Hearing Assistance Motion Sensing for Motion Sickness Mitigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inconsistent vestibular and visual inputs can cause motion sickness, leading to symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, and imbalance in individuals, particularly during activities like car rides where gaze is focused on stationary objects.
Innovation Solution
A hearing assistance device equipped with motion sensors tracks subject motion and head position, estimates vestibular and visual system inputs, and initiates responsive measures when consistency thresholds are crossed to mitigate motion sickness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If motion sensors and processing circuits are added to hearing assistance devices to detect and respond to motion sickness conditions, then motion sickness prevention and mitigation capabilities are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hearing assistance device integrates multiple functions including hearing assistance, motion detection via accelerometers, head position tracking via gyroscopes, and motion sickness mitigation through bone conduction transducers. This multi-functional integration allows the device to address motion sickness prevention while maintaining its primary hearing assistance role, resolving the contradiction by making the device universal rather than adding separate dedicated equipment
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines motion sensing capabilities (accelerometers and gyroscopes) with the hearing assistance device's existing processing circuits and bone conduction transducers. The control circuit merges motion data processing with audio signal processing, and the bone conduction transducer serves dual purposes for both hearing assistance and motion sickness mitigation through vestibular stimulation, thereby reducing overall system complexity
2Measurement precision
If the device continuously monitors motion and head position to estimate vestibular and visual system inputs, then motion sickness detection accuracy is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control circuit is configured to monitor motion and head position data at specific intervals and update estimates of vestibular and visual system inputs periodically rather than continuously. This periodic monitoring approach maintains adequate detection accuracy for motion sickness conditions while significantly reducing the energy consumption compared to continuous real-time tracking of all sensor data
Solution Approach 2:
The device processes motion and head position data selectively, focusing computational resources on estimating vestibular and visual system inputs only when motion sickness conditions are suspected or during critical monitoring periods. This partial processing approach maintains detection accuracy for the specific purpose of motion sickness prevention while avoiding the excessive energy consumption of full continuous analysis
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments herein relate to devices and related systems and methods for motion sickness prevention and mitigation. In an embodiment, a method of preventing or mitigating motion sickness in a subject is included, the method tracking motion of the subject using a first motion sensor; estimating a vestibular system input based on tracked motion of the subject; tracking head position of the subject using the first motion sensor; estimating a visual system input based on tracked head position of the subject; estimating consistency between the vestibular system input and the visual system input; and initiating a responsive measure if the estimated consistency crosses a threshold value. Other embodiments are also included herein.