Patent ID: 7657135

Claim:
An optical motion sensing device comprising: a sensor frame defining a cavity and an opening to said cavity; a sensor pad disposed in the opening, the sensor pad adapted to allow for its placement against an anatomical location of a subject; an optical sensing system adapted to detect an amount of downward displacement of the sensor pad relative to the sensor frame, the optical sensing system comprising: (a) an optical waveguide positioned within the cavity of the sensor frame such that the downward displacement of the sensor pad relative to the sensor frame results in the flexing or compressing of the optical waveguide, (b) an optical source device to supply optical energy to a first end of the optical waveguide, and (c) an optical detector to detect an amount of optical energy exiting a second end of the optical waveguide; and an output unit configured to receive a signal indicative of the amount of optical energy exiting the optical waveguide and to generate a measure of the amount of downward displacement of the sensor pad relative to the sensor frame from the received signal.