KR101144434B1 - Non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a non-invasive blood glucose measuring device, and more particularly, to a non-invasive blood glucose measuring device, which, unlike a conventional invasive blood glucose measuring device, measures blood glucose by applying a vein recognition technique without a blood sampling process, It is possible to solve various problems such as the cost burden of the testee according to the position of the subject, and to improve the accuracy by greatly reducing the change of the measured blood glucose value according to the measurement position, which is one of the biggest problems of the non- .

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus,

The present invention solves various problems such as physical pain due to blood sampling, cost burden of a testee due to the purchase of a strip, and the like by measuring blood glucose by applying a vein recognition technique without a blood sampling process unlike a conventional invasive blood glucose measuring device Unlike conventional non-invasive blood glucose measurement devices, blood vessel information in the skin and blood glucose measurement positions to be subjected to blood glucose measurement are previously stored in the blood vessel information storage unit and the blood vessel measurement position storage unit, By allowing the measurement of blood glucose at the measurement site, it is possible to increase the accuracy of blood glucose measurement by reducing the change of the blood sugar value according to the measurement position, which is one of the biggest problems of the conventional non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus, non-invasive measuring device.

Diabetes mellitus is a hormone secreted by the pancreas. It is a hormone that secretes less or does not work properly and accumulates glucose in the blood. It causes various complications such as hypertension, kidney failure, and visual impairment. Once you have diabetes, there is no complete cure, and it is important to maintain adequate blood glucose levels in your blood through diet, exercise, and insulin, and accurate blood glucose measurements are essential for managing these blood glucose levels.

Currently, the most widely used method of measuring blood glucose is a method of measuring the blood glucose level in the blood by measuring the amount of current flowing when a blood sample is reacted with an enzyme and a predetermined voltage is applied. However, this method has a problem in that it is necessary to continuously purchase the disposable blood glucose measurement strip as well as the pain due to blood collection at every measurement.

To solve these problems, many non-invasive blood glucose measurement techniques have been developed for irradiating infrared rays to the skin and analyzing the degree of absorption or scattering of irradiated infrared rays in the skin (US Pat. No. 6,775,564, US Pat. No. 7,409,239, Articles according to the RJ McNichols, GL Cote, "Optical glucose sensing in biological fluids-an overview" JournalofBiomedicalOptics 5 (1), 516 (2000) , etc.) However, in the case of such a technique the measurement position, the temperature of the skin, change in blood glucose level is measured And it is difficult to put such technology into practical use.

In order to measure the blood glucose value more accurately, a technique for measuring the blood glucose level at the blood vessel position has been disclosed (Korean Patent Publication No. 2010-8073, 2010-22614). However, it is also difficult to measure the blood glucose level at the same blood vessel position Therefore, it is difficult not only to solve the problem of changing the blood glucose level according to the measurement position, but also to realize it as an actual product by using a confocal microscope, ultrasonic wave or MRI to detect and position the blood vessel.

Therefore, it is possible to solve various problems such as physical pain caused by blood sampling, cost burden of the testee due to the purchase of the strip, and the like, by measuring the blood sugar by applying the vein recognition technique without the blood sampling process unlike the conventional invasive blood glucose measuring device , Unlike a conventional non-invasive blood glucose measuring device, blood vessel information in the skin and a blood glucose measuring position to be subjected to blood glucose measurement are previously stored in the blood vessel information storing unit and the blood vessel measuring position storing unit, It is necessary to develop a non-invasive blood glucose measuring device capable of increasing the accuracy by greatly reducing the change of the measured blood glucose value according to the measurement position, which is one of the biggest problems of the conventional non-invasive blood glucose measuring device. to be.

Accordingly, unlike the conventional invasive blood glucose measurement device, the present invention is applied to solve the above problems. Unlike the conventional invasive blood glucose measurement device, the present invention measures blood glucose by applying vein recognition technology without blood collection, And an object of the present invention is to provide a non-invasive blood glucose measuring device capable of solving various problems such as cost burden of a testee.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a blood glucose measurement device and a blood vessel measurement position storage device which store blood vessel information in the skin and a blood glucose measurement position to be subjected to blood glucose measurement in advance in a blood vessel information storage section and a blood vessel measurement position storage section, The non-invasive blood glucose measurement device which can increase the accuracy by greatly reducing the change of the measured blood glucose value according to the measurement position, which is one of the biggest problems of the conventional non-invasive blood glucose measurement device, .

