by the magnetic attraction in addition to being just positioned between the auricle and the skull, and further, the extension part is implemented to be replaceable, for example, to be replaced with a different length, or a different material, to suit different users.

It should be noted that, no matter what is implemented, the material and shape of the extension member can be changed according to the implementation, for example, the extension member can be made of elastic material with restoring force, such as elastic metal, elastic plastic, silicon gel, etc., to ensure that the electrode always has the contact force toward the back of the auricle; alternatively, the extension member may be made of a plastic material so that the user can bend the extension member according to the shape of the auricle of the user, for example, a memory metal, a flexible plastic material, etc., and the contact stability of the electrode is also ensured, so that there are various possibilities without limitation.

In addition, the circuits required for obtaining signals, such as the processor, the battery, and the wireless transmission module, may be disposed in the ear front part, or in a housing behind the ear, or in a host connected through a connection line, so as to be worn on the body, for example, in a wrist wearing manner, a neck wearing manner, a head wearing manner, a glasses wearing manner, or an arm wearing manner, which may also be changed according to actual requirements without limitation.

In a preferred embodiment, particularly, whether it is provided in the ear or with the extension member, the main body can be further implemented to be adapted to a wearing structure provided on the neck and the head at the same time, as shown in fig. 24a-24c, that is, the wearing structure can be selectively provided on the neck or the head according to the use requirement, and when the main body is worn on the head, the wearing structure can be selectively provided on the front of the forehead (fig. 24c), on the top of the head or behind the head, without limitation.

Here, the wearing structure is implemented to have two ends, and a curved portion connecting the two ends, i.e. a shape similar to C, by which the wearing structure can be adapted to be disposed on the neck or the head, and therefore, preferably, the curved portion at least partially conforms to the curve behind the neck, so that the two ends can fall on both sides and/or in front of the neck when the wearing structure surrounds the neck, forming a stable disposition; on the other hand, when the head is disposed on the head, the curved portion may conform to the curve of the front, upper and/or rear of the head, and the two ends may fall on both sides of the head, so as to achieve stable coupling with the head.

First, when the neck wearing mode is implemented, since the neck is used as the support, the volume and shape of the main body can be freely changed, and compared with the arm wearing mode or the wrist wearing mode, the length of the connecting line between the main body and the ear wearing structure is shortened, and the movement of the hand is not affected by the wiring, thereby increasing the convenience of use.

Furthermore, when the head-wearing type is implemented, because the part contacting with the head is increased, the possibility of obtaining more brain electrical signals of different cerebral cortex is increased, therefore, the user can also select different wearing positions to automatically determine and obtain brain electrical signals, for example, referring to fig. 1, when the electrode is arranged at the forehead position, the frontal lobe area brain electrical signals can be obtained, when the electrode is arranged above the head, the occipital lobe area brain electrical signals can be obtained, when the electrode is arranged at the rear of the head, the temporal lobe area brain electrical signals can be obtained, when the electrode is arranged at the two ends, and when the electrode is arranged at the part contacting with the periphery of the eye, for example, the forehead, temples and the like, the eye electrical signals can be obtained simultaneously.

Furthermore, the electrode contacting the head may be implemented to obtain electroencephalogram signals together with the electrode on the ear-wearing structure, without limitation, and when the contact position of the electrode on the wearing structure has hair, for example, the top of the head, the back of the head, the side of the head, etc., as described above, a contact ensuring structure, for example, a distributed electrode, a protruding electrode, and/or a telescopic electrode, etc., may be employed to help pass through the hair, so that the difficulty of contact between the electrode and the skin is reduced.

Here, how to adapt to wearing on the neck and the head simultaneously has different implementation possibilities, for example, by selecting a material, for example, selecting an elastic material to apply force to two sides of the head, so as to achieve a fixing effect, such as elastic steel, elastic plastic, and other materials; the structure can also be designed, for example, the ear protection device can be just suitable for being erected on an auricle, or can be provided with a structure for preventing movement and the like; and/or stable contact with the head may be achieved by adding an auxiliary member, for example, by adding a structure for tensioning both ends, such as an elastic band, or by adding a buffer structure on the inner surface of the wearing structure, to help the wearing structure to be stably maintained on the head, and thus there is no limitation as well. Further, if the circuits are mainly distributed at the two end portions, the bending portion may be replaced to replace different shapes, materials, sizes, colors, etc. to facilitate the use.

In addition, with such a structure design, the user will not feel extra burden because it is not different from the feeling of wearing a necklace, and on the other hand, the accommodating space of the circuit can be increased to increase the available functions, for example, a battery with large capacity can be configured to prolong the service life, a music playing function can be provided, a GPS positioning function can be provided, and/or a control interface can be added to the two ends which are easily touched as shown in fig. 24a, which is a very advantageous choice.

In addition, when the wrist-worn device is implemented as a wrist-worn type, it is particularly advantageous that, since the wrist-worn device, such as a bracelet and a watch, is one of the most commonly used portable information providing interfaces for general users, the host computer is disposed on the wrist, and the information providing interface is added, so that the user can conveniently obtain information as needed, just like watching a watch, and therefore, the usage situation will be that, as shown in fig. 25a, the user wears the watch/bracelet with an electroencephalogram signal capturing function on the wrist at ordinary times, and when an electroencephalogram signal needs to be measured, the wrist-worn electroencephalogram detecting device can be formed by connecting the electroencephalogram electrode and disposing the wrist-worn electrode on the ear, wherein the connected electrode can be any one of the above-mentioned ear-worn types, for example, a single ear-worn structure has two electrodes, the structure respectively has the form of electrode respectively is worn to two ears, and visual actual demand is decided, wherein, if the design that the structure includes two brain electricity electrodes is worn to single ear, only need a connecting wire, except that the convenience of use nature obviously promotes, the complexity also reduces by a wide margin, in addition, when adopting two ear to wear the structure, still can further implement the form for can getting dual channel (two channels) brain electricity signal to the activity situation of monitoring left and right brains. Thus, whatever the implementation, it is quite advantageous.

