Patent ID: 12213794

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following is a detailed description of example embodiments of the invention depicted in the accompanying drawings. The example embodiments are presented in such detail as to clearly communicate the invention and are designed to make such embodiments obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

FIGS.1-4present examples of bioelectrical signals and/or vital sign signals. The signals may be captured when a subject is in a non-excited state, or during a subject's exposure to certain sound signals, for example, where the subject is in a disease state, a pre-disease state or a non-disease state. This is because some of the examples are straight forward like a person with a thyroid condition being sensitive and disturbed by the sound of a helicopter, or a cancer patient even before the diagnosis of cancer being sensitive and disturbed by a structure borne sound, such as from a condenser unit not installed on proper vibration isolators. On the other hand, the sensitivity can be patient specific.

In greater detail,FIG.1depicts heart rate signals derived from a patient with atrial fibrillation (afib) who all of a sudden reported as being is disturbed by the sound of several children. The sensitivity to high frequency and high amplitude sounds indicates a diagnosis of afib that would show up when the vital sign or bioelectric reaction was compared to a baseline (see arrow at beginning of irregular heartbeat)

The invention captures (and relies upon) signals representative of natural currents of the brain, and other portions of the body (referred to interchangeably with “bioelectrical signals”), and/or other vital signs of the body, such as blood pressure, heart rate, pulse oximeter, or pulse including but not limited to the bones, blood flow, oxygen levels and nerves of the body, that are associated with good health, or are an indication of poor health, physical injury, mental illness or disease. The invention then subjects portions of the subject's body to excitation sound signals, and captures responsive biometric or vital sign signals for comparison to the baseline signals. Examples of one or more of these signals are shown inFIG.1-4. But while these figures only show 4 examples, they are presented for exemplary purposes only and not meant to limit the scope and spirit of the invention; bioelectrical signals and vital signs are extensive. This is because some bioelectrical signals relied upon by the invention are straight forward, like a person with a thyroid condition being sensitive and disturbed by the sound of a helicopter, or a cancer patient even before the diagnosis of cancer being sensitive and disturbed by a structure borne sound, such as from a condenser unit not installed on proper vibration isolators. On the other hand, the sensitivity can be patient specific.

In a first testing configuration, preferably after a baseline signal is captured, or a normalized baseline signal is available, a subject, while wearing a cap, band, or any device that is attached to the head or body that can detect bioelectric current signals, or vital sign signals (hereinafter, the “capture device”), listens to (is subjected to) sounds, including some forms of speech or slurred speech from a speaker or other vibrating structure played at various vibratory states, frequencies and levels of amplitude, for example, in a known or controlled acoustic environment. This sound, whether a tone, sweep of tones or other variation of frequencies, or variations in speech all at different amplitudes (hereinafter, the “sound signal”), induces a response in the brain of certain subjects undergoing the sound signal exposure. The response is captured as a responsive or reactive bioelectric signal by the capture device

The frequency/amplitude responsive or reactive bioelectric response signal is monitored, i.e., is captured by the capture device attached to the subject's body, for example, the head. Even a capture device as small as a pad that a hand or finger is placed on or a wearable device on the ear, wrist, or finger can collect bioelectric data responsive to the sound signal and/or baseline bioelectric or vital sign signals when the subject is not exposed to the sound. This first configuration is intended to capture the subject's bioreaction to the sound to which he/she is exposed, even though other configurations can capture a bioelectric signal reaction from a body portion other than the subject's brain, such as a possible broken bone, kidney infection, or missing cartilage. The bioelectric signals captures by the capture device are then processed.

The processing of the subject's response to the sound signal to which he/she is exposed, that is captured by the capture devices (“response signal”) is understood, when compared to the baseline or vital sign signal representative to the subject's passive state, provides a reasonable indication of the overall physical, psychological, or chemical condition of the subject. The inventive system compares the instantly captured responsive bioelectric signal(s), compares same to the baseline signal(s) (both bioelectric signals), captured at the earlier time, and assessed to identify differences therebetween, and based thereon, assessment of the subject's state.

