Patent ID: 8734359

Claim:
A method for determining an individual's state of attention, which comprises the following operational steps: a) providing a respiratory signal capture apparatus, b) obtaining an individual's respiratory signal with the respiratory signal capture apparatus, c) segmenting said respiratory signal into a plurality of segments, d) extracting at least one parameter from each segment of the respiratory signal, e) characterising a normal state of attention for the individual by selecting a respiratory signal fragment that is considered to be normal according to a pre-established criterion and, in the event that no respiratory signal fragment is found that meets said pre-established criterion, characterising the normal state of attention for the individual on the basis of certain data stored in a memory device, and f) determining the individual's state of attention from the at least one parameter extracted from each segment on the basis of pre-defined rules and the normal state of attention for the individual, wherein step d) comprises obtaining at least one fuzzy parameter from the at least one parameter extracted from each segment, and step f) comprises: evaluating a degree of similarity of each segment with respect to each one of a plurality of pre-determined phases, by comparing the at least one fuzzy parameter of each segment to characteristic parameters for said pre-determined phases, and determining the individual's state of attention from the degree of similarity of the segments of the signal with respect to said pre-determined phases on the basis of certain pre-defined rules.