When implemented in the form of spectacles, there are also many electrode configuration options, for example, as shown in fig. 22a, the movable detection electrode 200 may be disposed on the temple at a position contacting the V-shaped depression and/or the upper skin on the back of the auricle (above the auricle), and the reference electrode 202 may be disposed on the temple end curved portion at a position contacting the lower skin on the back of the auricle (below the auricle), where further the temple end curved portion may be implemented to have elasticity to increase the stability of the electrode contact; alternatively, as shown in fig. 22b, the electrodes may be placed in contact with the skin on the back of the auricle by contacting the earpiece with the V-shaped depression and/or the skin on the back of the auricle at a position above the back of the auricle, and then engaging with an additional structure 204 attached to the same earpiece, where the additional structure may contact any part of the skin on the back of the auricle, and may be implemented as an earpiece on the other side without limitation; alternatively, as shown in fig. 22c, the electrode contact occipital lobe region may be provided at the end of the earpiece that extends to the back of the skull, and then contact the V-shaped depression and/or the skin above the back of the pinna in cooperation with the same or another earpiece, and such an arrangement is particularly suitable for placement on the eyewear structure shown in fig. 23d that has no pivot axis and the original earpiece has extended backwards; alternatively, as shown in fig. 22d, additional structures 204 on the temples are used to contact the V-shaped depression and/or the skin on the upper back of the pinna, and to contact the skin on the lower back of the pinna; alternatively, the two electrodes are respectively disposed on the earpieces on the two sides to contact the V-shaped recesses on the two sides and/or the upper part of the back surface of the auricle, or the two electrodes can be changed to contact the lower part of the back surface of the auricle by bending the ends of the earpieces on one side (as shown in fig. 22 a), or both sides can be implemented by bending the ends to contact the lower part of the back surface of the auricle due to a sufficient distance between the two auricles, or an additional structure is disposed on one side or both sides to contact the lower part of the back surface of the auricle (as shown in fig. 22 b), which is also feasible without limitation; alternatively, as shown in fig. 22e, the brain activity detection may be performed by placing electrodes on the nasal bridge/root/interocular region, and the V-shaped depression and/or the skin above the back of the pinna, or the skin below the back of the pinna. Therefore, there are various options, without limitation, as to the position and arrangement of the electrodes in contact with the skull and/or pinna through the frame of the spectacle structure, and the position and form of the electrodes are merely for illustration and can be substituted and/or combined with each other without limitation.

In particular, when the electrodes are placed near the periphery of the eye, for example, in the nasal bridge/mountain root/interocular region, temple as shown in fig. 22e, an Electrooculogram (EOG) may be obtained, in which the electrooculogram measures the corneal-retinal static potential (corneal-retinal static potential) existing between the front and back of the eye, and may be used to determine the position of the eyeball and the physiological changes in the movement of the eyeball. Here, because the frequency and the amplitude of electrooculogram signal and electroencephalogram signal are all different, just can separate each other through signal processing's mode, therefore, under the concept of the utility model, this two kinds of signals just can be obtained to two electrodes of need setting up at least, for example, only need to set up one of them electrode in the position of bridge of the nose/root of a mountain/interocular region, or set up in the position of temple, cooperate again with another electrode set up in auricle inner face, the back, and/or the sunken position of V type, just can gain electroencephalogram signal and electrooculogram signal simultaneously, need not other special settings, and such mode is particularly suitable for implementing on the glasses structure, and the user only needs to wear glasses, does not have unnecessary step just can carry out the measurement of two kinds of signals, and is fairly convenient.

In addition, in a specific embodiment, the method can be implemented by disposing a plurality of electrodes on two sides of the glasses to respectively obtain signals of the left and right brain regions, for example, two electrodes are disposed on the right side and/or the frame, and the other two electrodes are disposed on the left side of the glasses foot and/or the frame, so that the two channels of the electroencephalogram signal acquisition device can be formed by separating the circuits.

Further, the two electrodes for acquiring the electroencephalogram signal may also be implemented to be disposed through the glasses structure and the ear-worn structure, for example, an ear-worn structure may extend from the glasses structure, or the glasses structure may have a port for electrically connecting to an ear-worn structure, such that the V-shaped recess, the back of the auricle, the temple, the nose bridge, and/or the interocular region of the radix crataegi may be selectively contacted by the glasses structure, and the V-shaped recess, the back of the auricle, the bottom of the concha, the concha wall, the antitragus, the intertragic notch, and/or the tragus may be selectively contacted by the ear-worn structure to collectively acquire the electroencephalogram signal. Here, the earwear structure may be implemented in the form of an in-ear housing or in the form of an earhook, without limitation.

In the present invention, the configuration of the glasses structure, the ear wearing structure, and the electrodes can be selected differently. For example, in a preferred embodiment, as shown in fig. 23a, one electrode is located on one temple of the eyewear structure and the other electrode is located on the ear-worn structure, and the circuitry is located in the ear-worn structure, wherein the electrode 721 located on the eyewear structure 72 is located at a position where the electrode can contact the head and/or the skin of the auricle with its own fixing force when the eyewear structure is worn on the head, and the other electrode 702 is located on the surface of a combination structure 701 where the ear-worn structure 70 is combined with the temple, so as to contact the skin of the skull and/or the auricle after the ear-worn structure is combined with the eyewear structure, in which case, for connecting the ear-worn structure, the eyewear structure has an electrical contact area 722 on the side temple where the ear-worn structure is located, which, in addition to the circuitry in the ear-worn structure and the electrode 702 on the surface of the combination structure, also connects with the electrode 721 on the other side of the lens leg to achieve the sampling loop; here, alternatively, the electrode 721 can also be implemented to be disposed on a frame to form a sampling loop together with the electrode 702 on the ear-wearing structure, so that the disposition can be changed according to actual requirements without limitation.

In addition, the ear-worn structure and the glasses structure can be combined in different manners, for example, as shown in fig. 23b, the end of the temple of the glasses structure is implemented as a port 73 to be plugged into the ear-worn structure for achieving mechanical connection and electrical connection at the same time, and in this embodiment, the electrode 702 on the ear-worn structure is disposed on the surface of the inner shell of the ear-worn structure.

Furthermore, it can also be implemented that two electrodes are disposed on the surface of the glasses structure, as shown in fig. 23c, the two side temples have

electrodes

721, 723 respectively, or the two electrodes are disposed on one side temple and the glasses frame respectively, at this time, only the upper ear wearing structure is connected, and the electrophysiological signal acquisition can be performed through the circuit system contained in the ear wearing structure. Still further, an electrode may be disposed on the ear-worn structure, so that the electrode on the ear-worn structure can be regarded as a reference electrode, and the

electrodes

721 and 723 can be used as activity detection electrodes to obtain the electrical signals of the two temporal lobe areas, respectively or simultaneously.

