Cross-cut: `other`

Axis: form_factor

42 corpus entries disclose this tag.

Earliest disclosure: 1903

Listed in chronological order. Each entry’s prior_art_notes and disclosure_citation constitute the citeable prior art material.

Einthoven (1903) — the string galvanometer electrocardiogram (1903)

id: einthoven-1903-string-galvanometer-ecg
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Willem Einthoven
disclosure: Einthoven W. ‘Die galvanometrische Registrirung des menschlichen Elektrokardiogramms, zugleich eine Beurtheilung der Anwendung des Capillar-Elektrometers in der Physiologie.’ Pflügers Archiv 1903;99:472-480. (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1924.)
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ecg
prior art notes: First practical recording of the human electrocardiogram and the foundational lead concept (Einthoven’s triangle, the limb leads). The disclosure root of all ECG measurement: any wearable claim reciting ‘electrodes positioned to measure an electrocardiographic signal of the wearer’ rests on a technique public since 1903. § 102 prior art for the ECG principle; the wristworn / patch / garment single-lead variants are obvious combinations under [[obviousness-template]].
‘The Machine Stops’ — pervasive personal mediated-communication apparatus (1909-11) — forster-the-machine-stops-personal-apparatus [fictional] — Forster, E.M. ‘The Machine Stops’, The Oxford and Cambridge Review, November 1909; each person interacts with the world almost entirely through a personal communication apparatus (visual ‘plates’, a s…
Berger (1929) — first recording of the human electroencephalogram (1929)
id: berger-1929-human-eeg
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Hans Berger
disclosure: Berger H. ‘Über das Elektrenkephalogramm des Menschen.’ Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten 1929;87:527-570 (recordings made from 1924).
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-eeg
prior art notes: First demonstration of the human EEG and of the alpha rhythm — the disclosure root of all scalp EEG measurement. Any wearable claim reciting ‘scalp electrodes positioned to measure an electroencephalographic signal’ rests on a technique public since 1929. § 102 prior art for the EEG principle; the headband / cap / glasses / earbud EEG variants are obvious combinations under [[obviousness-template]].
Brave New World — the ‘feelies’ (multisensory immersive media with tactile feedback) and hypnopaedia (1932) — huxley-brave-new-world-feelies [fictional] — Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Chatto & Windus, 1932; the ‘feelies’ — cinema augmented with synchronized tactile sensations delivered through metal knobs the viewer holds — together with ‘scent orga…
Hertzman (1937) — photoelectric plethysmography (the origin of PPG) (1937)
id: hertzman-1937-photoplethysmography
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Alrick B. Hertzman
disclosure: Hertzman AB. ‘Photoelectric plethysmography of the fingers and toes in man.’ Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 1937;37(3):529-534.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ppg
prior art notes: Coins and demonstrates ‘photoelectric plethysmography’ — measuring the pulsatile change in transmitted/reflected light through perfused tissue to track blood volume pulse. This is the disclosure root of the entire PPG wearable space: every claim reciting ‘a photoplethysmography sensor’ or ‘a light source and a photodetector arranged to measure a blood volume pulse in tissue’ reads on Hertzman 1937. As § 102 prior art for the bare PPG principle it is dispositive; combined with any form-factor disclosure it renders the form-factor+PPG combination obvious under [[obviousness-template]].
Nineteen Eighty-Four telescreen (remote body and behaviour monitoring) (1949-06-08) — 1984-telescreen-body-monitoring [fictional] — Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Secker & Warburg, 1949 — the two-way ‘telescreen’ that continuously observes occupants and, in the ‘Physical Jerks’ scene, monitors a citizen’s exercise performan…
Aserinsky & Kleitman (1953) — discovery of REM sleep via electrooculography (1953-09-04)
id: aserinsky-kleitman-1953-rem-sleep
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Eugene Aserinsky / Nathaniel Kleitman (University of Chicago)
disclosure: Aserinsky E, Kleitman N. ‘Regularly occurring periods of eye motility, and concomitant phenomena, during sleep.’ Science 1953;118(3062):273-274.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-eog, sensor-eeg
algorithms: algo-sleep-staging
prior art notes: Establishes that sleep is not homogeneous — that there are recurring periods of rapid eye movement detectable by electrooculography (with concomitant EEG changes) — i.e. the existence of distinguishable sleep states detectable from ocular/cortical electrophysiology. Foundational prior art for any sleep-staging wearable: the premise that sleep states are detectable from EOG/EEG signals is public since 1953. Anchor for the sleep-staging cross-cut.

Clark & Lyons (1962) — the enzyme electrode (basis of the amperometric glucose biosensor) (1962)

id: clark-lyons-1962-enzyme-electrode
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Leland C. Clark Jr. / Champ Lyons
disclosure: Clark LC Jr, Lyons C. ‘Electrode systems for continuous monitoring in cardiovascular surgery.’ Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1962;102(1):29-45.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-glucose-cgm
prior art notes: Proposes coupling an enzyme (glucose oxidase) to an oxygen electrode so that the electrode current reports glucose concentration — the founding concept of the amperometric enzyme biosensor and hence of every electrochemical continuous glucose monitor. Any CGM claim reciting ‘an enzyme electrode configured to generate a current dependent on glucose concentration’ rests on a concept public since 1962. § 102 prior art for the electrochemical-glucose-sensing principle.