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a blood vessel measuring apparatus comprising: a blood vessel information register for registering blood vessel information inside a specific skin area; A blood vessel image capturing unit for capturing an image of a blood vessel inside the skin; and a blood vessel image capturing unit for capturing an image of the blood vessel inside the skin; A blood vessel information extracting unit for extracting blood vessel information from a blood vessel image photographed by the blood vessel image capturing unit; A blood vessel information storage unit for storing blood vessel information extracted by the blood vessel information extraction unit; A blood glucose measurement position selecting unit for selecting a blood vessel positioned near the skin or having a thickness of a predetermined value or more based on the information obtained by the blood vessel information extracting unit to select a position of the blood vessel; And a blood glucose measurement position storage unit for storing blood glucose measurement position information selected by the blood glucose measurement position selection unit, wherein the blood glucose value determination unit comprises: a blood vessel image capturing unit for capturing an image of blood vessels in the skin; A blood vessel information extracting unit for extracting blood vessel information from a blood vessel image photographed by the blood vessel image capturing unit; A blood vessel matching unit for comparing two blood vessel information based on the blood vessel information obtained by the blood vessel information extraction unit and the blood vessel information stored in the blood vessel information storage unit; And a blood glucose level measuring unit for measuring a blood glucose level in the blood at a blood glucose measurement position stored in the blood glucose measurement position storage unit when it is determined that the two blood vessel information is identical in the blood vessel matching unit.

In the present invention, the blood vessel image capturing unit may include an infrared ray examining unit for capturing blood vessel images for irradiating the skin with infrared rays; And a camera for photographing an image of a blood vessel formed by absorbing and scattering infrared rays irradiated from the infrared ray irradiating unit on the skin.

In the present invention, the blood vessel information extracting unit may include a preprocessing unit for performing image preprocessing to extract an accurate vein pattern for the acquired blood vessel image; A blood vessel characteristic extracting unit for extracting characteristics of blood vessels required for blood vessel matching, such as the thickness of a blood vessel, the branching characteristics of the blood vessel, and the geometric characteristics of the blood vessel according to the position of the blood vessel from the blood vessel image pre-processed in the pre-

In the present invention, the blood vessel information storage unit and the blood glucose measurement position storage unit may store one or more blood vessel information and one or more blood glucose measurement positions.

In the present invention, the blood glucose value measuring unit may include an infrared ray irradiating unit for measuring blood glucose, which emits two or more kinds of wavelengths to measure blood glucose in blood; A blood vessel image photographing camera for photographing an image formed by absorption and scattering of infrared rays emitted from the infrared ray irradiating unit for blood glucose measurement; And a blood glucose value calculation unit for calculating blood glucose values by analyzing an image of a region corresponding to the blood glucose measurement position in the image photographed by the camera.

In the present invention, the blood vessel information registration unit may further include an ID input unit for registering a plurality of users or various skin regions separately.

In the present invention, the blood glucose value determination unit may further include an ID input unit for inputting an ID before blood vessel image capture so that blood vessel matching can be performed only on specific blood vessel information among the registered blood vessel information.

The non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus according to the present invention has the following effects.

First, unlike the conventional invasive blood glucose measuring apparatus, the present invention measures blood glucose by applying a vein recognition technique without a blood sampling process, and thus, various problems such as physical pain due to blood sampling, burden of a testee due to purchase of a strip, Can be solved.

Second, unlike conventional non-invasive blood glucose measurement devices, the present invention stores blood vessel information in the skin and blood glucose measurement positions to be subjected to blood glucose measurement in advance in the blood vessel information storage section and the blood vessel measurement position storage section, It is possible to increase the accuracy by greatly reducing the variation of the measured blood glucose value according to the measurement position, which is one of the biggest problems of the conventional non-invasive blood glucose measuring device, by always being able to measure the blood glucose at the same measurement position.

