Patent Publication Number: US-2015064669-A1

Title: System and method for treatment of emotional and behavioral disorders

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to systems and methods for treating emotional and behavioral disorders. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Emotional and behavioral disorders affect most people at some time in their lives. For some, emotional and behavioral disorders (hereinafter referred to as—EBD) pose a substantial obstacle in their daily lives, resulting in a substantial reduction in the quality of life. 
     EBD include, inter-alia, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorders, conduct disorders, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) and psychiatric disorders and phobias of various kinds. 
     EBD affect many by inflicting anxiety, stress, insecurity, tension, degraded self-image, marital and relationship problems, damaged social status, personal, social, professional, familial, relationship and schooling problems, etc. 
     As a result people who are affected by EBD are unable to fully exploit their skills and potentials in various aspects of their lives. 
     There are known systems and methods for diagnosing EBD. For example, there are automated systems that are capable of diagnosing EBD based on questionnaires that are answered by a subject suspected of having EBD. Other automated systems employ various imaging techniques, using, for example, image acquiring sensors, such as a cepstral, audio sensors, such as a microphone, to detect visual and audio signs which may be interpreted as symptoms of EBD, using various detection and interpretation techniques (e.g., behavioral detection, anxiety detection, stress detection, tension detection, lie-detection, etc.) 
     There are also systems and methods for treating subjects having EBD. Typically, such systems offer a treatment which is based on psychological or cognitive elements, replacing, in effect, a human therapist. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     There is thus provided, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, a method of EBD treatment. The method may include using a sensor to obtain physiological data pertaining to a physiological response of the user to an emotionally loaded sentence the user is exposed to at a first instance. 
     The method may also include using the sensor to obtain physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to each emotion of the list of emotions. 
     The method may further include determining which emotion from the list of emotions has a greatest emotional effect on the user, based on analyzing the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to each emotion of the list of emotions. 
     Further, the method may include using the sensor to obtain physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to each chronological period of a list of chronological periods in the user&#39;s life. 
     The method may also include using the sensor to obtain physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to each chronological period of a list of chronological periods in the user&#39;s life. 
     The method may further include determining a chronological period of the list of chronological periods of the user&#39;s life during which the determined emotion was absorbed, based on analyzing the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to that chronological period. 
     The method may also include using the sensor to obtain physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to each cause of a list of causes that may have led to the absorption of determined emotion during the determined chronological period in the user&#39;s life. 
     The method may further include determining a cause from the list of causes that has caused the determined emotion to be absorbed during the determined chronological period in the user&#39;s life, based on analyzing the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to that cause. 
     The method may also include presenting to the user with information associating the determined emotion, the determined chronological period and the determined cause. 
     The method may still further include using the sensor to obtain physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to the emotionally loaded sentence the user is exposed to at a second instance, and determining a result of the treatment based on analyzing and comparing the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to the emotionally loaded sentence the user was exposed to at the first instance with the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to the emotionally loaded sentence the user was exposed to at the second instance. 
     In some embodiments of the present invention, the method may be performed iteratively. 
     In some embodiments, the method may include presenting the user with instructions to say out loud the sentences. 
     According to some embodiments, the physiological data may be selected form the group of physiological data consisting of: voice, muscle strength, blood pressure, heart rate, facial expressions, eye movement, sweating, skin conductivity, body language, body temperature, brain waves, hormone level, sugar level. 
     In some embodiments, the physiological data is voice and analyzing comprises extracting voice parameters selected from the group of parameters consisting of sound volume (measured in decibels), pitch, straight, snack, formant frequencies, harmonic amplitudes, corrected relative harmonic amplitudes, corrected relative formant frequencies, RMS energy, cepstral peak prominence, harmonic to noise ratio, and silent intervals between adjacent phonemes. 
     According to some embodiments, the sensor is selected from the group of sensors consisting of: microphone, camera, heartbeat monitor, blood-pressure measuring device, skin conductivity measuring device, brain waves detector, and infrared camera. 