It should be noted that although fig. 23a and 23c show two electrodes distributed on two side temples, they are not limited, two electrodes can be distributed on one side temples and the frame, and further, more than two electrodes can be implemented, for example, electrodes are disposed on two side temples and the frame, so there are various possibilities; in addition, there are many possibilities for combining the ear wearing structure and the glasses structure, and besides using the port or the sleeving manner, there may be other options, for example, using magnetic attraction, mutual engagement, or sliding groove combination, and the like, which are not limited in the same way; furthermore, the structure of the glasses can be made of the non-pivoting-axis glasses, such as the non-pivoting-axis elastic continuous body shown in fig. 23d, and/or the non-lens glasses, which can be changed according to the actual requirement.

In another preferred embodiment, as shown in fig. 23e, the ear-mount structure 70 is disposed on the glasses structure 72 via the additional structure 204, and particularly, the additional structure is implemented with a position bending and facing towards the occipital lobe at the back of the head, so that in this embodiment, the electrode 721 on the additional structure is implemented in a dispersed form to facilitate the electrode to pass through the hair to contact the scalp, and the other electrode 702 is disposed on the surface of the ear-mount structure to contact the ear, whereby the electrode 702 disposed on the ear-mount structure is regarded as the reference electrode, and the electrode 721 on the additional structure is regarded as the activity detection electrode to obtain the electroencephalogram signal of the occipital lobe region. Here, the circuit may be disposed in the additional structure and/or the ear-worn structure without limitation, and the additional structure may be implemented to be disposed on the temple, or may be implemented to replace a part of the temple, or is not limited.

Furthermore, there are different possible implementations of the electrical connection between the electrodes distributed on the glasses structure and the circuit system, for example, the electrical connection can be achieved by directly using the glasses structure made of conductive material, or the electrical connection can be implemented by disposing a conductive part in the glasses structure.

Here, since the glasses structure can provide more options for the contact position with the head, such as the vicinity of the nose, the back of the head, etc., it is advantageous that the available physiological signals are wider when the ear-wearing structure and the glasses structure can be combined with each other.

In addition, as shown in fig. 25b, the circuit system may also be disposed in the wrist-wearing structure, and similar to the above situation, the user may wear the wrist-wearing structure with electroencephalogram signal capturing function, such as a watch, a bracelet, etc., on the wrist at ordinary times, and connect the electroencephalogram electrode in the form of glasses when the electroencephalogram signal needs to be measured, or wear the wrist-wearing structure and glasses at ordinary times, and connect the two when the electroencephalogram signal needs to be measured, so that the circuit system is also a very convenient choice and is integrated into the daily life. Here, the connected electrodes may be any one of the aforementioned glasses structure forms without limitation.

In addition, except that the brain electrode is arranged on the ear-wearing structure and the glasses structure, the brain activity sensor according to the present invention can be also implemented to have other brain electrodes, for example, the electrodes arranged on other positions of the head can be extended from the ear-wearing structure or the glasses structure, for example, the electrodes can be arranged on the forehead to obtain brain signals of frontal lobe area, the electrodes can be arranged on the top of the head to obtain brain signals of parietal lobe area, and/or the electrodes can be arranged behind the skull to obtain brain signals of occipital lobe area, etc., wherein more particularly, when implemented in the glasses form, the electrodes behind the skull can also be achieved by extending the glasses legs backwards, therefore, the electrodes can be changed according to different actual requirements without limitation; in addition, when the electrode is disposed with hair, such as on the top of the head, behind the brain, etc., needle electrodes, dispersive electrodes, or other electrode types capable of acquiring signals through the hair, or spring-loaded electrodes as described above, may be used to increase the convenience of use.

It is also noted that the above-mentioned preferred embodiments are merely illustrative and not restrictive, and that modifications may be made in the embodiments and/or combinations of different embodiments without departing from the scope of the present application.

Since the brain activity sensor according to the present invention is provided with the ear as a medium for being installed in the human body, it is suitable for being implemented in a form of being combined with an earphone, and especially when being implemented in an ear wearing form, for example, an earphone for listening to music or an earphone microphone for receiving and transmitting sound, etc., and is not limited to a double-side ear wearing form or a single-side ear wearing form, or an ear inner shell or an ear hanging form, which is suitable for the concept of the present invention, so that the daily life of the user can be further integrated, for example, the sensor can be used during commuting, etc., and the implementation form can be selected according to the habit of the user using the earphone, which is convenient.

In addition, when the glasses are implemented, the sound-generating component and/or the sound-receiving component (e.g., a microphone) may be disposed on the glasses structure to provide the functions of the earphone and/or the microphone, or the earphone may be extended from the glasses temple, and herein, in particular, the sound-generating component and the earphone may be in a bone-conduction form, besides a generally common air-conduction form, for example, a bone-conduction speaker may be disposed at a position where the glasses temple contacts with the skull directly, or a bone-conduction earphone may be extended from the glasses temple, without limitation.

The brain activity sensor according to the present invention can also be implemented to communicate with a portable electronic device, for example, with an external electronic device such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, etc. in a wired or wireless manner such as an earphone jack, bluetooth, etc., so that, in the case of having a sound component (air conduction or bone conduction) and a radio component, the ear-worn or glasses-type brain activity sensor according to the present invention can be used as a hands-free receiver for communication, and can also play music, etc. from the portable electronic device; furthermore, further, through setting up vibration module, vocal subassembly (air conduction formula or bone conduction formula), display module to and light emitting component etc. according to the utility model discloses an ear-wearing and/or glasses formula brain activity sensor still can further implement as this portable electronic device's information provides interface, for example, be used for providing incoming telegram warning, cell-phone message notice etc. more incorporate user's daily life, as for the provision of message then accessible sound, vibration, luminous, various modes such as lens display, do not have the restriction.

Further, when the earphone is implemented to have an earphone function, especially for listening to music, it is preferable to wear the earphone to both ears to provide a better hearing effect for the user, for example, the inner ear shell can be installed in both auricles to provide music through wireless connection or wired connection between the two, for example, the inner ear shell can be divided into left and right sound channels to provide a stereo effect for the music, and the earphone can be implemented to have a memory to store the music and provide a playing function, so that the user can listen to the music even without communicating with the portable electronic device, which is more convenient.

