US 12,290,684 B2
Wearable system for intra-ear sensing and stimulating
Tam Vu, Boulder, CO (US); Robin Deterding, Boulder, CO (US); Farnoush Banaei-Kashani, Centennial, CO (US); Nhat Pham, Boulder, CO (US); and Nam Ngoc Bui, Broomfield, CO (US)
Assigned to THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, A BODY CORPORATE, Denver, CO (US)
Appl. No. 17/642,621
Filed by THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, A BODY CORPORATE, Denver, CO (US)
PCT Filed Sep. 11, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/050545
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 11, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/050985, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 18, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/900,187, filed on Sep. 13, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0339444 A1, Oct. 27, 2022
Int. Cl. A61N 1/36 (2006.01); A61B 5/00 (2006.01); A61B 5/024 (2006.01); A61B 5/369 (2021.01); A61B 5/389 (2021.01); A61B 5/398 (2021.01); A61M 21/02 (2006.01); A61N 1/05 (2006.01)
CPC A61N 1/36036 (2017.08) [A61B 5/02438 (2013.01); A61B 5/369 (2021.01); A61B 5/389 (2021.01); A61B 5/398 (2021.01); A61B 5/4094 (2013.01); A61B 5/6817 (2013.01); A61M 21/02 (2013.01); A61N 1/0541 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for intra-ear sensing and stimulating, comprising:
an earbud sensor comprising:
a shape and size that is configured to extend, at least partially, into an ear canal of a user,
an in-ear electrical electrode, wherein the in-ear electrical electrode comprises an active electrode, and
a three-fold cascaded amplifier configured to amplify a signal generated by the in-ear electrical electrode, wherein the three-fold cascaded amplifier comprises a buffering stage, a feed forward differential preamplifying stage, and an adaptive amplifying stage;
one or more processors; and
one or more physical computer-readable storage media having stored thereon executable instructions that when executed by the e one or more processors configure the system to perform at least the following:
repeatedly calculate an exponential moving average (EMA) of a moving window for health information;
compare each calculated exponential moving average with a lower threshold value and an upper threshold value, wherein the upper threshold value and the lower threshold value are determined based, at least in part, upon a saturation level associated within the three-fold cascaded amplifier performing an adaptive gain control;
when the calculated exponential moving average is larger than the upper threshold value, decrease a gain associated with the three-fold cascaded amplifier;
when the calculated exponential moving average is smaller than the lower threshold value, increase a gain associated with the three-fold cascaded amplifier; and
wherein the earbud sensor is configured to non-invasively measure various health information, including one or more of brain waves (EEG and electromagnetic fields generated by neural activities), eyes movements (EOG), facial muscle activities (EMG), heart rate, breathing rate, swallowing sound, ear canal pictures, and head motion from inside human ears.