INNOVATIVE KIT THAT INCLUDES A WEARABLE FOR DETECTING, CHARACTERIZING, AND MONITORING INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENT AND ATTACHABLE NON-INTRUSIVE INTERVENTIONS TO RELIEVE TREMORS IN HUMAN LIMBS

Abstract

The present invention comprises a novel kit with a wearable unit along with associated intelligent entities and non-intrusive tremor relieving interventions. The interventions include an automatically controllable TENS intervention unit with associated cables and electrodes and a buzzer. The wearable unit along with associated intelligent entities detects involuntary movement signals (tremors) in the limbs by measuring the acceleration in multiple dimensions, and ingeniously analyzes the accelerations to identify and isolate occurrences of tremors. This information is analyzed and monitored over time to provide significant insight about the tremors such as the dominant frequency (or frequencies), percent time with tremor, median tremor duration, and intensity. The TENS unit provides electrical stimulation which can dampen the intensity of involuntary movement and/or temporarily suspend tremor activity. This (TENS) unit can be manually or automatically controlled. The automatic control mode controls the TENS unit depending on the onset of tremors, tremor duration, and intensity of tremors. Furthermore, the parameters of this automatic control can be adjusted.

Claims

1. A wearable device that can be worn on the wrists (and other limbs) of individuals that exhibit tremors or involuntary movement, comprising: a wristband; a processing unit that includes various circuitry and a gyroscope to measure accelerations in three dimensions; a power button to turn on/off the sensor unit; a button to navigate the display of the sensor unit; a button to acknowledge; a micro-SD card as a non-volatile memory card; a mathematical algorithm that analyzes gyroscope three-dimensional acceleration measurements into a single net acceleration; a signal processing pipeline that filters the acceleration measurements into separate involuntary movement signals (tremors) and voluntary movement signals; a software program that analyzes tremors and provides a profile of the tremor to identify dominant frequencies that are present, presence of harmonics, percent time with tremors, median tremor duration (including range of tremor duration), and median time between tremors (including range of time between tremors); a switch that interfaces the processing unit with non-intrusive tremor relieving interventions; a TENS unit; a buzzer unit.

2. A TENS unit that is used as an intervention to dampen tremor activity and can automatically be controlled in response to the onset of tremors.

3. A buzzer unit that is used as an intervention to dampen tremor activity.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0031] The present invention will now be described in more detail. The trademark for the company is illustrated in FIG. 2 and will be stamped onto each individual kit.

[0032] The contents of each kit are depicted in FIG. 3. The kit will include the wearable unit (and charging cable) that detects tremors, collects that data, and relays that information to the software service for further analysis and display. In addition, the kit includes the TENS intervention unit and necessary accessories such as one set of electrodes, one set of electrode connectors, and one 9 Volt battery. Each component of the kit will now be described in more detail. FIG. 3 currently shows only the TENS intervention unit. However, future kits will also include the buzzer intervention unit.

[0033] A more detailed and clearer image of the wearable device can be seen in FIG. 4. This figure shows a wearable wrist unit. It includes a Power button, a button for navigating the display, an Acknowledge button, and a slot for an SD card. A more evolved version of this wearable may be seen in FIG. 5. FIG. 6 further shows the unit strapped on snugly on a human wrist, and the device is connected to a phone to view the status and functioning of the wearable unit.

[0034] The other major component of the kit is the TENS intervention element (FIG. 7), connected to a human forearm with the electrodes and the corresponding electrode connectors. A standard TENS unit already exists in the market and can be purchased off the shelf. In the present invention, the TENS unit is used in a novel way as an intervention that provides electrical stimulation which may potentially dampen the intensity of involuntary movement and/or temporarily suspend tremor activity. This unit can be manually or automatically controlled. The automatic control mode is NOT part of the standard TENS that can be purchased and is novel to the present invention. When in automatic control mode, the TENS unit turns on and off depending on the onset of tremors, tremor duration, and intensity of tremors. Furthermore, the parameters of this automatic control can be adjusted.