The ‘autodoc’ (Larry Niven, Known Space) — automated diagnostic-and-treatment booth (1966)

id: niven-autodoc
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Larry Niven
disclosure: Niven, Larry. Known Space stories (the ‘autodoc’ recurring from the mid-1960s, e.g. ‘The Adults’ / ‘World of Ptavvs’, 1966, and prominently in Ringworld, 1970); an automated booth/bed that scans an occupant, diagnoses injury and illness, and administers treatment without a human physician.
ip status: fictional
prior art notes: Discloses an automated booth/bed that scans an occupant, derives a diagnosis across multiple body systems, and delivers treatment, all without a clinician — an early, much-reused articulation of the closed-loop diagnose-and-treat machine. Relevant to automated-diagnostic-and-treatment-station claims; part of the chain with [[star-trek-biobed]] (1966), [[elysium-medbay-scanner]] (2013). § 103 motivation as of 1966.

Star Trek sickbay biobed (wireless physiological telemetry) (1966-09-08)

id: star-trek-biobed
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Gene Roddenberry / Desilu Productions
disclosure: Star Trek (The Original Series), premiered September 8, 1966; the sickbay ‘biobed’ continuously displaying a patient’s vital signs (heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, temperature, brain activity) on an overhead panel without wired connection. Elaborated in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
ip status: fictional
prior art notes: Discloses continuous, wireless, multi-parameter physiological telemetry (HR, BP, respiration, temperature, neural activity) with a real-time graphical readout, without skin-attached leads. Relevant to non-contact / contactless vitals-monitoring claims and to wireless-multiparameter-telemetry claims generally (the modern remote-patient-monitoring and ‘hospital bed with integrated sensors’ patent space). § 103 motivation that contactless continuous multi-vital telemetry was an articulated objective by 1966. Non-enabling on the sensing modality.

Updike & Hicks (1967) — the practical glucose enzyme electrode (1967-06-03)

id: updike-hicks-1967-enzyme-electrode
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Stuart J. Updike / George P. Hicks
disclosure: Updike SJ, Hicks GP. ‘The enzyme electrode.’ Nature 1967;214(5092):986-988.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-glucose-cgm
prior art notes: Reduces Clark & Lyons’s concept to a working device — an immobilized-enzyme membrane on an electrode giving a glucose-dependent signal — the practical ancestor of the implantable/subcutaneous glucose sensor. Prior art for CGM claims reciting ‘a membrane-immobilized glucose oxidase layer on an electrode’. Combined with [[shichiri-1982-wearable-needle-glucose-sensor]] it establishes both the chemistry and the wearable form.

Blade Runner — the Voight-Kampff machine (contactless multi-physiological liveness/identity test) (1968)

id: blade-runner-voight-kampff
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Philip K. Dick
disclosure: Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Doubleday, 1968 (film: Blade Runner, Warner Bros., 1982); a portable instrument that measures involuntary physiological responses — pupil dilation, ‘capillary dilation of the so-called blush response’, heart rate, micro-expression — under questioning, to classify a subject as human or replicant.
ip status: fictional
sensors: sensor-camera-ir, sensor-camera-eye
algorithms: algo-pupillometry, algo-hr, algo-emotion-recognition
prior art notes: Discloses a device that contactlessly measures multiple involuntary physiological signals from a person’s face (pupil dilation, blush/capillary response, heart rate, micro-expression) and fuses them into a binary classification of the subject. Relevant to remote-photoplethysmography / pupillometry / ‘deception or liveness detection’ claims combining ‘contactless facial imaging’, ‘extraction of two or more involuntary physiological signals’, and ‘a classification of the subject’. § 103 motivation as of 1968. Cf. [[psycho-pass-cymatic-scan]], [[gattaca-biometric-checkpoints]].

Rechtschaffen & Kales (1968) — standardized sleep-stage scoring manual (1968)

id: rechtschaffen-kales-1968-sleep-scoring-manual
corpus: standards
form factor: other
creator: Allan Rechtschaffen / Anthony Kales (eds), for the UCLA Brain Information Service
disclosure: Rechtschaffen A, Kales A (eds). ‘A Manual of Standardized Terminology, Techniques and Scoring System for Sleep Stages of Human Subjects.’ Public Health Service / U.S. Government Printing Office / UCLA Brain Information Service, NIH Publication No. 204, 1968.
ip status: standards
sensors: sensor-eeg, sensor-eog, sensor-emg
algorithms: algo-sleep-staging
prior art notes: Standardizes the definition of sleep stages and the rules for scoring them from EEG + EOG + EMG (polysomnography). Any wearable claim reciting ‘classifying sleep into stages from electrophysiological/physiological signals’ rests on the staging framework standardized here. Combined with [[muse-headband-2014]]-type form-factor disclosures, makes wearable automated sleep-staging an obvious combination under [[obviousness-template]].