     A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for treating EBD and a system for treating EBD are also provided. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In order to better illustrate examples, the following figures are provided and referenced hereafter. It should be noted that the figures are given as examples only and in no way limit the scope of the present disclosure. It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Like components are denoted by like reference numerals. 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a method of EBD treatment, according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a system for treating EBD, operated on a single computing device, according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a process for treating EBD, according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a system for treating EBD, operated over a network, according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a computing device, suitable for a system for treating EBD, according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the methods and systems. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present methods and systems may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the present methods and systems. 
     Although the examples disclosed and discussed herein are not limited in this regard, the terms “plurality” and “a plurality” as used herein may include, for example, “multiple” or “two or more”. The terms “plurality” or “a plurality” may be used throughout the specification to describe two or more components, devices, elements, units, parameters, or the like. Unless explicitly stated, the method examples described herein are not constrained to a particular order or sequence. Additionally, some of the described method examples or elements thereof can occur or be performed at the same point in time. 
     Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification, discussions utilizing terms such as “adding”, “associating” “selecting,” “evaluating,” “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” “designating,” “allocating” or the like, refer to the actions and/or processes of a computer, computer processor or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate, execute and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system&#39;s registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system&#39;s memories, registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. 
     The present invention seeks to provide systems and methods for treating humans having EBD problems Systems and methods for treating EBD, according to some embodiments of the present invention, involve treatment which does not require the subject to acquire new skills, nor requires the subject to be engaged in confrontation or learn new behaviour. 
     A method of EBD treatment, according to some embodiments of the present invention, is illustrated in  FIG. 1 . Method  100  includes using a sensor to obtain  102  physiological data pertaining to a physiological response of the user to an emotionally loaded sentence the user is exposed to at a first instance. 
     Method  100  still further includes using the sensor to obtain  104  physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to each emotion of the list of emotions. 
     Method  100  also includes determining  105  which emotion from the list of emotions has the greatest emotional effect on the user, based on the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to each emotion of the list of emotions. 
     Method  100  also includes using  107  the sensor to obtain physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to the list of chronological periods of the user&#39;s life associated with the determined emotion. 
     Method  100  also includes determining  108  a chronological period of the list of chronological periods of the user&#39;s life during which the determined emotion was absorbed, based on the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to that chronological period. 
     Method  100  still further includes using the sensor to obtain  110  physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to each cause in a list of causes. Method  100  further includes ( FIG. 1  continues to the next sheet) determining  111   a  cause from the list of causes that has the greatest influence in causing the determined emotion to be absorbed during the determined chronological period in the user&#39;s life, based on the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to that cause. Method  100  still further includes presenting  112  the user with information associating the determined emotion, the determined chronological period and the determined cause. 
     Method  100  also includes using the sensor to obtain  114  physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to the emotionally loaded sentence at a second instance. The second instance may be after completing the previous method steps. 
     Method  100  further includes determining  115  a result of the treatment based on comparing the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to the emotionally loaded sentence at the first instance with the physiological data pertaining to the physiological response of the user to the emotionally loaded sentence at the second instance. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a system  200  for treating EBD, operated on a single computing device, according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
     System  200  includes a computing device  202 , which may be any computing platform, such as personal computer (PC), mobile computing device (e.g., laptop), hand-held device (e.g., personal digital assistant, FDA), mobile communication device, smartphone, etc. 
     In some embodiments of the present invention, the computing device  102  is configured to execute a software application (hereinafter—application). The application may be physically installed locally on the computing device (e.g., stored on a storing device which is a part of the computing device), or may be installed in a remote server, which is accessible to the computing device  202 . 
     For sake of brevity, the following description will now refer to a locally installed application, without limiting the scope of the present invention to other configurations. 
     In some embodiments of the present invention, a user interface is provided, which is designed to facilitate communication between a user  208  and the computing device. The user interface may include video and/or audio, such as, for example, a graphical user interface and may include graphical information (e.g., text, drawings, symbols) which are presented on a screen  210 . Screen  210  may be a separate screen or a built-in screen, which is a part of the computing device  202 . The graphical information may include instructions and information for the user. 
