ES2663417B1 - System of intelligent monitoring probes applied to everyday objects - Google Patents

Description

SYSTEM OF INTELLIGENT MONITORING PROBES APPLIED TO

OBJECTS OF EVERYDAY USE

SECTOR OF THE TECHNIQUE

The present invention belongs to the health sector, medical diagnosis and child development.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Child development professionals use scales of development [Roid, GH, and Sampers, JL. Merrill-Palmer-revised scales of development. Stoelting, 2004] [Provost, Beth and Heimerl, Sandra and McClin, Cate and Kim, Nae-Hwa and Lopez, Brian R. and Kodituwakku, Piyadasa, Concurrent Validity of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II Motor Scale and the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 in Children wlth Developmental Delays, Pedlatrlc Physlcal Therapy: 2004 - Volume 16 -Issue 3 - pp 149-156] for the evaluation of the development of children and the detection of possible difficulties. The application of these scales is based on observation while the child manipulates certain objects such as rattles, buckets, balls, etc. These scales define the objectives that children of different ages must meet in the manipulation of objects and allow the identification of delays in cognitive and psychomotor development. The examiner must verify if the child is able to do an activity with an object and in some cases the time in which he does it. The tools that the professional uses to carry out the activities defined in the scale are: a stopwatch for the manual taking of the times of the completion of the whole activity, a form that is filled in throughout the activity and the objects or toys defined in the scale. Optionally a video camera can be used to record the activities and be able to do a later visualization. This study is carried out with the frequency set by each health system, in the case of having detected an anomaly by the user's environment.

Today there are many works aimed at applying the so-called Internet of Things (Internet of Things, loT) in many aspects of life. Most of them looking for a better knowledge of the habits of the users, either for commercial uses or to make our lives easier. There are other applications of loT [Gerd Kortuem; Fahim Kawsar; Vasughi Sundramoorthy; Daniel Fitton "Smart objects as building blocks for the Internet of things "IEEE Internet Computing (Volume: 14, Issue: 1, Pag 44-51)] that seek the safety of the users that carry these devices (wearables). Other related studies in the same line are [Donghee S., et al. "Multifunctional wearable devices for diagnosis and therapy of movement disorders", Nature Nanotechnology 9, 397-404 (2014)] and [Marschollek M, et al. "Wearable sensors in healthcare and sensor-enhanced health information systems: all our tomorrows?" Healthc Inform Res. 2012 Jun; 18 (2): 97-104 \.

In the area of diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children up to 12 months, the work presented in [ Tracy L. Westeyn, Gregory D. Abowd, Thad E. Starner, Jeremy M. Johnson, "Monitoring children's developmental progress using augmented toys and activity recognition "Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 2012 - Springer pag. 169-191] is based mostly on the analysis of videos to determine whether the child manipulates a series of objects or not, and how often. But the study does not deal with the way in which objects are manipulated. Regarding the studies related to elderly people, they are based on the adaptation of the homes to facilitate the life of these people, in the tele-assistance and the detection of falls.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention defines a data capture and analysis system, which parameterizes the way of using everyday objects such as cups, spoons or toys. To do this, sensors are integrated into these objects.

The objective of this system is to detect possible cognitive or psychomotor difficulties in people after analyzing the data collected when using the objects. In this way, the analysis of the information results in a series of alerts that will help to determine, to the professionals of the health sciences, whether a user should be observed / analyzed more carefully.

The system defined in this invention is useful for the detection of anomalous motor patterns during the performance of activities in which both fine and gross motor skills are put into practice. The movements of fine motor skills are less spatial, usually slower and more controlled; such is the case of manual writing, the realization of a tower or the skewing of the accounts of a colly While the gross psychomotricity is composed of much broader movements, less controlled and not based on the visual-manual coordination but on the general coordination of the body in relation to space, as happens when a ball is kicked. The system can be calibrated so that it can be applied both to the detection of movement patterns of fine and gross motor skills.

When the movements are well organized in functional and intentional sequences, that is, when we are the so-called "praxias", for example, take a cup of coffee and drink from it by the handle, it is relatively easy to describe the motor pattern and any alteration of it using the monitoring probe. Thus, not only does it have an application in the detection of motor and cognitive development difficulties of children, but it will also be useful in the diagnosis of motor difficulties that have occurred in adults who, for example, have suffered a cerebrovascular accident and are affected areas of the cerebral cortex, or have some kind of disease that causes cognitive impairment.

The system consists of one or several probes to which sensors and a collector are attached. The collector receives the information from the sensors integrated in the probes and sends them to a storage system, through a network, for further analysis by an analysis system.