THX 1138 — pervasive body-state monitoring with regulated medication (1971-03-11)

id: thx-1138-state-monitoring
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: George Lucas / American Zoetrope
disclosure: THX 1138 (Warner Bros. / American Zoetrope), released March 11, 1971; a society in which citizens’ physiological and emotional state is continuously monitored, displayed (‘What’s wrong?’), and managed through state-administered, dosage-adjusted medication. (Expands George Lucas’s 1967 student short ‘Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB’.)
ip status: fictional
prior art notes: Discloses continuous monitoring of a person’s physiological and emotional state coupled in closed loop to automatic adjustment of medication dosing — i.e. sense-the-body, titrate-the-drug. Relevant to closed-loop drug-delivery claims combining ‘a sensor measuring a physiological or affective parameter’, ‘a controller computing a dose from the measurement’, and ‘an actuator delivering the adjusted dose’. § 103 motivation that the sensor-driven closed-loop medication regime was an articulated objective by 1971.

Peñáz (1973) — the volume-clamp (vascular unloading) method of continuous finger blood pressure (1973)

id: penaz-1973-volume-clamp-finger-bp
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Jan Peñáz
disclosure: Peñáz J. ‘Photoelectric measurement of blood pressure, volume and flow in the finger.’ Digest of the 10th International Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering, Dresden, 1973, p. 104. (Basis of the Finapres / volume-clamp continuous BP monitors.)
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ppg, sensor-cuffless-bp-volume-clamp, sensor-pressure-skin
algorithms: algo-pwv-bp-estimation
prior art notes: Discloses the volume-clamp / vascular-unloading method: a finger cuff servo-controlled by a photoplethysmographic feedback loop to hold the arterial volume constant, so the applied counter-pressure tracks the arterial pressure waveform continuously and non-invasively. Any cuffless/continuous-BP wearable claim reciting ‘a photoplethysmographic feedback loop controlling an applied pressure to maintain constant vascular volume’ reads on Peñáz 1973. Anchor for the volume-clamp cuffless-BP cross-cut (the finger/ring form-factor variants are obvious combinations under [[obviousness-template]]).

Aoyagi (1974) — two-wavelength pulse oximetry principle (1974)

id: aoyagi-1974-two-wavelength-pulse-oximetry
corpus: private
form factor: other
creator: Takuo Aoyagi (Nihon Kohden)
disclosure: Aoyagi T, et al. — the pulsatile two-wavelength (red/infrared) ratio method for non-invasive arterial oxygen saturation, presented at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering (1974); commercialized as the Nihon Kohden ‘Ear Oximeter OLV-5100’ (1975) and Minolta ‘Oximet MET-1471’ (1977). History documented in Severinghaus JW, Honda Y. ‘History of blood gas analysis. VII. Pulse oximetry.’ J Clin Monit 1987;3(2):135-138.
ip status: patented
sensors: sensor-spo2, sensor-ppg, sensor-multi-wavelength-ppg
algorithms: algo-spo2-estimation
prior art notes: Discloses the pulsatile two-wavelength ratiometric method that underlies every non-invasive SpO2 device: comparing the AC/DC ratios of light absorbance at (typically) red ~660 nm and infrared ~940 nm through pulsatile tissue to compute arterial oxygen saturation. Any wearable claim reciting ‘a first and second light source at distinct wavelengths and a photodetector configured to compute oxygen saturation from a ratio of pulsatile components’ reads on this. § 102 prior art for the SpO2 principle from 1974; the wrist/ring/earbud form-factor variants are obvious combinations under [[obviousness-template]].

Geddes et al. (1981) — pulse transit time as an indicator of arterial blood pressure (1981-01)

id: geddes-1981-pulse-transit-time-bp
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Leslie A. Geddes et al. (Purdue)
disclosure: Geddes LA, Voelz MH, Babbs CF, Bourland JD, Tacker WA. ‘Pulse transit time as an indicator of arterial blood pressure.’ Psychophysiology 1981;18(1):71-74.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ecg, sensor-ppg, sensor-cuffless-bp-ptt
algorithms: algo-pwv-bp-estimation
prior art notes: Establishes that pulse transit time — the delay between a proximal timing reference (e.g. the ECG R-wave) and the arrival of the pulse at a distal site (e.g. a finger PPG) — varies inversely with arterial blood pressure, and can therefore be used to estimate BP without a cuff. Any cuffless-BP wearable claim reciting ‘estimating blood pressure from a pulse transit time (or pulse arrival time / pulse wave velocity) derived from two physiological signals’ reads on Geddes 1981. Earliest anchor for the PTT-cuffless-BP cross-cut; [[mukkamala-2015-ptt-cuffless-bp-review]] is the modern survey.

Mendelson & Ochs (1988) — reflectance-mode pulse oximetry / skin-reflectance PPG (1988-10)

id: mendelson-ochs-1988-reflectance-pulse-oximetry
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Yitzhak Mendelson / Burt D. Ochs
disclosure: Mendelson Y, Ochs BD. ‘Noninvasive pulse oximetry utilizing skin reflectance photoplethysmography.’ IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 1988;35(10):798-805.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ppg, sensor-spo2, sensor-multi-wavelength-ppg
algorithms: algo-spo2-estimation, algo-hr
prior art notes: Establishes pulse oximetry by reflectance (light source and detector on the same side of the tissue) rather than transmission — the geometry every wrist, forehead, ring, chest, and earbud PPG/SpO2 wearable uses, since those sites cannot be transilluminated. Any wearable-SpO2 claim reciting ‘a reflectance photoplethysmography sensor’ or ‘a light source and photodetector arranged on a common surface against the skin’ reads on Mendelson & Ochs 1988. Anchor for the reflectance-PPG/SpO2 cross-cut on non-fingertip sites.