Accordingly, in a preferred embodiment, the single-ear-wearing brain activity sensing device according to the present invention is implemented to have a wireless transmission module, such as bluetooth, for communicating with an external portable electronic device, such as transmitting the obtained physiological signals and information to the portable electronic device for providing to the user, and on the other hand, besides the physiological signal capturing function, the single-ear-wearing brain activity sensing device also has a sound generating component and an electrical signal transmission port for receiving signals from the outside, such as audio signals, wherein the source of the audio signals has several different options, such as from another ear-wearing device connected to the electrical signal transmission port, such as audio signals stored in the another ear-wearing device; the audio signal may be obtained from an external portable electronic device, and may be obtained through a wired or wireless manner, for example, the other ear-worn device may be connected to the portable electronic device through a connection wire or wirelessly to obtain an audio signal, and then connected to the electrical signal transmission port, or alternatively, may be implemented as an audio signal obtained through a wired connection of the electrical signal transmission port to the portable electronic device.

The audio control circuit can drive the sound production component to execute audio playing through the electric connection between the electric signal transmission ports of the two ear wearing devices, and further, when the other ear wearing device is also provided with the sound production component, the effect of stereophonic sound can be achieved.

Since the physiological signal capturing circuit and the audio control circuit are separately arranged in the two ear-worn devices, the connection between the two ear-worn devices can be realized in a removable manner, so that, for example, when a user only needs to detect a physiological signal, the other ear-worn device can be removed, and when music is needed, the other ear-worn device (connected to the portable electronic device) only needs to be connected, so that the use is quite convenient, in addition, the other ear-worn device can be independently used to provide a single-ear music playing function, and further, if the other ear-worn device also has a sound receiving component, the other ear-worn device can be independently used as an earphone microphone of the portable electronic device; in addition, the other ear-worn device can be implemented with electrodes to capture brain electrical signals from the two ear-worn devices simultaneously, and there is no limitation, and in this case, the connection between the two ear-worn structures can be used to transmit physiological signals in addition to audio signals.

Therefore, through the design, the two ear-worn devices can be used in combination or independently, can completely adapt to the change of the use requirements of users at different times, and is a quite advantageous combination.

It should be noted that, based on the different purposes and design requirements, the transmission between the two ear-worn devices, including the audio signal transmission and the physiological signal transmission, may also be combined in various ways, for example, in the case that the physiological signal can be obtained by a single ear, the wired connection between the two ear-worn devices can be used only for transmitting the audio signal, and when the physiological signal can be obtained by the electrodes respectively disposed on the two ear-worn devices, the physiological signal needs to be transmitted by a wired method, and in this case, the audio signal can be transmitted by a wired or wireless method without limitation,

the operation interface for controlling the audio playing and determining whether to perform wireless connection may be disposed at a location convenient for the user to use according to the requirement, for example, the ear-worn device is connected to the portable electronic device on-line, the two ear-worn devices are connected on-line, or the operation interface may be disposed on a wearing structure of the neck or the head as described above, without limitation.

On the other hand, when the two-ear wearing structure is implemented as the two-ear wearing structure, no matter the two-ear wearing structure is implemented as the wired or wireless connection, the following options can be provided for controlling the audio playing and the physiological signal capturing, for example, the two-ear wearing structure can be implemented as a circuit in the one-side ear wearing structure for controlling the physiological signal, and the other-side ear wearing structure can be implemented as a circuit in the other-side ear wearing structure for controlling the sound playing, or can be implemented as a circuit in the one-side ear wearing structure for simultaneously controlling the physiological signal capturing and the sound playing, without limitation; furthermore, the configuration of the electrodes may be implemented by only arranging electrodes on one side of the ear wearing structure for capturing physiological signals, or may also be implemented by arranging electrodes on both sides of the ear wearing structure, for example, the electrodes on both sides cooperate together to capture electroencephalogram signals, or the two ear wearing structures respectively and independently capture electroencephalogram signals, or may be changed by setting according to different requirements, and the like, and there is no limitation in the same way.

On the other hand, the brain activity sensing device according to the present invention can be further implemented to have a connection structure for function expansion, as shown in fig. 26a, a connection structure 80 is implemented to protrude downward from the inner shell of the ear, and fig. 26b shows that the connection structure 80 protrudes to extend to the back of the auricle, or can be implemented in the form of fig. 26c, which can be variously selected according to practical needs, without limitation.

Such a connection further increases the possibilities. For example, in a preferred embodiment, the connection structure is used to connect one of the electrodes for acquiring electroencephalogram signals, for example, fig. 26b shows the electrode 82 directly connected to the connection structure 80 to contact the back of the auricle, and fig. 26c shows the electrode 82 disposed on an external member 84 to contact the V-shaped region, in which case, the electroencephalogram signal can be acquired only by matching with another electrode on the in-ear shell, or alternatively, the electrode can be connected to the connection structure by a connection wire and disposed at another position, for example, another ear, the head, etc., and there are many options for the medium for disposing, for example, another ear wearing structure, glasses structure, head wearing structure, etc., or electrode patch, all of which are feasible without limitation, wherein, when disposed at another position of the head, it is advantageous to increase the sampling position for acquiring the electroencephalogram signal, is helpful for obtaining the brain electrical signals of different parts of cerebral cortex.

That is, the connection structure provides the possibility of extending the electrodes outside the inner shell of the ear, and further, may be provided by a carrier, wherein the carrier may be, as described above, the external member 84, another ear-worn structure, a glasses structure, a head-worn structure, etc., or an electrode patch, etc., without limitation.

On the other hand, for example, in the case of two electrodes on the inner ear shell, the connection structure can be implemented to improve the contact by external connection when the electrodes on the inner ear shell cannot achieve stable contact, that is, the external connection electrode 82 replaces the electrodes on the inner ear shell, so that the above-mentioned various implementations, such as directly connecting the electrodes externally or carrying the electrodes through a carrier, are also applicable.

Further, the connection structure can also be used for other function expansion, for example, it can be used for charging, and/or in the case of having a sound component, it can be used for connecting another sound component on the ear wearing structure to achieve the effect of stereo sound, and there are various possibilities; as described above, the position and the protruding direction of the connection structure may be changed as needed, and there is no limitation, for example, the connection structure may be oriented downward, extended to the back of the ear, or oriented toward the face.

