Wearable Pulse-Wave Analysis for Meal-Time Metabolic Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Individuals with diabetes face challenges in recognizing the connection between dietary composition and post-meal body responses, making it difficult to maintain proper dietary habits.
Innovation Solution
An analyzer that includes a wearable device to continuously measure pulse waves after a meal, detect changes in pulse waves, estimate a metabolic index correlated with blood vessel stiffness, and estimate meal times to prompt individuals to recognize dietary issues and adjust their habits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If dietary treatment is implemented to curb rapid changes in blood glucose levels, then health outcomes improve, but patient compliance deteriorates due to difficulty in recognizing the connection between dietary composition and body responses
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors pulse waves and provides real-time feedback to the subject about their metabolic state. The feedback mechanism presents information about the connection between dietary composition and body responses, enabling subjects to recognize patterns and adjust their diet accordingly, thereby improving compliance while maintaining health outcomes
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical or invasive measurement systems with optical pulse wave measurement. By using non-invasive photoplethysmography to detect pulse waves and derive metabolic indices, the system makes continuous monitoring convenient and comfortable, thereby improving patient compliance without compromising the reliability of health outcome assessment
2Measurement precision
If continuous pulse wave measurement is performed to estimate metabolic index, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses pulse wave characteristics as an intermediary to indirectly measure metabolic state. Instead of directly measuring complex metabolic parameters, the patent measures easily obtainable pulse wave signals and uses algorithmic processing to derive metabolic indices, thereby achieving high measurement precision without requiring complex measurement devices
Solution Approach 2:
The wearable device performs multiple functions using a single integrated system: it measures pulse waves, detects waveform characteristics, calculates multiple metabolic indices, and provides feedback. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate devices for each measurement, thereby managing device complexity while maintaining high measurement precision through comprehensive monitoring
Data Source
AI summary
A meal time of a subject is estimated. An analyzer includes an acquisition unit that acquires a pulse wave of a subject continuously measured by a wearable device in a first period after a meal period in which the subject consumes a meal, a change detector that detects a pulse wave of the subject before a meal, and an index estimator that estimates a change in a metabolic index correlated with stiffness of a blood vessel of the subject.