The probes are integrated into everyday objects such as a cup, a spoon, a ball or a rattle.

The probe is composed of a processor, a wireless communication device, a motion sensor, and connectors to integrate sensors such as light, force or other sensors. The probe will have small dimensions to be able to integrate it into small objects and it is powered by a battery. In addition, light and sound emitters will be incorporated into the probe so that they can make indications about aspects of its operation.

The collector communicates with the probes, managing the start and end of the activities and receiving the data from the sensors from the probes. The activities can be managed from a user interface that runs on a smartphone, tablet or computer and that communicates wirelessly (wifi, bluetooth, NFC ...) with the collector. The person who manages the activity may add additional data in the interface, such as the identifier of the person who performs the activity, and visual observations on the development of the activity, which you may see fit to annotate. The collector communicates through a network connection with the storage system to send the data collected from the activities. Activity is called the period of time during which information is being collected from a person using a sensorized object with the probe system.

The storage system keeps in a database the information of the different activities: type of activity, date in which the activity was carried out, the values of the sensors and annotations about the professionals who have observed the activity (if applicable) .

The analysis system retrieves the information from the storage system to analyze it applying techniques of data analysis and artificial intelligence and obtain a diagnosis about any anomaly detected in the data of the person analyzed. To apply these analyzes, we can count on both the history of the same person with different sensed objects over time (longitudinal analysis), and with data of the same type of object, obtained from many people with similar characteristics (transversal analysis) .

The communication between the different parties (probes, collector, storage system and analysis system) is carried out using appropriate security mechanisms to guarantee an adequate level of privacy, authenticity and integrity of the data. Likewise, standard mechanisms that implement an access control to the data will be used so that they can only be manipulated by authorized persons.

An embodiment of this system consists of the integration of the probe in a cup to know the patterns of movement when using it, with the aim of detecting possible beginnings of neurodegenerative diseases.

Another embodiment consists of the integration of the probe inside a ball to analyze the shape and intensity with which a person hits or throws with their hands, through parameters such as maximum acceleration, maximum speed or turns.

Another embodiment consists of a set of beakers where a probe is inserted in each of the beakers and the time a person takes to make the beaker tower and the way in which it moves them is measured. By placing light sensors on the upper and lower faces of the beakers, you determine how many beakers you have managed to put in the tower.

Another embodiment applied to children under 1 year consists of integrating a probe with force sensors in a rattle to measure patterns of movement and force with which it is grasped.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1 shows the general scheme of the system with its main components, including from left to right the intelligent monitoring probes that send data to the collector and which in turn sends them through a network to the storage system for further analysis.

In Figure 2 you can see a diagram of the blocks that make up each intelligent monitoring probe.

Figure 3 represents a schematic drawing of a probe, in which some of the sensors and elements that compose it can be seen.

Figure 4 shows the diagram of one of the devices in which to incorporate the probes. The drawing represents a rattle in which a probe with its sensors is included.

MODE OF REALIZATION

The system, shown in Figure 1, consists of one or more probes (101) to which sensors can be coupled and a collector (102) that receives the information from the sensors integrated in the probes and sends them to a system storage (104), through a network (103), for further analysis by an analysis system (105).

The probes (101) are integrated into everyday objects such as a cup, spoon, ball or a rattle.

Each probe is composed of the following elements, represented in Figure 2: a processor (201, 301), a wireless communication device (202, 302), a motion sensor (203, 303) that can integrate accelerometer, gyroscope and VTR on the three space and connector axes to integrate sensors such as light sensors (204, 304), force (205, 304) or others (206, 304). The probe, represented schematically in Figure 3, has small dimensions to be able to integrate it into small objects and an autonomous system of battery power (207) of reduced size but at the same time with a sufficient autonomy to support a complete work session without need to charge. Furthermore, light emitters (305) and a sound emitter (306) are incorporated into the probe so that it can make indications either of a technical level (for example: sensor error), operative (prepared) or indications of encouragement to persons they manipulate the object; for example, you can turn on a light or produce music if you reach a predefined goal.

A preferred embodiment consists of a rattle with an integrated monitoring probe. A classic rattle is used by professionals to assess for example if a child under the age of 1 moves it when it is placed in the hand, with a simple visual appreciation. A rattle with motion sensors will give information on how it moves; if you also add some force sensors, it will give information about the force with which it is grasped or what parts of the rattle it grasps, or if it is done with one hand or two.

The structure of the rattle in the preferred embodiment is composed of two spheroids joined by a central handle as shown in Figure 4.