Furthermore, according to the utility model discloses a brain activity sensor, except can carrying out the EEG signal detection, also can include other physiology sensing element or electrode to gain other physiology signal.

For example, the present invention may have at least one pair of a light emitting device and a light receiving device, where the light emitting device and the light receiving device refer to a sensing device that obtains light signals by using ppg (photoplethysmography) principle, for example, a person who measures blood by using a transmission method or a reflection method can obtain blood physiological information of a user, so that other physiological information can be further analyzed, for example, information of blood oxygen concentration change can be obtained, and a heart rate sequence of the user can be known by obtaining continuous pulse changes for related analysis, so that the application range is quite wide and is not limited.

In this case, the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element can be located on the surface that comes into contact with the ear or the skull skin, for example, the earlobe, the inside of the ear canal, the meatus, the tragus, the intertragic notch, the antitragus, the concha wall, the bottom of the concha, the back of the auricle, the V-shaped depression, or the skull skin in the vicinity of the junction between the auricle and the skull, without limitation, as long as the positions on the inside and outside of the auricle and in the vicinity of the auricle are accessible by the earwear structure, wherein one of the advantageous modes is that the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element are implemented in the position that comes into contact with the tragus and/or the intertragic notch when implemented in the form of contacting the meatus or the concha/bottom of the auricle, particularly suitable for fitting the auricle and being located together with the electrodes on the surface of the auricle, and also suitable for being implemented on the auricle, for example, fig. 21 shows a case where the light emitting element 210 and the light receiving element 212 are disposed on the surface of the inner shell of the ear that does not enter the ear canal together with the electrode 100, so that the blood physiological information can be naturally obtained from the position of the tragus as long as the portion entering the ear canal is disposed and aligned with the position of the tragus.

In addition, when implemented in the form of eyeglasses, the light emitting element and the light receiving element may be located anywhere where the eyeglass structure will contact the skull and ears, such as the bridge of the nose, the interocular region, the temple, the pinna, the region near the pinna, and the like, without limitation, for example, the light emitting element and the light receiving element may be located on the temples together with the electrodes to contact the V-shaped recess, the portion of the back of the pinna above, and/or the skull near the pinna, such as the temple, and may even be implemented in the form of electrodes surrounding the light sensor, which may simplify the contact location and reduce the complexity of use.

Furthermore, when implemented as shown in fig. 24a-24c, the light emitting element and the light receiving element can be disposed on the surface of the wearing structure facing inward when worn on the head to obtain blood physiological signals from the head, such as blood flow in the brain to represent the activity of the brain in addition to blood oxygen concentration and heart rate sequence, or can be disposed on the surface of the head or neck that can be accessed by the hands, such as the exposed surface, to obtain blood physiological signals from the hands without limitation. And without limitation, the light emitting assembly and the light receiving assembly can also be arranged on the surface of the ear wearing structure or the glasses structure, so that the hands of the user can approach the light emitting assembly and the light receiving assembly, and blood physiological signals can be obtained from the hands.

Further, an electrocardiograph electrode may be included to obtain an electrocardiograph signal, for example, at least a first electrocardiograph electrode and a second electrocardiograph electrode, wherein the first electrocardiograph electrode may be implemented to be located on a surface that is in contact with the pinna or the skull skin of the user when the brain activity sensor according to the present invention is worn on the user, for example, when implemented in an ear wearing form, the extension part contacts the V-shaped depression, the back of the pinna or the skull, the inner shell of the ear contacts the inner surface of the pinna, or when implemented in an eyeglass form, the earpiece contacts the V-shaped depression, the temple, the back of the pinna, the skull skin near the pinna, the bridge of the nose, the mountain root, the two-eye-tip region, etc. contacted by the nose pad.

There are many implementation options for the second electrocardio-electrode, for example, it can be disposed on an exposed surface of the ear-wearing structure or the glasses structure (or the additional structure) to allow the user to touch the second electrocardio-electrode by touching the user's hand, that is, the user can obtain the electrocardio-signal in real time by only lifting the user's hand when the measurement is needed, which is convenient, and the exposed electrode can be made of metal, conductive rubber, or any conductive material without limitation, and further, it can be implemented as a non-contact type electrode, such as a capacitive electrode, an inductive electrode, or an electromagnetic electrode, to increase the convenience of use; in addition, the electrodes can be extended through the connecting wires to be disposed at other positions, such as the neck, the shoulder, the chest, the upper arm, the wrist, the fingers, etc., and herein, particularly, the arrangement of the second electrocardiograph electrode can be further achieved through the wearing structure, such as the neck wearing structure, the shoulder wearing structure, the arm wearing structure, the wrist wearing structure, the finger wearing structure, etc., or implemented in the form of a patch, etc., which are all helpful for the fixation of the electrodes, and this way has the advantage that since both electrodes are fixed on the wearer, continuous electrocardiograph signals can be obtained, the heart activity of the user can be recorded for a long time as long as the internal memory is matched, which is very helpful for the diagnosis of the doctor, and here, it should be noted that, even if the electrocardiograph electrodes are configured through the wearing structure, the electrocardiograph signal acquisition can also be implemented if necessary, without limitation, the user can select the usage mode according to the actual requirement.

When the form shown in fig. 24a-24c is implemented, the first electrocardiograph electrode can be also disposed on the ear wearing structure, and the second electrocardiograph electrode can be disposed on the wearing structure at a position that can be contacted by the hand, wherein the electrocardiograph signal can be obtained by the hand when the first electrocardiograph electrode is worn on the neck, or by the hand when the first electrocardiograph electrode is worn on the head, and the first electrocardiograph electrode can also be extended through the connecting wire without limitation.

In addition, it should be noted that both ears are the positions where the electrocardiograph electrodes can be selectively disposed, however, after experiments, it is known that the contact positions of the exposed electrode or the extended electrode have a considerable influence on the signal quality, wherein when the left upper limb touches the exposed electrode or the extended electrode is disposed on the left upper limb, the quality of the obtained electrocardiograph signal is far better than the signal obtained by contacting the right upper limb, and particularly, the electrodes have the best signal quality when contacting the left ear and the left upper limb respectively, therefore, when performing electrocardiograph signal measurement in a manner of contacting the ears, it is better to contact the exposed electrode or the extended electrode with the left upper limb, so as to avoid the poor signal quality caused by contacting the right upper limb, and further to cause the erroneous judgment of analysis.