[0035] FIG. 8 shows the overarching flow of the present invention, and all the various aspects of the invention previously described will now be collectively explained. A “Subject” is an individual who experiences tremors in one or more of his/her limbs due to some disorder causing involuntary movement. To characterize and monitor this movement, the wearable unit for the wrist can be strapped on that contains the accelerometric sensor. The force of the movement is measured, and the acceleration can be extracted in three dimensions: x, y, and z. The acceleration at each time stamp can be thought of as a vector {right arrow over (A)} where {right arrow over (A)}=[a.sub.x, a.sub.y, a.sub.z]. Next, using a novel mathematical algorithm (Equation 1, Equation 2, and FIG. 9), the acceleration measurements during each time stamp are combined to generate a net acceleration during each time stamp. Thus, the overall acceleration can be viewed over time.

[00001]$\begin{array}{cc}\cos \theta =\frac{\stackrel{.fwdarw.}{A_t}.Math.\stackrel{.fwdarw.}{A_{t-1}}}{.Math.\stackrel{.fwdarw.}{A_t}.Math..Math.\stackrel{.fwdarw.}{A_{t-1}}.Math.}& \left(\mathrm{Equation}1\right)\end{array}$$\begin{array}{cc}{A}_t=\mathrm{net}\mathrm{acceleration}\mathrm{value}\mathrm{at}\mathrm{time}t=.Math.\stackrel{.fwdarw.}{A_t}.Math.\cos \theta =\frac{\stackrel{.fwdarw.}{A_t}.Math.\stackrel{.fwdarw.}{A_{t-1}}}{.Math.\stackrel{.fwdarw.}{A_{t-1}}.Math.}& \left(\mathrm{Equation}2\right)\end{array}$

[0036] In the next stage of processing, the data is put through a signal processing pipeline (part of the intelligent entity) which extracts the involuntary movement signals using a Hanning filter and characterizes interesting aspects of those signals that can be viewed in the tremor profile generated by the intelligent entity. This data can be analyzed over real-time whose results can be seen on a web browser of devices like phone, tablet, or computer. Moreover, this real-time data can be used to help configure & control the TENS intervention, so that the TENS can provide electrical stimulation as needed in response to the nature of the involuntary movements. The raw data will also be stored for more detailed analysis, and reports can be generated into tremor profiles that can be used for clinical purposes such as diagnosis and/or treatment plan adjustment and for various research applications. The tremor profile will next be described.

[0037] A tremor profile will have a main page and additional pages for further exploration. FIG. 10 shows the main page generated through the intelligent entity. This main page will graphically show the following: overall measure (acceleration) of the involuntary movement over time, the start/stop of when tremors occur over time, and the intensities (heat map or spectrograph) of the prevalent frequencies of the tremors (including any harmonics that may exist) over time. In addition, the number of tremor events can be viewed during the time recorded, the percent time with tremor, the median length of a tremor event and the median length of tremor-free duration. Please note that a “tremor event” is defined as a single period of non-stop involuntary movement. “Tremor-free duration” is defined as the amount of time between tremor events.

[0038] FIG. 11 illustrates how an additional page for further exploration may look. It will include some of the graphical displays from the main page, and additional information such as the number of tremor events binned by duration, the range of the length of a tremor event (minimum and maximum), the range of the length of tremor-free duration (minimum and maximum).

[0039] There are multiple versions of the hardware of the wearable units, which have some variations between each other, but essentially perform the similar functions in terms of utility at the systems level (user level). One version of this hardware can be seen in FIG. 12 which shows the main circuitry components for the invention and the connections for a supplemental intervention (TENS). A multi-dimensional motion sensor unit, and other embodiments of this module exist in other hardware versions. The SD micro card is the local non-volatile memory card that can store tremor data along with other information/data used for configuration and functioning of the wearable unit. The ESP32 module is the main processing unit. An alternative embodiment of the ESP32 module is shown in FIG. 13, labelled as the M5 Stick C. FIG. 14 shows how the ESP32 module is connected to the gyrosensor (for detecting acceleration), the SD memory card, and the switch for attachable tremor relieving interventions.

REFERENCES

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