Total Recall walk-through whole-body imaging scanner (1990-06-01)

id: total-recall-walkthrough-body-scanner
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Paul Verhoeven / Carolco Pictures
disclosure: Total Recall (TriStar Pictures), released June 1, 1990; the spaceport security archway that produces a real-time full-body anatomical/skeletal image of each person walking through it, highlighting concealed objects.
ip status: fictional
sensors: sensor-camera-ir
prior art notes: Discloses a walk-through portal that images the full body of a person passing through in real time, rendering internal anatomy and detecting concealed items on the body. Relevant to walk-through whole-body scanner claims combining ‘a portal a person passes through’, ‘imaging hardware producing a body image’, and ‘detection of objects carried on the body’ — i.e. the millimeter-wave / backscatter advanced-imaging-technology patent space. § 103 motivation that the walk-through whole-body imager was an articulated objective by 1990. Non-enabling on the imaging physics.

Task Force of the ESC and NASPE (1996) — heart rate variability: standards of measurement (1996-03)

id: esc-naspe-1996-hrv-standards
corpus: standards
form factor: other
creator: Task Force of the ESC and NASPE
disclosure: Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. ‘Heart rate variability: standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use.’ Circulation 1996;93(5):1043-1065 (also European Heart Journal 1996;17:354-381).
ip status: standards
sensors: sensor-ecg, sensor-ppg
algorithms: algo-hrv, algo-stress-index
prior art notes: Standardizes the time-domain (SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, …) and frequency-domain (VLF/LF/HF, LF/HF ratio) measures of heart rate variability, their computation from an interbeat-interval series, and their physiological interpretation. Any wearable claim reciting ‘computing a heart-rate-variability metric (e.g. RMSSD, LF/HF) from a sequence of interbeat intervals’ rests on metrics standardized here. Anchor for the HRV cross-cut; applicable whether the interbeat intervals come from ECG or PPG.

Webster (ed.) (1997) — ‘Design of Pulse Oximeters’ (1997)

id: webster-1997-design-of-pulse-oximeters
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: John G. Webster (ed.)
disclosure: Webster JG (ed). ‘Design of Pulse Oximeters.’ Series in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, IOP Publishing / Institute of Physics, 1997. ISBN 0-7503-0467-7.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-spo2, sensor-ppg
algorithms: algo-spo2-estimation, algo-hr
prior art notes: The standard engineering reference on pulse oximeter design as of 1997 — LED selection and drive, photodiode front-ends, the ratio-of-ratios calibration, motion-artifact handling, low-perfusion behavior, calibration-curve construction. Prior art for wearable-SpO2 claims to the extent they recite implementation details (wavelength choice, AC/DC ratio computation, calibration-curve mapping, artifact rejection) covered here; these were textbook-level public knowledge by 1997.

id: gattaca-biometric-checkpoints
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Andrew Niccol / Columbia Pictures
disclosure: Gattaca (Columbia Pictures), released 1997; pervasive checkpoints performing rapid identification of individuals by multiple biometric modalities — blood draw, urine sample, hair, and skin/contact residue — gating access on a genetic-identity match.
ip status: fictional
prior art notes: Discloses continuous, pervasive identification of individuals by combining multiple biometric sample modalities (blood, urine, hair, skin residue) into a single identity decision used to gate physical access in real time. Relevant to multi-modal biometric-fusion identity claims combining ‘acquisition of two or more distinct biometric samples’, ‘matching against an enrolled identity record’, and ‘an access decision’. § 103 motivation that pervasive multi-modal biometric identity gating was an articulated objective by 1997. Non-enabling on assay speed; pair with enabling rapid-assay art.

Wolpaw et al. (2002) — ‘Brain-computer interfaces for communication and control’ (2002-06)

id: wolpaw-2002-bci-review
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Jonathan R. Wolpaw et al.
disclosure: Wolpaw JR, Birbaumer N, McFarland DJ, Pfurtscheller G, Vaughan TM. ‘Brain-computer interfaces for communication and control.’ Clinical Neurophysiology 2002;113(6):767-791.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-eeg
algorithms: algo-bci-p300, algo-bci-ssvep, algo-bci-motor-imagery, algo-erp-classification
prior art notes: Canonical review establishing, as of 2002, the major non-invasive EEG-based BCI paradigms (sensorimotor rhythms / motor imagery, P300 evoked potentials, SSVEP, slow cortical potentials) and the signal-processing pipeline for translating EEG into control output. Prior art for wearable-BCI claims reciting any of these paradigms with scalp EEG: the paradigms and methods were published and enabled by 2002. Anchor for the BCI algorithm cross-cuts.