In addition, further, the first electrocardio-electrode in contact with auricle or skull skin can be shared with the electroencephalogram electrode, namely, one of the electrodes on the ear wearing structure and the glasses structure can be used as the electroencephalogram electrode and the electrocardio-electrode at the same time, so that the manufacturing cost and complexity can be reduced, and the convenience in use can be increased due to the reduction of the positions needing to be contacted; in addition, the second cardiac electrode may be further implemented in a shared manner, for example, the second cardiac electrode may be formed by extending the electroencephalogram electrode to the exposed surface, or the second cardiac electrode may be directly formed as a continuous surface disposed on the inner side and the outer side, without limitation, and even if the second cardiac electrode is shared, the determination of the signal is not affected because the difference between the amplitudes of the cardiac signal (about falling within the millivolt (mV)) and the electroencephalogram signal (about several to tens of microvolts (μ V)) is significant.

Of course, it is also possible to implement the method with both the light emitting device and the light receiving device and the electrocardiograph electrode, and in this case, the Time required for the Pulse wave to travel from the heart to the sensing position of the light emitting device and the light receiving device, that is, the so-called Pulse Transit Time (PTT) can be obtained, and since PTT is related to the hardness of arterial blood vessels affecting the blood pressure, the reference blood pressure value can be calculated by a specific relationship between PTT and blood pressure value.

Moreover, when the second electrocardiograph electrode on the exposed surface is touched by the hand to obtain electrocardiograph signals, and further to obtain PTT, since the hand needs to be lifted to touch the exposed electrode, in this case, no matter the detecting positions of the light emitting assembly and the light receiving assembly are the inner face or the back side of the auricle, the skull skin near the auricle, the nose bridge/the mountain root/the two tips area, or the hand touching the exposed electrode, the relative height between the light emitting assembly and the heart is not changed, but according to the hemodynamics, the influence caused by the height difference between the measuring position and the heart position can be known, therefore, by this way, the influence caused by the unfixed sampling position relative to the heart, which is common in the general PPT measurement, can be eliminated, so that the accurate blood pressure value can be stably obtained only after calibration (calibration), and the measuring way can not be influenced by standing posture or sitting posture, is quite advantageous.

The scope of application of the detection device using the brain activity sensor according to the present invention will be described next.

One such application is for example, when performing a relaxation-targeted neurophysiological feedback procedure, wherein one option is to observe the proportion of α waves in the overall brain wave, where generally α waves (about 8-12Hz) predominate, indicating that the body is in a relaxed awake state, and therefore the degree of relaxation is known by observing the proportion of α waves, or when targeting increased Attention, one option is to observe the proportion of theta waves (about 4-7 Hz) to β waves (about 12-28Hz), where in the brain wave, β waves predominate, indicating that the body is in an awake and stressed state, and α waves predominate, indicating that the body is in a relaxed and unconscious-interrupted state, and therefore one of the options for increasing Attention-focused Attention by increasing the proportion of β waves to theta waves, such as treating ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), i.e. by treating ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and thus, in addition to the observed physiological shift of the observed wave ratio of SCP, such as observed waves, observed frequencies, observed by normal observation/observed to normal waves (SCP), which may be less frequently observed, and/shifted by other diagnostic methods, such as observed physiological shifts, more frequently observed in the brain waves, such as observed physiological shifts, observed frequencies, observed in the physiological shift, observed by observing the proportion of the SCP, preferably observed normal, observed waves (about # 80-34).

In addition, since the degree of relaxation of the human body can be determined by the state of the autonomic nervous activity, for example, when the parasympathetic nervous activity increases and/or the ratio of the parasympathetic activity to the sympathetic nervous activity increases, it indicates that the degree of relaxation of the human body increases, and therefore, if the apparatus according to the present invention has the light emitting module and the light receiving module and/or the electrocardiograph electrode at the same time, the state of the autonomic nervous activity can be obtained by analyzing the obtained heart rate sequence via the HRV, and thus, the degree of relaxation of the user's body can be evaluated together with the information on the relevant brain activity, so as to perform the neurophysiological feedback.

For example, if the embodiment is in the form of an earphone, the information can be provided directly by sound, for example, when the brain wave state shows tense, the information can be represented by a sharp music, and when the brain wave state shows relaxed, the information can be represented by a slow music; or, the state of concentration is expressed by powerful music, and the state of concentration is expressed by soft music; or, the physiological state represented by the current brain wave state can be informed to the user by means of the sound frequency or the voice; alternatively, the vibration may be generated by a portion in contact with the skin, for example, relaxation and tension may be represented by fast and slow vibration frequencies; still alternatively, visual feedback may be provided through the glasses. Accordingly, this may be accomplished by generating visual, auditory, and/or tactile sensory signals through ear-worn structures or eyeglass structures, with various possibilities and without limitation.

In addition, the information may be provided through an information generating interface connected to the detection device, such as a smart phone, a sound generating device, a light emitting device, and the like, without limitation.

Another application is to assist in the performance of breathing exercises. Because the RSA (Sinus Arrhythmia) information can be obtained through the heart rate sequence, the synchronization between the heart rate, respiration and brain electrical signals can also be observed as the basis for feedback. According to the research, the exhalation and inhalation will cause the blood flow in the blood vessel to fluctuate, and the fluctuation will also follow the blood flow to the brain, and further cause the brain wave to fluctuate in the low frequency region close to the respiratory rate, for example, below 0.5 hz, so that, besides it can be known whether the synchronization between the two is achieved due to the resonance effect, the respiratory mode can be known by observing the brain wave, in addition, because the sinoatrial node and the vascular system of the heart are controlled by the autonomic nervous system, and the autonomic nervous system will feed the heart rate and the blood pressure change back to the brain through the baroreceptor system (baroreceptor system), and further affect the function and operation of the brain, for example, the cerebral cortex is affected, and can be measured by EEG, and in addition, the consciously controlled respiration can cause the heart rate change due to the influence of the autonomic nerve, and therefore, there is a relationship that affects each other, the good synchronization among the three can represent that the human body is in a relaxed state, and accordingly, the analysis result of the related synchronization can also be used as information for providing self-consciousness adjustment for the user so as to perform the neuro-physiological feedback.