If a probe (401) is integrated into one of the spheroids, it is possible to measure the information of its sensors that is recorded with a predetermined period (for example every 10 milliseconds). The sensors used in this preferred embodiment are:

A) The motion sensor (402), which gives movement patterns such as acceleration, speed and level of agitation in predefined time periods (for example every 10 milliseconds), and also measures the maximum values of these parameters during the observation time.

B) Three force sensors (403), placed in the central handle and in each of the spheroid at the ends of the rattle, which allow knowing with what force the rattle is held by each of these parts.

The probe is configured to emit sound in order to indicate events as start or end of activity. Likewise, flashes of light can be produced with movement and music to incite the rattle to move.

The other spheroid carries inside it an acoustic box (404) to generate the typical noise of the classic rattles when moving it.

From a user interface (106) the collector is instructed when to send messages to the monitoring device for start and end of activity, for example, for an activity consisting of throwing a ball, it can be defined that it starts when indicated by the person who manages the system and ends automatically when the ball stops. During the activity, the sensorization device periodically records the measured values of movement (acceleration, speed, rotation, level of agitation) and the average values of the three force sensors. These values can be sent to the collector as they are generated, or they are stored and sent at the end of the activity. You can also record the maximum values of these parameters and the moment of time from the start of the activity in which they were reached. The maximum values are transmitted to the collector after the activity has been completed.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION

Object monitoring devices are clearly susceptible to industrial application. These devices, in different embodiments, can be incorporated into different objects of common use. Thus, by way of example, they can be incorporated into children's toys (for example, balls or rattles), with which it is possible to obtain information on the use of these. The data obtained can be used to identify possible non-usual uses of the toys, and generate alerts about possible development difficulties of the child who is using it. In the same way, they can be imbibed in cups or spoons, to detect if they increase the tremors of an older person and to detect possible diseases that cause cognitive deterioration like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, or in any other everyday object to perform similar functions. The idea of its use in games is also possible in elderly people, where they can be useful to register the use of different pieces. In this case, the data collected can allow estimates of the progress of diseases that have cognitive impairment.

Claims (13)

1. System of intelligent monitoring probes applied to everyday objects that includes the following elements: to. Intelligent monitoring probe (101) with: i. Processor (201) that obtains the information from the sensors, processes them and sends them to a collector through wireless communication. i¡. Wireless communication subsystem (202). iii. Sensors that collect information: movement (203), light (204), force (205) and others (206). iv. Battery (207). b. Collecting system (102) with wireless communication subsystem, which collects the information of the objects to be processed and sent to a storage system (104) through a network (103) such as the Internet. c. User interface (106) so that users can control the process of collecting data generated by the probes. d. Analysis system (105) that processes the information of the objects to obtain the early detection of difficulties. 2. Probe system according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of one or several probes according to the activity to be performed. 3. Probe system according to claim 2, characterized in that each probe that composes it can measure different parameters depending on the sensor that is integrated. 4. Probe system according to claim 3 characterized in that each probe that composes it can measure movement patterns such as acceleration, speed, level of agitation, time of movement and time to reach maximum values with motion sensors. 5. Probe system according to claims 3 and 4 characterized in that each probe that composes it can measure the force with which they are fastened certain parts of the object with force sensors or can measure the amount of light that the object receives by some of its parts, with light sensors. Probe system according to the previous claims, characterized in that each probe that composes it can communicate with the users by emitting sounds and / or light. 7. Probe system according to the preceding claims characterized in that the probes of the system can be integrated into different everyday objects such as cups, spoons, puzzles, balls, rattles, among others. System of probes according to the preceding claims, characterized in that different activities can be established with the objects, such as: drinking a tea in a cup, moving the tea with a spoon, making a puzzle, moving a rattle or throwing a ball. System of probes according to the previous claims, characterized in that they have a user interface from which the type of activity and the phases thereof can be controlled, and in what conditions an activity is started and ended. 10. Probe system according to previous claims characterized in that the collector (102) collects the data of the activities sent by the probes, said collector can be implemented in a computer such as computer, tablet or Smartphone, which can be the same or a different one to the one used to implement the user interface. 11. Probe system according to previous claims characterized in that the data generated by the probes, and stored in the different parts of the system or in the communication processes, are protected with mechanisms that guarantee an adequate level of privacy, integrity and authenticity. 12. Probe system according to the preceding claims characterized by ensuring that only authorized persons can access information that identifies the results of people's activities. Probe system according to the previous claims, characterized in that it uses data analysis systems with artificial intelligence techniques on the processed data of the probes, allowing the detection of psychomotor and cognitive difficulties to people of any age.