Minority Report ambient retinal identification and personalization (2002-06-21)

id: minority-report-retinal-id-ads
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Steven Spielberg / DreamWorks / 20th Century Fox
disclosure: Minority Report (20th Century Fox / DreamWorks), released June 21, 2002; environmental cameras performing continuous retinal/iris identification of passers-by to deliver individually personalized advertising and access control. (Based on Philip K. Dick, ‘The Minority Report’, Fantastic Universe, 1956.)
ip status: fictional
sensors: sensor-camera-ir, sensor-camera-eye
prior art notes: Discloses continuous, contactless retinal/iris biometric identification of individuals in a public space, with the identity used to trigger personalized content and access decisions in real time. Relevant to (a) contactless ocular-biometric identification claims and (b) identity-triggered personalization claims. § 103 motivation that always-on ambient retinal ID with downstream personalization was an articulated objective by 2002. Non-enabling on the optical pipeline; pair with enabling iris-recognition art.

The Island — 24-hour ambient health monitoring with biochemical smart toilet (2005-07-22)

id: the-island-continuous-health-monitoring
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Michael Bay / DreamWorks
disclosure: The Island (DreamWorks / Warner Bros.), released July 22, 2005; residents are told their health is monitored 24 hours a day, with proximity/contact sensors throughout the facility and a lavatory that analyses urine in real time and reports dietary findings (‘there’s too much sodium in your diet’).
ip status: fictional
sensors: sensor-electrolyte
prior art notes: Discloses (a) pervasive, continuous, ambient monitoring of residents’ physiological state and (b) a lavatory that performs real-time urinalysis (electrolytes / sodium) and returns dietary feedback. Relevant to smart-toilet / in-fixture urinalysis claims combining ‘a toilet fixture’, ‘a sensor analysing excreted fluid’, and ‘a determination of a dietary/physiological parameter’ (the modern smart-toilet patent space), and to pervasive ambient-health-monitoring claims. § 103 motivation that the biochemical smart toilet was an articulated objective by 2005.

Continua Health Alliance — Design Guidelines (first edition, 2007) (2007)

id: continua-design-guidelines-2007
corpus: standards
form factor: other
creator: Continua Health Alliance
disclosure: Continua Health Alliance (later Personal Connected Health Alliance). ‘Continua Design Guidelines’ (first edition published 2007; subsequently maintained, ITU-T H.810 series). Specifies end-to-end interoperability for personal connected health devices, profiling IEEE 11073, Bluetooth, USB, ZigBee, HL7/IHE.
ip status: standards
sensors: sensor-ppg, sensor-ecg, sensor-glucose-cgm, sensor-accelerometer
algorithms: algo-hr, algo-step-count, algo-glucose-cgm-readout
prior art notes: Publicly-published end-to-end interoperability framework for personal connected health devices — defining how a body-worn sensor (weight scale, blood-pressure cuff, glucose meter, pulse oximeter, activity monitor, ECG, etc.) connects to an application hub and onward to health-record systems, profiling the underlying transport and data standards. Prior art for connected-wearable-system claims reciting the architecture, the device-to-hub-to-record data flow, or the standard profiles assembled here, public from 2007.

Allen (2007) — ‘Photoplethysmography and its application in clinical physiological measurement’ (2007-02-20)

id: allen-2007-ppg-review
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: John Allen (Freeman Hospital / Newcastle)
disclosure: Allen J. ‘Photoplethysmography and its application in clinical physiological measurement.’ Physiological Measurement 2007;28(3):R1-R39. doi:10.1088/0967-3334/28/3/R01.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ppg
algorithms: algo-hr, algo-hrv, algo-respiratory-rate, algo-spo2-estimation, algo-pwv-bp-estimation
prior art notes: Canonical review collecting the state of PPG measurement and the physiological parameters derivable from a PPG signal as of 2007 — heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, SpO2, blood-pressure surrogates, arterial-stiffness/aging indices, vasomotor assessment. Relevant to wearable claims that recite ‘deriving [parameter X] from a photoplethysmography signal’ for any X covered here: the derivation was a published, enabled technique by 2007, defeating novelty of the bare derivation and supplying § 103 motivation for the form-factor+PPG+algorithm combinations. The single most-cited anchor for PPG-derived-metric wearable patents.

CHB-MIT Scalp EEG Database (Shoeb, 2009) — benchmark seizure-detection dataset (2009-08)

id: chb-mit-scalp-eeg-database-2009
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Ali H. Shoeb (MIT / Boston Children’s Hospital)
disclosure: Shoeb AH. ‘Application of Machine Learning to Epileptic Seizure Onset Detection and Treatment.’ PhD thesis, MIT, 2009 (the CHB-MIT Scalp EEG Database, distributed via PhysioNet, physionet.org/content/chbmit).
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-eeg, sensor-saline-eeg-electrode
algorithms: algo-seizure-detection
prior art notes: Publishes a labelled scalp-EEG corpus and a machine-learning method for patient-specific seizure-onset detection, establishing the public benchmark and the patient-calibrated detection paradigm used by subsequent wearable seizure detectors. Relevant to seizure-detection-wearable claims reciting ‘a classifier trained on EEG to detect seizure onset’, particularly ‘patient-specific’ or ‘per-subject calibrated’ variants — the paradigm and a reference implementation were public by 2009. Anchor for the EEG × seizure-detection cross-cut; [[zanetti-aminifar-atienza-eglass-2025]] reports against it.