In addition, because increasing the amplitude of RSA helps trigger Relaxation Response (Relaxation Response), relieving the accumulated pressure, and achieving the effect of increasing the parasympathetic/sympathetic activity ratio, the user can be informed by guidance to start inhaling when the heart rate begins to accelerate, and to start exhaling when the heart rate begins to decelerate, by observation of the user's heart rate variation pattern, to achieve the effect of increasing the amplitude of RSA, to cause coherence between breathing and heart rate (coherence), and also to help achieve Relaxation. Furthermore, since the amplitude obtained between the peak and the trough of the RSA, i.e. the difference between the maximum and the minimum of the heart rate during a breathing cycle, is related to the activity of the autonomic nerves, this information can also be provided to the user in real time as a basis for the user's regulation of the physiological state.

Alternatively, the breathing pattern of the user may be known by observing fluctuations in blood flow, and for example, the pulse changes may be obtained by the light emitting element and the light receiving element provided at the ear, forehead, or the like, and the changes in blood flow may be known.

Here, too, the provision of the breathing guidance/real-time physiological information may be an auditory, visual, and/or tactile signal generated by an ear-wearing structure or a glasses structure, or may be a connected information providing interface, which may be changed according to actual needs, without limitation.

Here, the wrist-worn electroencephalogram detection device shown in fig. 25a-25b is applied to physiological feedback and respiratory training. Because of the portability provided by the wrist-wearing device and the design that the electroencephalogram signal can be obtained only by matching with the ear-wearing structure (single side or double sides), the user can almost perform physiological feedback/breathing training without time and place limitation, at the moment, if an electrode can be further arranged on the wrist-wearing structure and obtains the electrocardio signal together with the electrode on the ear-wearing structure, or a light emitting component and a light receiving component are arranged on the ear-wearing structure or the wrist-wearing structure to obtain the heart rate, the breathing condition can be known accordingly, and then the breathing training program is executed, and if the electrocardio-electrode, the light emitting component and the light receiving component are arranged at the same time, the pulse wave transmission time (PTT) can be obtained, and the relation between the PTT and the blood pressure is utilized to calculate the reference blood pressure value, or the PTT is further utilized as physiological feedback information. Therefore, only the wrist wearing structure and the ear wearing structure are needed to be worn, so that various physiological information can be obtained, and the operation is convenient, so that the multifunctional wrist wearing structure is an advantageous implementation mode.

Furthermore, besides the above functions, the wrist-wearing structure may also provide other physiological signal detection options, for example, an electrode may be disposed on the surface contacting the wrist, and an electrode may also be disposed on the surface contacting the other upper limb, so as to obtain the electrocardiographic signal by contacting the electrodes with two hands; or two electrodes can be arranged on the surface contacted with the wrist to obtain skin electric signals and/or myoelectric signals; alternatively, a finger-worn structure is further extended, and the finger-worn structure can be implemented by having two electrodes on the surface contacting with the finger to obtain the electrodermal signal and/or the electromyographic signal, or having only one electrode and being matched with another electrode for contacting with another upper limb, for example, being disposed on a wrist-worn structure, a glasses structure, or a finger-worn structure to obtain the electrocardiographic signal, wherein the finger-worn structure can also be used to dispose a light emitting component and a light receiving component to obtain the physiological information of blood such as heart rate and blood oxygen concentration, which is also an advantageous way.

Furthermore, since the position of the wrist-wearing structure is the position of the information providing interface, such as a watch and a bracelet, during the period of physiological feedback or respiratory training, the wrist-wearing structure can naturally provide physiological feedback information and/or respiratory guidance through the wrist-wearing structure, or serve as an input interface of the user, which is quite convenient.

Furthermore, the device according to the present invention is also applicable to the acquisition of sleep-related information. As is well known to those skilled in the art, the electroencephalogram signal is the main basis for determining the sleep period (sleep period), and the conventional measurement method is, for example, to arrange a plurality of electrodes on the scalp and connect to a machine through a connection line, but because the measurement must be performed during the sleep period, such a method is inconvenient for the user, so if the electrode configuration can be completed in an ear-wearing manner or a glasses manner, it is naturally a less burdensome choice, and compared with the above, the burden-free detection method has less influence on the sleep, and a detection result closer to the daily sleep condition can be obtained.

Furthermore, other electrophysiological signals, such as electro-oculogram (EOG), electro-myogram (EMG), electro-cardiogram (ECG), electro-cutaneous activity (EDA), etc., which are items involved in various physiological examinations (PSG, Polysomnography), can be measured by adding other electrodes or by sharing electrodes, for example, the electro-oculogram can provide information on Rapid Eye Movement (REM), the electro-myogram can provide information on sleep onset (sleep onset) and wake (sleep offset), teeth grinding, REM, etc., the electro-cardiogram can be used to assist in observing physiological states during sleep, such as the state of autonomic nerves, the state of heart activity, etc., the electro-cutaneous activity can provide information on sleep stages, and further, if a light emitting component and a light receiving component are added, the blood oxygen concentration can be obtained to determine the occurrence of shallow breathing (hypopnea), and/or motion sensing components such as an Accelerometer (Accelerometer), a gravity sensor (G sensor), a gyroscope (gyrocope), a magnetic sensor (magnetic sensor) and the like can be added to provide information about body movement, and/or a microphone can be provided to detect snoring. Therefore, it is convenient to obtain a lot of information about sleep with the least burden by a sensor simply provided on the ear.

Another common application is a Human Machine Interface (HMI), for example, the intention (interaction) of a user can be analyzed by detecting EEG, or physiological changes of the user can be detected and converted into operation instructions.

Since the sensor according to the present invention is in the form of an ear or a pair of glasses, it is also suitable for use as a human-machine interface, and in the case of the detected physiological signals comprising an electroencephalogram signal and a heart rate sequence, there are several possible ways for generating commands, for example, but not limited to, because the proportion of α waves in the brain waves is greatly changed with the eye closing and opening movements, generally, when the eye is closed, the proportion of α waves is greatly increased, and therefore, this can be used as a basis for generating commands, and further, when the electroencephalogram electrode can detect the movement of the eye and acquire an electrooculogram signal (EOG), commands can be issued by, for example, blinking, moving/rotating the eyeball, and further, because respiration is a physiological movement that the human body can control, and as mentioned above, respiration not only affects (for example, to the heart, so-called RSA), but also causes the fluctuation of the brain waves in the low-frequency zone, and therefore, no matter whether the brain waves are a heart rate sequence or a respiration sequence, and further, there are possible changes in the right-side-to-by-the respiration command, and further, there are possible changes in-left-side respiration commands, and further, there are no more possible respiration commands, and further, there are instructions generated by detecting the respiration, and further, and there are possible, for example, there are instructions generated by a left-to be issued by a left-right-to-by-right-to-by-to-sense-to-sense-of-to.