1 is a schematic diagram for explaining a non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a view showing an embodiment of a device for photographing a finger vein image according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a view showing another embodiment of a device for photographing a finger vein image according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 illustrates a preprocessing process for a finger vein image according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
FIG. 5A is a screen showing a finger vein image after a preprocess according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
FIG. 5B is a screen showing a binary image of a finger vein image according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
FIG. 5c is a screen showing a thumbnail image of a finger vein image according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.
FIG. 6 is a view showing a blood glucose measurement position on a blood vessel selected from the preprocessed blood vessel image of FIG. 5B; FIG.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a blood vessel information storing unit and a blood glucose measuring position storing unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which blood vessel information and a blood glucose measuring position are stored. FIG.
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a blood glucose level measurement process according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.
9 is a configuration diagram of a non-invasive blood glucose measurement device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
10 is a view showing a form in which blood vessel information and blood glucose measurement positions are stored for each ID according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of related art or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, The description will be omitted and terms to be described below are defined in consideration of the functions of the present invention and can be changed according to the intention or custom of the user or the operator. It should be based on the contents throughout the specification.

Hereinafter, a non-invasive blood glucose measurement device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, the non-invasive blood glucose measuring device mainly comprises a blood vessel information registering unit 100 for registering blood vessel information within a specific skin area, And a blood glucose level determining unit 200 for determining a blood glucose level.

First, the blood vessel information registration unit 100 includes a blood vessel image capturing unit 110 for capturing an image of a blood vessel inside the skin; A blood vessel information extraction unit 120 for extracting blood vessel information from a blood vessel image photographed by the blood vessel image capturing unit 110; A blood vessel information storage unit 130 for storing blood vessel information extracted by the blood vessel information extraction unit 120; A blood glucose measurement position selection unit 140 for selecting a blood vessel positioned close to the skin or having a predetermined thickness or more based on the information obtained from the blood vessel information extraction unit 120 to select a position of the blood vessel; And a blood glucose measurement position storage unit 150 for storing a blood glucose measurement position selected by the blood glucose measurement position selection unit 140. The blood glucose level determination unit 200 determines blood glucose level of a blood vessel image A photographing unit 110; A blood vessel information extraction unit 120 for extracting blood vessel information from a blood vessel image photographed by the blood vessel image capturing unit 110; A blood vessel matching unit 210 for comparing two blood vessel information based on the blood vessel information obtained by the blood vessel information extraction unit 120 and the blood vessel information stored in the blood vessel information storage unit 130; And a blood glucose level measuring unit 220 for measuring a blood glucose level in the blood at a blood glucose measurement position stored in the blood glucose measurement position storage unit 150 when it is determined that the two blood vessel information are identical in the blood vessel matching unit 210 .

The operation of the non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus of the present invention having such a configuration will be described. First, the blood vessel image capturing unit 110 captures an image of a blood vessel within a specific skin area. Here, the blood vessel image capturing unit 110 preferably includes a blood vessel image capturing camera for capturing an image of blood vessels formed by absorption and scattering of infrared rays emitted from the skin on the skin. (Korean Patent No. 10-746194, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-265269, etc.)

2 is a view showing an embodiment of a finger vein image capturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In order to obtain a finger vein image as shown in Fig. 2, when the finger 111 is first placed on the transparent window 112 and the infrared light is irradiated on the finger using the infrared light source 113, the irradiated infrared rays are absorbed And images the infrared ray passing through the finger with the camera 114 to obtain a blood vessel image according to the presence or absence of blood vessels.

3 is a view showing another embodiment of a finger vein image capturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3, the infrared light source 113 is disposed on both sides of the finger 111 in the case of another embodiment for obtaining a finger vein image. Next, the preprocessing unit in the blood vessel information extracting unit 120 performs image preprocessing such as image enhancement, noise reduction, and rotation compensation on the blood vessel image.

FIG. 4A is a view showing a preprocessing process of a finger vein image according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5A is a screen showing a finger vein image after a preprocessing according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. FIG. 5C is a screen showing a thumbnail image of a finger vein image according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a view illustrating a screen image of a finger vein image according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a view showing a blood glucose measurement position on a blood vessel. FIG.

As can be seen from Figs. 4 to 6, Fig. 4 shows an example of image preprocessing for finger vein images photographed with infrared rays. 41, No. 35, pp.7429-7436, Dec 2002.) The image preprocessing is performed by using a computer program, It depends on the target skin area or matching algorithm. For example, FIG. 5A shows a result of performing only minimal preprocessing such as finger area extraction and rotation correction on a finger blood vessel image, and further preprocessing is required according to a matching algorithm. Figures 5b and 5c show the results of performing additional pretreatments, such as binarization and thinning, with respect to Figure 5a.