Pantelopoulos & Bourbakis (2010) — survey on wearable sensor-based systems for health monitoring and prognosis (2010-01)

id: pantelopoulos-bourbakis-2010-wearable-health-survey
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Alexandros Pantelopoulos / Nikolaos G. Bourbakis
disclosure: Pantelopoulos A, Bourbakis NG. ‘A survey on wearable sensor-based systems for health monitoring and prognosis.’ IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C (Applications and Reviews) 2010;40(1):1-12.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ecg, sensor-ppg, sensor-spo2, sensor-accelerometer, sensor-skin-temperature, sensor-respiration-impedance
algorithms: algo-hr, algo-arrhythmia-classification, algo-spo2-estimation, algo-fall-detection, algo-activity-classification
prior art notes: Surveys, as of 2010, the architecture and components of wearable health-monitoring systems — sensors (ECG, PPG, SpO2, accelerometry, temperature, respiration), garment- and patch- and watch-based form factors, on-body processing, wireless body-area networking, and the analytics (arrhythmia, fall, activity, deterioration prediction). Prior art establishing that the general ‘multi-sensor wearable + body-area network + cloud analytics’ system architecture and its building blocks were collected and published by 2010 — useful against later claims to the bare system architecture. General anchor.

Bluetooth SIG — Heart Rate Profile / Heart Rate Service (2011) (2011-07-12)

id: bluetooth-sig-heart-rate-profile-2011
corpus: standards
form factor: other
creator: Bluetooth Special Interest Group
disclosure: Bluetooth SIG. ‘Heart Rate Profile’ specification v1.0 and ‘Heart Rate Service’ (GATT service UUID 0x180D, characteristics: Heart Rate Measurement 0x2A37, Body Sensor Location 0x2A38, Heart Rate Control Point 0x2A39), adopted 12 July 2011; available at bluetooth.com/specifications.
ip status: standards
sensors: sensor-ppg, sensor-ecg
algorithms: algo-hr
prior art notes: A publicly-adopted standard defining how a body-worn heart-rate sensor advertises, structures, and transmits heart-rate measurements (including energy expended and RR-interval data) over Bluetooth Low Energy to a collector, with a defined sensor-location enumeration including wrist, finger, ear, chest, foot, hand. Prior art for wearable-HR claims reciting ‘a BLE-advertised heart-rate measurement characteristic’, ‘transmission of RR intervals from a body-worn sensor’, or a ‘body sensor location’ field — these were standardized and public from 2011. Relevant to PPG and ECG HR wearables alike.

ISO 80601-2-61 — particular requirements for basic safety and essential performance of pulse oximeter equipment (2011/2017) (2011-08-15)

id: iso-80601-2-61-pulse-oximeter-equipment-2011
corpus: standards
form factor: other
creator: ISO/IEC (TC 121/SC 3 and IEC SC 62D)
disclosure: ISO 80601-2-61:2011 (revised 2017). ‘Medical electrical equipment — Part 2-61: Particular requirements for basic safety and essential performance of pulse oximeter equipment.’ ISO, 2011.
ip status: standards
sensors: sensor-spo2, sensor-ppg, sensor-multi-wavelength-ppg
algorithms: algo-spo2-estimation
prior art notes: Publicly-adopted standard defining pulse oximeter equipment (a device estimating SpO2 and pulse rate from light at two or more wavelengths through perfused tissue) and the accuracy/validation requirements for it. Prior art for wearable-SpO2 claims to the extent they recite the multi-wavelength pulsatile method or the SpO2-and-pulse-rate output described here; the equipment definition and method have been a published standard since 2011 (building on the [[aoyagi-1974-two-wavelength-pulse-oximetry]] principle).
Black Mirror ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ — gaze-enforced compulsory viewing (2011-12-11) — black-mirror-fifteen-million-merits-gaze-enforcement [fictional] — Black Mirror, ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ (Channel 4, 11 December 2011); ubiquitous screens show advertising the viewer is required to watch — closing or averting the eyes triggers an alarm and a penalty…
IEEE Std 11073-10406-2011 — personal health device communication: basic electrocardiograph (1- to 3-lead ECG) (2011-12-30)
id: ieee-11073-10406-basic-ecg-2011
corpus: standards
form factor: other
creator: IEEE / ISO/IEEE 11073 Personal Health Devices Working Group
disclosure: IEEE Std 11073-10406-2011. ‘Health informatics — Personal health device communication — Part 10406: Device specialization — Basic electrocardiograph (ECG) (1- to 3-lead ECG).’ IEEE, 2011.
ip status: standards
sensors: sensor-ecg
algorithms: algo-hr, algo-arrhythmia-classification
prior art notes: A publicly-adopted standard defining the device model and data exchange for a personal/consumer 1-to-3-lead electrocardiograph — including reporting of the ECG waveform, derived heart rate, and rhythm/event annotations from a body-worn or handheld single-lead ECG device. Prior art for consumer-single-lead-ECG-wearable claims reciting the device model, lead configuration, or data fields standardized here (public from 2011, predating the Apple Watch / AliveCor consumer-ECG patent wave’s later filings).