     Alternatively, or in addition, loudspeaker  204  is provided, which may be a single loudspeaker, or a plurality of speakers (e.g., an array of 2 or more speakers), e.g., a mono loudspeaker, stereo loudspeakers, surround speaker system, a headphone or headphones, an earphone or earphones, etc. Loudspeaker  204  may be used to provide audio instructions and information to the user. 
     A sensor for obtaining physiological data pertaining to a physiological response of the user is provided. The obtained physiological data may relate, for example, to changes in voice pitch harmony and volume, muscle strength, blood pressure, heart rate, facial expressions, eye movement, sweating, skin conductivity, body language, body temperature, brain waves, hormone level changes, sugar level changes etc., Such a device may be, for example, microphone, camera, heartbeat monitor, blood-pressure measuring device, etc. 
     In the system depicted in  FIG. 2 , microphone  206  for acquiring the voice of a user is provided, which may separate from the computing device  202  or a built-in microphone of the computing device  202 . 
     The microphone is selected such that its characteristics are suitable for picking up human voice (typically within the frequency range of 300-3400 Hz). Microphone  106  is used to acquire speech generated by the user. 
     In the context of the present specification, “presenting” or “instructing” the user with information or instructions, refers to presenting audio information or instructions via loudspeaker  204 , or presenting video information or instructions via screen  210 , or a combination thereof. 
     According to some embodiments of the present invention, the computing device is configured to perform the following process  300  for treating EBD, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 . 
     At first the user may be presented with inquiries designed to obtain  302  personal details (e.g., name, sex, age). This may be carried out, for example, by presenting graphical information on screen  210  (see  FIG. 2 ), providing an audio request for this information, e.g., through loudspeaker  204  (see  FIG. 2 ), or both. The user may be presented with a form in which such information is to be entered, e.g., via an input interface, which may include, for example, keyboard, pointing device, touch screen (e.g., screen  210  may be a touch screen), etc, or be asked to provide this information verbally, so it may be picked up by microphone  206 , and interpreted using a voice interpretation technique. 
     The user may then be required to select the specific EBD problem for treatment from a list of problems that is presented to the user, e.g., by using the input interface, or by naming the problem so that it is picked up by microphone  106 . The computing device thus receives  304  the selected problem. 
     The user may then be presented with an instruction to read or repeat out loud a sentence that is presented to the user, or say a few words (e.g. a free sentence). The system would record  306  the test sentence via microphone  206  ( FIG. 2 ), for testing receipt level (e.g., recording level) of the microphone  106 , to make sure that the audio reception of system  200  is in order, and that the sound quality of the recording is adequate. 
     Noise filtering techniques may be used, e.g., employed by computing device  202 . Such filtering techniques may include low pass filtering, noise reduction, smoothing etc. 
     The computing device  202  then analyzes  308  the recorded test sentence to confirm that it is suitable (e.g., the recorded signal is above a predetermined threshold). If the recorded test sentence is not confirmed the user may be presented with an instruction to repeat the step of recording the test sentence, until the computing device  202  determines that the recorded test sentence is suitable. 
     Computing device  202  would then present the user with an instruction to record an emotionally loaded sentence relating to the EBD problem of the user (e.g., “it is OK for me to fail”). In some embodiments of the present invention, the user may also be instructed to say a neutral sentence (e.g., “it is OK that the colour of the moon is white”), which does not relate to the EBD problem. 
     The emotionally loaded sentence (and the neutral sentence is it was recorded too) is recorded  310  and processed by the computing device to extract  312  voice parameters and establish a primary base-line reference. The extracted voice parameters may be selected from: sound volume (measured in decibels), pitch, straight, snack, formant frequencies, harmonic amplitudes, corrected relative harmonic amplitudes, corrected relative formant frequencies, RMS energy, cepstral peak prominence, harmonic to noise ratio, silent intervals between adjacent phonemes, etc. The extracted parameters may be averaged and a standard deviation may be calculated. Thus, a base-line reference may be established. 