Next, the blood vessel information extracting unit extracts features of blood vessels such as the thickness of the blood vessel, the branching characteristics of the blood vessels, and the geometrical characteristics of the blood vessels necessary for the blood vessel matching and the position selection suitable for blood glucose measurement from the blood vessel image after the preprocessing. There are many kinds of characteristic information required for matching blood vessels in addition to those described above (Korean Patent 10-259475, 10-428540, N. Miura, A. Nagasaka, and T. Miyatake, " Extraction of finger vein patterns using maximum curvature points in image profiles, "IEICE Trans. Inf. & Syst., Vol. E90-D, No. 8 Aug 2007.)

These features extracted from the blood vessel information extraction unit 120 are stored in the blood vessel information storage unit 130. If necessary, the blood vessel information storage unit 130 stores an original image captured by the blood vessel image capture unit 110, May also be stored.

In addition, the blood glucose measuring position selecting unit 140 selects a position for measuring blood glucose from the blood vessel information extracted by the blood vessel information extracting unit 120. [ For more accurate and consistent blood glucose measurements, it is preferable that blood vessels be placed near the skin or have a thickness greater than a certain value, if possible. The position of the blood vessel satisfying these conditions with respect to the preprocessed blood vessel image of FIG. 5B is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, one or more positions suitable for blood glucose measurement may be obtained for a specific blood vessel image, and a more reliable blood glucose value can be obtained by measuring and combining blood glucose at a plurality of positions.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a blood vessel information storage unit and a blood glucose measurement position storage unit according to an embodiment of the present invention in which blood vessel information and blood glucose measurement positions are stored. FIG.

7, in the blood vessel information registration unit 100, blood vessel information and blood glucose measurement position information (for example, blood vessel information 1, blood vessel information 2, blood vessel information n, measurement position 1, the measurement position 2 ... the measurement position n) is completed, the user can determine the blood glucose value in the blood based on the registered information each time the blood glucose is measured. In order to determine the blood sugar value in the blood in the blood sugar value determining unit 200, the blood vessel image capturing unit 110 captures an image of blood vessel inside the skin, and the blood vessel information extracting unit 120 extracts blood vessel information from the blood vessel image The extraction process is the same as that in the blood vessel information registration unit 100.

The blood vessel matching unit 210 receives the blood vessel information obtained in the process and the blood vessel information stored in the blood vessel information storage unit 130, and compares the two blood vessel information.

If it is determined that the two blood vessel information is identical in the blood vessel matching unit 210, the blood sugar value measuring unit 220 measures the blood glucose value in the blood at the blood glucose measurement position stored in the blood glucose measurement position storage unit 150.

Generally, in the vein recognition field, the degree of similarity of blood vessels is determined in order to determine whether a registered user and a user requesting authentication are the same person. In the present invention, the same user is measured for blood glucose values at the same blood vessel position .

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a blood glucose level measurement process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8, in the blood glucose level measurement process, two or more types of wavelengths are emitted in the measurement of the blood glucose level in the blood by the infrared ray irradiating unit 221 for measuring blood glucose. The emitted infrared rays are absorbed and scattered by the skin 222, And images are taken by the blood vessel image capturing camera 223. The blood glucose value calculation unit 224 calculates the blood glucose value through image analysis only for the region of the blood vessel corresponding to the blood glucose measurement position shown in FIG. 6 within the blood vessel image captured by the blood vessel image capturing camera 223. The blood vessel image capturing camera 223 in the blood glucose value measuring unit 220 can be used jointly with the camera 114 shown in FIG. 2 and FIG.

The infrared rays used for blood glucose measurement usually have a wavelength of 700 nm to 1800 nm, and blood glucose measurement is carried out by using wavelengths different in degree of absorption into water, hemoglobin, and glucose. The infrared ray emitting means may be an infrared ray diode or an infrared ray laser. When two or more kinds of wavelengths are used, the infrared ray emitting means corresponding to each wavelength is sequentially turned on and off, Calculate blood glucose values.

9 is a configuration diagram of a non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

9, when the finger 111 is placed on the transparent window 112 and the infrared ray is irradiated on the finger using the infrared LED 113, the irradiated infrared rays are absorbed and scattered from the finger skin The non-invasive blood glucose measurement device includes an infrared LED 113 used for extracting blood vessel information and an infrared LED 113 used for blood glucose measurement. 221A, and 221B are arranged in a line, and a camera 223 capable of capturing an infrared image. When the blood vessel information is registered, the infrared LED 113 is turned on, and when measuring the blood sugar value, the infrared LEDs 221A and 221B alternately turn on and off. Further, the infrared LED 113 used in the blood vessel information registration may use the infrared LEDs 221A and 221B used for measuring the blood sugar value.