Patel et al. (2012) — ‘A review of wearable sensors and systems with application in rehabilitation’ (2012-04-20)

id: patel-bonato-2012-wearable-sensors-rehab-review
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Shyamal Patel / Hyung Park / Paolo Bonato et al.
disclosure: Patel S, Park H, Bonato P, Chan L, Rodgers M. ‘A review of wearable sensors and systems with application in rehabilitation.’ Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 2012;9:21.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-accelerometer, sensor-gyroscope, sensor-emg, sensor-ecg, sensor-ppg, sensor-pressure-skin
algorithms: algo-gait-analysis, algo-activity-classification, algo-fall-detection, algo-tremor-detection, algo-bradykinesia-detection, algo-posture-detection
prior art notes: Reviews, as of 2012, wearable inertial/EMG/pressure sensor systems for movement and physiological monitoring in rehabilitation and chronic-disease management — gait analysis, activity and posture classification, fall detection, tremor and bradykinesia quantification (Parkinson’s), with the sensor placements (foot/insole, shank, thigh, trunk, wrist, forearm) and algorithms. Prior art for wearable movement-disorder and gait-monitoring claims reciting any of the placements/analytics surveyed; collected and published by 2012. General anchor for the gait / tremor / activity cross-cuts.

Psycho-Pass — ambient continuous psychological-state scanning (‘cymatic scan’) (2012-10-12)

id: psycho-pass-cymatic-scan
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Production I.G
disclosure: Psycho-Pass (Production I.G television series), 2012; ubiquitous scanners continuously read each citizen’s mental/emotional state and ‘crime coefficient’, and a handheld device (‘Dominator’) reads the targeted person’s current psychological metrics in real time before acting.
ip status: fictional
prior art notes: Discloses pervasive, contactless, continuous measurement of a person’s psychological and emotional state, aggregated into a scalar index used to drive automated decisions, plus a portable scanner that reads a specific person’s current affective metrics on demand. Relevant to affective-computing claims combining ‘contactless sensing of a person’, ‘inference of an emotional/psychological state’, and ‘an action conditioned on the inferred state’. § 103 motivation that pervasive ambient affective-state scanning was an articulated objective by 2012.

AliveCor Heart Monitor / KardiaMobile (2012) — smartphone-coupled single-lead ECG (2012-12)

id: alivecor-kardiamobile-2012
corpus: private
form factor: other
creator: AliveCor, Inc. (David Albert)
disclosure: AliveCor, Inc. ‘AliveCor Heart Monitor’ (later ‘KardiaMobile’), FDA-cleared December 2012 — a card-sized two-electrode module that records a single-lead ECG via dry electrodes touched by the fingers (or pressed to the chest) and streams it to a smartphone app for AF detection. (The ‘Kardia Band’ wrist-strap ECG accessory for Apple Watch followed in 2017, FDA cleared.)
ip status: patented
sensors: sensor-ecg
algorithms: algo-afib-detection, algo-arrhythmia-classification, algo-hr
prior art notes: Discloses a portable two-dry-electrode single-lead ECG recorder that the user contacts with the fingers (or chest) and that streams the trace to a smartphone for automated atrial-fibrillation detection — and, in the 2017 Kardia Band variant, the same dry-electrode single-lead ECG integrated into a wrist strap. Anticipates consumer single-lead-ECG and wrist-strap-ECG AF-detection claims from 2012/2017 — predating the Apple Watch Series 4 ECG (2018). Product-side anchor for the consumer-ECG cross-cut.

Elysium ‘Med-Bay’ — contactless full-body diagnostic and treatment scanner (2013-08-09)

id: elysium-medbay-scanner
corpus: fictional
form factor: other
creator: Neill Blomkamp / Media Rights Capital
disclosure: Elysium (TriStar Pictures / Media Rights Capital), released August 9, 2013; a home medical bed that performs a full-body scan of an occupant, diagnoses disease and injury, and administers treatment, presenting findings on an integrated display.
ip status: fictional
prior art notes: Discloses a bed-form instrument that scans an occupant’s whole body, derives a multi-system diagnosis (disease and injury), and delivers treatment in the same session, with a graphical report. Relevant to whole-body diagnostic-bed and closed-loop diagnose-and-treat claims combining ‘a support an occupant lies on’, ‘imaging/sensing hardware’, ‘an automated diagnostic determination’, and ‘a coupled treatment delivery’. § 103 motivation that the integrated diagnose-and-treat body scanner was an articulated objective by 2013 — a later, more capable instance of the Star Trek biobed concept. Non-enabling.

Bandodkar & Wang (2014) — ‘Non-invasive wearable electrochemical sensors: a review’ (2014-07)

id: bandodkar-wang-2014-wearable-electrochemical-sensors-review
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Amay J. Bandodkar / Joseph Wang (UC San Diego)
disclosure: Bandodkar AJ, Wang J. ‘Non-invasive wearable electrochemical sensors: a review.’ Trends in Biotechnology 2014;32(7):363-371.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-lactate, sensor-electrolyte, sensor-ph, sensor-glucose-cgm, sensor-alcohol-transdermal, sensor-uric-acid, sensor-cortisol
algorithms: algo-electrolyte-trend, algo-hydration-status
prior art notes: Surveys, as of 2014, wearable non-invasive electrochemical biosensors across body fluids and form factors — temporary-tattoo electrodes on the skin (sweat lactate, Na+, ammonium, pH), textile-integrated sensors, mouthguard (saliva) sensors, contact-lens (tear glucose) sensors, and the transdermal/interstitial route — including the sampling, transduction, and on-body electronics issues. Prior art for wearable-electrochemical-sensing claims reciting any of the analyte/form-factor combinations collected here; the approaches were published by 2014. General anchor for the electrochemical wearable cross-cuts.