     Next, the user is presented with an instruction to record  314  additional sentences relating to different types of emotions (e.g., fear, threat, anger, resentment, low self-esteem, lack of control) to determine which of these emotions has the greatest emotional effect on the user. These recorded sentences are analyzed by extracting  316  voice parameters and determining the user&#39;s emotion, based on the extracted voice parameters. According to some embodiments of the present invention, the emotion whose corresponding extracted parameters that showed the greatest deviation from the base-line reference is determined to be the emotion that has the greatest effect on the user. 
     Next, the user is presented with an instruction to record  320  additional sentences associating the determined emotion with different chronological periods in the user&#39;s life. (e.g., fetal period, infancy, childhood, adulthood) to determine at what chronological period in the user&#39;s life the determined emotion was absorbed. The user may be instructed to say sentences bearing the general form of: “I got” (determined emotion) “during” (chronological period). For example, if the determined emotion was fear, the user would be instructed to say the following sentences: “I got fear during my fetal period”, “I got fear during my infancy”, “I got fear during my childhood” and “I got fear during my adulthood”. 
     Voice parameters are extracted  322  from the recorded chronological period sentences to determine the chronological period at which the determined emotion was absorbed. 
     Next, the user is presented with an instruction to record  326  additional sentences associating the determined emotion and the determined chronological period with a cause or causes. 
     The user may be instructed to say sentences bearing the general form of: “The” (determined emotion) “during my” (chronological period) “was absorbed” (cause). For example, if the determined emotion was fear, and the determined chronological period was childhood, the user would be instructed to say the following sentences: “The fear during my childhood was absorbed from people around me”, or “The fear during my childhood was absorbed because I did not get my emotional needs”. 
     These cause sentences are analyzed by extracting  328  voice parameters to determine the cause or causes which had the greatest influence on the user in absorbing the determined emotion during the determined chronological period in the user&#39;s life. 
     Thus, the user is diagnosed to determine what emotion most affects him/her, when it was absorbed and what was the cause of the absorption of that emotion. 
     The user is then caused to relate to the diagnosis by presenting  330  the discovered association between the determined emotion, determined chronological age and the cause. In some embodiments of the present invention, the user may be presented with a message to that effect, in the form: “imagine yourself at” (determined chronological period) “feeling” (determined emotion) “that you absorbed” “from” or “because of” (cause). For example, if the determined emotion is fear, the determined chronological period is childhood and the determined cause is people around the user, the message could be “imagine yourself in your childhood, feeling fear that you absorbed from people around you, because they were experiencing fear” Presenting the user with such message may cause the user to reflect on the presented association between the determined emotion, determined chronological age and the cause. It is believed that this may have an easing effect on the user&#39;s EBD problem. 
     At that point, the user may be presented with an instruction to record  331  the emotionally loaded sentence again. The emotionally loaded sentence that was recorded again is then analyzed (by relating to extracted voice parameters) to determine whether the treatment is successful or satisfactory. This may be based, for example, on comparing the deviations of voice parameters of the recorded emotionally loaded sentence, and the voice parameters of the emotionally loaded sentence that was recorded again, from the base-line and determining whether the deviation of the voice parameters of the emotionally loaded sentence that was recorded again from the base-line is smaller than the voice parameters of the emotionally loaded sentence first recorded, or whether the difference in the deviations exceeds a predetermined threshold. 
     If the treatment is not proven successful or satisfactory, the user is instructed to perform the process again at a later time. While returning to the system, the user would start the process again by recording  314  the emotion sentences performing the process iteratively, until it is determined  332  that the treatment is successful or satisfactory, at which time the process ends  334 . 
     The entire process described may be performed or reiterated for different emotionally loaded sentences. 