In addition to the basic configuration for measuring blood glucose, when a plurality of users or a plurality of skin regions are registered, an ID input unit may be added to distinguish and store each blood vessel information when registering blood vessel information.

FIG. 10 is a view showing a form in which blood vessel information and blood glucose measurement positions are stored for each ID according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the blood vessel information and the blood glucose measurement position are stored in a form in which the blood vessel information and the blood glucose measurement position are classified and stored by ID as shown in FIG. 10, when a specific user attempts to match blood vessels after inputting his or her ID Blood vessel matching is performed only for specific blood vessel information corresponding to the ID among the registered blood vessel information. This is well known in the field of biometrics as verification.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

100: blood vessel information registration unit 110: blood vessel image capturing unit
120: blood vessel information extracting unit 130: blood vessel information storing unit
140: blood glucose measurement position selection unit 150: blood glucose measurement position storage unit
200: blood glucose value determination unit 210: blood vessel matching unit
220: blood sugar value measuring unit 221: infrared ray examining unit for blood glucose measurement
222: Skin 223: Vascular imaging camera
224: blood glucose value calculation unit

Claims (7)

A non-invasive blood glucose measurement unit comprising a blood vessel information registration unit for registering blood vessel information inside a specific skin area, and a blood glucose value determination unit for determining a blood glucose value in blood based on the blood vessel information and the blood glucose measurement position information obtained by the blood vessel information registration unit In the apparatus,
The blood vessel information registration unit includes a blood vessel image capturing unit for capturing an image of blood vessels in the skin; A blood vessel information extracting unit for extracting blood vessel information from a blood vessel image photographed by the blood vessel image capturing unit; A blood vessel information storage unit for storing blood vessel information extracted by the blood vessel information extraction unit; A blood glucose measurement position selecting unit for selecting a blood vessel positioned near the skin or having a thickness of a predetermined value or more based on the information obtained by the blood vessel information extracting unit to select a position of the blood vessel; And a blood glucose measurement position storage unit for storing blood glucose measurement position information selected by the blood glucose measurement position selecting unit,
Wherein the blood glucose value determination unit comprises: a blood vessel image capturing unit for capturing an image of a blood vessel inside the skin; A blood vessel information extracting unit for extracting blood vessel information from a blood vessel image photographed by the blood vessel image capturing unit; A blood vessel matching unit for comparing two blood vessel information based on the blood vessel information obtained by the blood vessel information extraction unit and the blood vessel information stored in the blood vessel information storage unit; And a blood glucose level measuring unit for measuring a blood glucose level in the blood at a blood glucose measurement position stored in the blood glucose measurement position storage unit when it is determined that the two blood vessel information is identical in the blood vessel matching unit. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the blood vessel image radiographing unit comprises: an infrared ray irradiating unit for radiating infrared rays to the skin; And a camera for photographing an image of a blood vessel formed by absorption and scattering of infrared rays irradiated from the infrared ray irradiating unit in the skin. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the blood vessel information extracting unit comprises: a preprocessing unit for performing image preprocessing to extract an accurate vein pattern for the obtained blood vessel image; And a blood vessel characteristic extracting unit for extracting characteristics of blood vessels required for blood vessel matching such as the thickness of the blood vessel, the branching characteristics of the blood vessel, and the geometric characteristics of the blood vessel according to the position of the blood vessel from the blood vessel image pre-processed in the pre- Blood glucose measuring device. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the blood vessel information storage unit and the blood glucose measurement position storage unit are capable of storing one or more blood vessel information and one or more blood glucose measurement positions. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the blood glucose value measuring unit comprises: an infrared ray irradiating unit for measuring blood glucose, which emits two or more kinds of wavelengths to measure blood glucose in blood; A blood vessel image photographing camera for photographing an image formed by absorption and scattering of infrared rays emitted from the infrared ray irradiating unit for blood glucose measurement; And a blood glucose level calculator for calculating an blood glucose level by analyzing an image of a region corresponding to a blood glucose measurement position in an image photographed by the camera. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the blood vessel information registration unit further comprises an ID input unit for registering a plurality of users or a plurality of skin regions separately. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the blood glucose value determination unit further comprises an ID input unit for inputting an ID before blood vessel image capture so that blood vessel matching can be performed only for specific blood vessel information among the registered blood vessel information.

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