In addition, when the motion sensing component is used, for example, an Accelerometer (Accelerometer), a gravity sensor (G sensor), a gyroscope (gyroscope), a Magnetic sensor (Magnetic sensor), etc., more command issuing methods are available, for example, when the above physiological phenomena can be used in combination with motions of pointing up and down, rotating the head left and right, or motions of the hand, for example, the motion sensing component can be disposed on a wrist wearing structure or a finger wearing structure to know specific gestures or static posture changes of the hand, so that more types of commands can be combined, and the application range is wider, for example, the motion sensing component can be applied to games, etc., and is very suitable.

To sum up, according to the utility model discloses an ear-wearing and glasses formula brain activity sensor passes through the novel EEG signal sampling position of contact, that is, concha wall, antitragus, intertragic notch, tragus, the auricle back, and/or position such as V type is sunken between auricle and skull, can provide the stable electrode strength that is on a parallel with the concha bottom that is different from prior art, and, it can accomplish the contact through dressing the action, need not provide the application of force by extra structure, can reach stable contact naturally, fairly help acquireing high-quality EEG signal.

Claims

1. An ear-worn electrode structure comprising:

an elastic member made of a conductive material and having an elastic restoring force; and

an insulating material configured to cover an outer portion of the elastic member and expose at least one conductive region,

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the elastic member is configured to be electrically connected to a physiological signal acquisition circuit, and the at least one conductive area is used as an electrode constituting a sampling loop for acquiring an electrophysiological signal; and

when the elastic part is arranged in an ear canal, stable propping force can be generated between the at least one conductive area and the ear canal through the elastic restoring force.

2. The structure of claim 1, wherein the insulating material is implemented as an insulating coating.

3. The structure of claim 1, further comprising an outer ear canal portion coupled to the resilient member to abut against a concha wall, antitragus, tragus, and/or intertragic notch of the outer ear canal when the resilient member is disposed in the ear canal.

4. The structure of claim 1, further comprising a support body coupled to the elastic member.

5. The structure of claim 4, wherein the supporting body is made of an electrically conductive material, and the elastic member is electrically connected to the physiological signal acquisition circuit through the supporting body.

6. The structure of claim 1, wherein the physiological signal acquisition circuit is implemented to be disposed in a housing, and the housing is disposed in one of the following positions, comprising: the ear in which the ear canal is located, the other ear, the head, the neck, and the wrist.

7. The structure of claim 1, wherein the electrophysiological signal is obtained via a wearable physiological sensing device.

8. The structure of claim 7, wherein the wearable physiological sensing device further comprises an audio unit and a sound generating element.

9. An ear-worn electrode structure comprising:

a conductive portion combined with the elastic member and forming an electrical connection,

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the elastic component is electrically connected to a physiological signal acquisition circuit through the conductive part to serve as an electrode constituting a sampling loop for acquiring an electrophysiological signal; and

when the elastic part is arranged in an auditory canal, the elastic restoring force can ensure that the elastic part and the auditory canal can achieve stable propping force.

10. The structure of claim 9, further comprising a conductive fiber covering the exterior of the elastic member and electrically connected to the elastic member to serve as the electrode.

11. The structure of claim 9, further comprising an outer ear canal portion coupled to the resilient member to abut against a concha wall, antitragus, tragus, and/or intertragic notch of the outer ear canal when the resilient member is disposed in the ear canal.

12. The structure of claim 9, further comprising a support body for coupling with the elastic member.

13. The structure of claim 12, wherein the supporting body is made of an electrically conductive material, and the elastic member is electrically connected to the physiological signal acquisition circuit through the supporting body.

14. The structure of claim 9, wherein the physiological signal acquisition circuit is implemented to be disposed in a housing, and the housing is disposed in one of the following positions, comprising: the ear in which the ear canal is located, the other ear, the head, the neck, and the wrist.

15. The structure of claim 9, wherein the electrophysiological signal is obtained via a wearable physiological sensing device.

16. The structure of claim 15, wherein the wearable physiological sensing device further comprises an audio unit and a sound generating element.

17. A wearable physiological sensing device, comprising:

a first ear-wearing electrode structure and a second ear-wearing electrode structure respectively disposed on two ears of a user,

a physiological signal capturing circuit electrically connected to the first ear-wearing electrode structure and the second ear-wearing electrode structure,

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the first ear-wearing electrode structure and the second ear-wearing electrode structure are respectively made of at least partially elastic conductive materials so as to respectively contact with two ears of the user, and the physiological signal acquisition circuit can acquire an electroencephalogram signal of the user through the elastic conductive materials of the first ear-wearing electrode structure and the second ear-wearing electrode structure.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the resilient conductive material of the first and second ear-worn electrode structures is implemented to contact at least one of: the ear canal, and the bottom of the concha.

19. The device of claim 17, further comprising an audio control unit and at least one sound emitting member.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the physiological signal acquisition circuit is implemented in at least one housing, and the at least one housing is disposed in at least one of the following locations, comprising: at least one of the two ears, a neck, a head, and a wrist.

21. A wearable physiological sensing device, comprising:

a wrist-worn structure disposed on a wrist of a user;

a physiological signal capturing circuit, at least partially disposed in the wrist-worn structure;

a first electrode and a second electrode electrically connected to the wrist-worn structure; and

an ear inner housing having a conductive region on the surface thereof as the first electrode,

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the inner ear shell is configured to be stably maintained on an ear of the user so as to generate a stable abutting force between the first electrode and the skin of the ear; and

the physiological signal acquisition circuit is constructed to acquire an electroencephalogram signal of the user through the first electrode and the second electrode.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the second electrode is implemented as one of the following, comprising: the other conductive region of the ear inner shell is arranged on the other ear and the head in order to contact the ear.