As an example, forFIG.1, a baseline maximum of 55 is registered for a 75-year-old man. Frequencies of low to high frequency repeated for increasing amplitude are played and the signal remains the same. After the sound signals associated with atrial fibrillation (high frequency and loud) are played to the patient it is captured that it becomes greater than 55 and exceeds 60.FIG.2shows the beginning of a test where a person is having their brain wave activity monitored. The regularity of the frequency and amplitude is noted. This can be visually noted at the time of the test or sent to a file to be reviewed visually later or could go into a signal processing system. A low frequency sound signal, known to disturb people with thyroid and cancer, is played. At that moment it is played the frequency and amplitude change significantly. Again, this can be visually noted at the time of the test or sent to a file to be reviewed visually later or could go into a signal processing system. One method that this signal processing system can note the event is to have the signal processed with a standard adaptive AR (autoregressive) or ARMA (autoregressive moving average). At the time of the event (reaction to the disturbance) a significant error function is generated, and the event is flagged.

The subject's instantly captured bioelectric response signal(s) enables the health care practitioner to identify a health condition even when a subject does not have the ability to verbalize the health condition, such as in the case of the subject being a human in a coma a human that is mute or an animal, not wanting to admit to a health condition, or not knowing how to define a condition, when tests results provide a false negative, etc. As stated, the capture device is wrapped around or placed under an arm, wrist or leg (rather than the subject's head), and the instant response is captured. Then, the instantly captured signals is processed with the baseline (or passive) captured response to identify differences in the subject's state that will indicate some irregularity in the human condition, such as thyroid problems, atrial fibrillation, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, missing cartilage, a broken bone or nerve damage. If there is no prior recorded response or baseline for comparison, the invention compares the instant captured response to a standardized response signal, as is explained in greater detail below herein.

There are various capture devices presently available to monitor bioelectrical signals and vital sign signals, as described above, with or without sound stimulation means. The inventive method, system and/or apparatus captures a baseline bioelectrical signal while the subject is in a passive state (not subjected to stimulating sound). When the sound system is activated, an excitation signal is generated and radiated/directed to the subject. The subject's response to the excitation sound signal is captured and processed, which may indicate a change in the EEG signal (brain wave), heart rate, or other vital sign (as shown by example inFIGS.1-4). The excitation sound signal can be loud or barely audible or even inaudible of a particular frequency or frequencies. The bioelectric response or reaction signal is processed (assessed) to indicate a condition of good or poor health that is physical, psychological, or chemical.

For that matter, the inventive signal processing method, system and/or apparatus are configured to focus upon and recognize the pattern of the resultant responsive biometric response signal, generated in response to the stimulating (excitation) sound signal (or shock wave, for example), to identify a specific health condition, such as cancer or atrial fibrillation by the change in the subject's baseline. Each health condition causes a different reaction to certain frequencies loud sounds, or both. That is, in a diseased state, exposing the subject to loud sounds at varying frequencies is a disturbance to the person, and will be indicated by the change from the baseline to the responsive bioelectric signal. Thyroid and cancer is typically a low frequency and amplitude for a long duration, afib is typically a loud high frequency of short duration, back pain is typically a response to both, etc. Once the health condition has been identified, the capture device notes the health condition based on the signal response (to the excitation) and produces a report or visual display.

If applicable, the inventive system then generates a therapeutic sound that when directed to the specific area of interest of the subject's body for the determined health condition, at the correct frequency or frequencies, will promote healing or other tissue modification, such as growth of cartilage, a bone, a nerve, or other body tissue with or without the inclusion of the injection of stem cells.

The inventive signal processing method, system and/or apparatus relies upon a capture device for detecting brainwaves or other magnetic signals understood to reflect electrical currents flowing in parts of the body in conjunction or alternatively with vital signs, such as blood pressure, heart rate, diabetes, etc., as baseline bioelectric signals (without sound excitation), an apparatus for generating excitation sound signals at various frequencies or amplitudes in the existing acoustic environment or ambient, for example, at low frequencies and a signal processing device, for example, a microprocessor, app, or computer that can perform signal processing of the captured baseline brain or body signals, before exposure to excitation sound, and the responsive bioelectric signals, captured during exposure to the excitation sound (for example, low frequency sound signal), in order to compare the respective captured signals and accurately identify a physical, psychological, or chemical state of good or poor health of the subject under test/treatment.

