Ear-Wearable Physiologic Sensor Decoupling to Reduce Motion Artifacts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Sensing physiologic signals from the outer ear is challenging due to motion artifacts caused by relative motion between the sensor and body tissue, leading to noisy data and increased system complexity and cost, particularly in optical and electrode-based sensing.
Innovation Solution
A wearable sensor unit is physically separable from an ear-wearable electronic device, allowing for wireless power and data transfer, thereby isolating the sensor from the device's movements and reducing motion artifacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the sensor is integrated with the ear-wearable electronic device, then the device structure is simplified, but motion artifacts increase due to relative motion between the sensor and body tissue
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into two separate components: an ear-wearable electronic device and a wearable sensor unit. The sensor unit is physically separable from the electronic device, allowing the sensor to be positioned directly on or in the ear while the electronic device can be worn elsewhere (e.g., in the ear canal or behind the ear). This segmentation eliminates relative motion between the sensor and body tissue, reducing motion artifacts while maintaining a relatively simple overall device structure.
2Measurement precision
If additional sensors and processors are added to compensate for motion artifacts, then signal quality improves, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The solution extracts the sensor from the electronic device rather than adding complex compensation mechanisms. By physically separating the sensor unit from the electronic device, the patent eliminates the need for additional motion sensors, processors, and algorithms that would be required to compensate for motion artifacts. This approach improves signal quality while actually reducing system complexity and cost.
3Device complexity
If the sensor is mechanically coupled to the ear-wearable electronic device, then power and data transfer is simplified, but motion artifacts increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical coupling between the sensor and electronic device with wireless communication. The wearable sensor unit communicates wirelessly with the ear-wearable electronic device, eliminating the need for physical connections. This substitution allows the sensor to remain stationary relative to the body while maintaining simplified power and data transfer through wireless means rather than mechanical contacts.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach reduces motion artifacts, simplifies data processing, lowers system complexity and cost, and enhances data accuracy by eliminating the need for additional sensors and processors, while providing faster data acquisition and finer signal details.
Implementation Method 1
a first near-field communication (NFC) device and a transfer region configured to facilitate transfer of a wearable sensor unit into an ear of a wearer
Implementation Method 2
a second NFC device configured to communicatively couple to the first NFC device and facilitate wireless transfer of power from the ear-wearable electronic device to the wearable sensor unit and wireless transfer of data
Data Source
AI summary
An ear-wearable electronic device includes a first near-field communication (NFC) device and a transfer region configured to facilitate transfer of a wearable sensor unit into an ear of a wearer or onto an outer ear of the wearer or a surface of the wearer's head adjacent the outer ear. The wearable sensor unit comprises electronic circuitry comprising a second NFC device configured to communicatively couple to the first NFC device and facilitate wireless transfer of power from the ear-wearable electronic device to the wearable sensor unit and wireless transfer of data at least from the wearable sensor unit to the ear-wearable electronic device, and one or more sensors configured to measure at least one physiologic parameter or physiologic condition of the wearer. The wearable sensor unit and the ear-wearable electronic device are configured to remain mechanically decoupled from one another subsequent to deployment of the wearable sensor unit.