     The process hereinabove was described with reference to recorded speech (sentences spoken by the user) and voice analysis, yet, other embodiments of the present invention may relate to other physiological data, such as, for example, muscle strength, blood pressure, heart rate, facial expressions, eye movement, sweating, skin conductivity, body language, etc., and employ other or additional sensors, such as camera, heartbeat monitor, blood-pressure measuring device, skin conductivity measuring device, brain waves detector, infrared camera etc, 
     A system for treating EBD, according to some embodiments of the present invention, may be a stand-alone system operated on a single computing device (e.g., personal computer (PC), mobile computing device such as, for example, a laptop, hand-held device, for example a personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile communication device, smartphone, etc. 
     In some embodiments of the present invention, a system for treating EBD may be operated over a communication network. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates a system for treating EBD, operated over a network, according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
     This system may be designed to treat a plurality of users—here depicted by users  406   b ,  408   b ,  410   b  and  412   b . Each user may have a personal computing device associated with that user, e.g., user  406   b  is associated with PC  406   a , user  408   b  is associated with tablet  408   a , user  410   b  is associated with smartphone  410   a  and user  412   b  is associated with laptop  412   a.    
     The computing device of each user may have a user application installed on that device, which may be designed to perform a portion of a method for treating EBD in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, whereas the rest of the method may be performed on a remote computing device. 
     For example, the user may be presented with instructions by the personal computing device associate with that user (e.g., video instructions via a screen, or audio instructions via a loudspeaker, or a combination of both). The user may also record sentences using a microphone which is connected to or is a part of the personal computing device associated with that user. 
     The analysis of the recorded speech may be carried out on a remote computing device, e.g., remote server  404 , which is designed to communicate with the personal computing devices of each of the users over a network  402  (e.g., the Internet). Further, the server may be configured to determine whether the method requires iterations and cause personal computing devices of the users to continue with presenting further instructions to the users and recording their speech. In some embodiments the server may keep records of various users and offer a historical perspective of user treatments. 
     In some embodiments of the present invention, the distribution of a method for treating EBD between the personal computing device and the remote server may vary. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates a computing device ( 202 ,  FIG. 2 ) suitable for a system for treating EBD according to some embodiments of the invention. 
     System  500  may include a processor  502  (e.g. one or a plurality of processors, on a single machine or distributed on a plurality of machines) for executing a method according to some embodiments. Processor  502  may be linked with memory  506  on which a program implementing a method according to examples and corresponding data may be loaded and run from, and storage device  508 , which includes a non-transitory computer readable medium (or mediums) such as, for example, one or a plurality of hard disks, flash memory devices, etc. on which a program implementing a method according to examples and corresponding data may be stored. System  500  may further include display device  504  (e.g. CRT, LCD, LED touchscreen, etc.) on which one or a plurality user interfaces associated with a program implementing a method according to embodiments of the present invention and corresponding data may be presented. System  500  may also include input device  501 , such as, for example, one or a plurality of keyboards, pointing devices, touch sensitive surfaces (e.g. touch sensitive screens), etc. for allowing a user to input commands and data. 
     Some embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a system, a method or a computer program product. Similarly, some embodiments may be implemented as hardware, software or a combination of both. Some embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as a computer program product saved on one or more non-transitory computer readable medium (or media) in the form of computer readable program code embodied thereon. Such non-transitory computer readable medium may include instructions that when executed cause a processor to execute method steps in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments the instructions stores on the computer readable medium may be in the form of an installed application and in the form of an installation package. 
     Such instructions may be, for example, loaded by one or more processors and get executed. 
     For example, the computer readable medium may be a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be, for example, an electronic, optical, magnetic, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination thereof. 
     Computer program code may be written in any suitable programming language. The program code may execute on a single computer system, or on a plurality of computer systems. 
     Some embodiments of the present invention are described hereinabove with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams depicting methods, systems and computer program products according to various embodiments. 
     Features of various embodiments discussed herein may be used with other embodiments discussed herein. The foregoing description of the embodiments has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting to the precise form disclosed. It should be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that many modifications, variations, substitutions, changes, and equivalents are possible in light of the above teaching. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes that fall within the true spirit of the disclosure.