Inventive Applications

In addition to the above, the inventive signal processing method, system and/or apparatus operates to identify sound(s) at a particular frequency or frequencies and/or particular associated amplitudes that are bothersome to a person, whether it is in a hospital, medical office, office, home, classroom or other location.

The invention correlates the disturbing sound at the particular frequency or frequencies and/or amplitude to correctly identify a physical, psychological, or chemical state of good or ill health, such as noting that when a transient high frequency and loud volume, like children screaming creates a change in bioelectric response, vital signs or both, then the system triggers a response that there is a possible diagnosis of afib and the person is referred to a doctor for further evaluation. It can also identify pain, or the body's chemical response to pain management, in a person independent of a reported pain, or show a little evidence of pain even when the individual reports severe pain. That is, notingFIG.2, someone can report to be in a great deal of pain. A person in a great deal of pain will typically have a change in frequency that if often erratic when certain sounds are made. Often these sounds are associated with what caused the pain, such as a loud noise much like an explosion or thump such as from a serious fall. Someone who reports pain, but does not have any pain will, after the brain wave has settled to a baseline, there will be no pattern change as frequencies and amplitude increases for the frequencies are played.

The inventive signal processing method, system and/or apparatus correlates the disturbing sound at the particular frequency or frequencies and/or amplitude to correctly identify a physical, psychological, or chemical state of poor health, such as early stages of breast or thyroid cancer, or atrial fibrillation even prior to the first symptoms or diagnosis.

FIG.5Adepicts one embodiment of the invention that includes a computer110, and a sound transmitting and receiving device120. The computer110includes inter alia a processor112, a memory114, and an I/O device116and input device118, any portion of which can be on a cloud. The computer may be a server, a laptop, a desktop, a smartphone, an iPad or other tablet, etc., without limitation. Computer readable instructions are downloaded to the computer or app on a phone, and stored in memory, such as memory114. When the processor112operates on the computer readable instructions, the application program controls operation of the sound transmitting and receiving device120.

Preferably, a baseline bioelectric signal is captured using one or more bioelectric signal capture devices, where the subject is in a passive state, i.e. has not been exposed to an excitation sound signal from a sound transmitting and receiving device120. The sound transmitting and receiving device120generates a sound excitation signal and radiates the sound excitation signal at the subject. The bioelectric signal capture devices capture one or more responsive bioelectric response signals in response to the excitation. Alternatively, part of the excitation signal that is reflected from the subject, may be captured by the device120(in a receiver mode rather than a transmit mode), for processing as a bioelectric response signal. The sound transmitting and receiving device120provides the captured signal(s), which are bioelectric signals, vital sign signal or both, to the processor112.

The processor112processes the captured baseline (as the case may be) and responsive bioelectric response signals. If there is an available baseline signal for that portion of the subject's body from which the instant bioelectric response signal is derived, the bioelectric response signal is compared to the baseline signal. If not, the captured response signal is compared against a standard, or generalized baseline signal.FIG.5Bdepicts a professional101testing a subject105using the computer110, and operational application program therein, in cooperation with sound transmitting device120and a first bioelectric signal capture device125, for capturing vital signs like heart rate, blood oxygen level, pulsatility, etc. and a second bioelectric signal capture device128, for capturing vital signs like brain wave activity, pressures, etc., without limitation. Please note, however, that the drawing is for exemplary purposes only and is not meant to limit the invention to these bioelectric signal capture devices. For example, in an alternate application, a subject may “wear” headphones and the wires, or Bluetooth signals from the capture devices, provide the responsive bioelectric signals, vital sign signals or both to the processor112.

Please note that the computer may operate as a remote server to the sound transmitting and receiving device120, where they are connected though a LAN, virtual LAN or the Internet.

As will be evident to persons skilled in the art, the foregoing detailed description, applications and figures are presented as examples of the invention, and that variations are contemplated that do not depart from the fair scope of the teachings and descriptions set forth in this disclosure.