Inan et al. (2015) — ballistocardiography and seismocardiography review (2014-10-07)

id: inan-2015-bcg-scg-review
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Omer T. Inan et al.
disclosure: Inan OT, Migeotte P-F, Park K-S, Etemadi M, Tavakolian K, Casanella R, Zanetti J, Tank J, Funtova I, Prisk GK, Di Rienzo M. ‘Ballistocardiography and seismocardiography: a review of recent advances.’ IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics 2015;19(4):1414-1427.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-accelerometer, sensor-piezoelectric
algorithms: algo-hr, algo-hrv, algo-pwv-bp-estimation
prior art notes: Reviews ballistocardiography (whole-body reaction force from cardiac ejection, measured at the seat/scale/bed) and seismocardiography (local chest vibration from cardiac motion, measured by accelerometers on the sternum) and their integration into bathroom scales, weighing chairs, beds, and chest patches — i.e. the mechanical-cardiac-signal route to heart rate, HRV, and cardiac-timing-interval / stroke-volume estimation. Prior art for claims reciting ‘measuring cardiac activity from a body-worn or support-mounted accelerometer/force sensor’, as both the BCG and SCG approaches and their wearable instantiations were collected and reviewed by 2015. Anchor for the BCG/SCG cross-cut.

Mukkamala et al. (2015) — ‘Toward Ubiquitous Blood Pressure Monitoring via Pulse Transit Time: Theory and Practice’ (2015-08)

id: mukkamala-2015-ptt-cuffless-bp-review
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Ramakrishna Mukkamala et al.
disclosure: Mukkamala R, Hahn J-O, Inan OT, Mestha LK, Kim C-S, Töreyin H, Kyal S. ‘Toward Ubiquitous Blood Pressure Monitoring via Pulse Transit Time: Theory and Practice.’ IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 2015;62(8):1879-1901.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ecg, sensor-ppg, sensor-cuffless-bp-ptt, sensor-cuffless-bp-tonometry
algorithms: algo-pwv-bp-estimation
prior art notes: Canonical 2015 review of cuffless blood-pressure estimation by pulse transit time / pulse arrival time / pulse wave velocity: the physiological models, the practical sensor configurations (ECG+PPG, dual PPG, ballistocardiogram+PPG), the calibration strategies, and the accuracy limitations. Prior art for cuffless-BP wearable claims reciting any of the configurations or calibration approaches surveyed here — they were collected, modeled, and published by 2015. Combined with watch/ring/patch form-factor disclosures, makes wearable PTT-based BP an obvious combination under [[obviousness-template]].

Tap Strap (Tap Systems, 2018) — finger-mounted gesture and keyboard input device (2018)

id: tap-systems-tap-strap-2018
corpus: private
form factor: other
creator: Tap Systems Inc. (founder: Dovid Schick)
disclosure: Tap Systems Inc. (founded 2014, Sherman Oaks, CA). ‘Tap Strap’ wearable input device, shipped 2018 — five finger-loops connected by a flexible band across the back of the hand, with accelerometers on each finger detecting tapping and gesture; mapped onto a virtual keyboard, mouse, and gesture commands via BLE. Successor ‘Tap Strap 2’ (2019) and ‘TapXR’ (a wrist version, 2023). https://www.tapwithus.com
ip status: patented
sensors: sensor-accelerometer
algorithms: algo-hand-gesture-emg
prior art notes: Discloses a hand-worn device of multiple finger-loops linked by a back-of-hand band, with motion sensors on each finger detecting per-finger tap and swipe events and mapping them via BLE to a virtual keyboard / mouse / gesture protocol — wearable per-finger gesture input by motion sensing alone (no EMG). Directly relevant prior art for any finger/hand gesture-input wearable, including [[ctrl-labs-meta-wrist-emg-2018]] (EMG route), [[myo-armband-2014]] (forearm-EMG route), and ring-form gesture input devices. Anticipates per-finger-motion-sensor gesture-recognition wearable claims from 2018.

Heikenfeld et al. (2018) — ‘Wearable sensors: modalities, challenges, and prospects’ (2018-01-16)

id: heikenfeld-2018-wearable-sensors-lab-on-chip-review
corpus: academic
form factor: other
creator: Jason Heikenfeld et al.
disclosure: Heikenfeld J, Jajack A, Rogers J, Gutruf P, Tian L, Pan T, Li R, Khine M, Kim J, Wang J, Kim J. ‘Wearable sensors: modalities, challenges, and prospects.’ Lab on a Chip 2018;18(2):217-248.
ip status: public-domain
sensors: sensor-ppg, sensor-ecg, sensor-eeg, sensor-glucose-cgm, sensor-lactate, sensor-cortisol, sensor-skin-temperature, sensor-bioimpedance
prior art notes: Authoritative 2018 review collecting wearable sensing across modalities — physical (motion, BCG/SCG, mechanoacoustic), electrophysiological (ECG/EMG/EEG), optical (PPG/SpO2, near-IR), thermal, electrochemical (sweat, saliva, tears, interstitial), and stimulation-coupled — across form factors (patch, watch, tattoo, contact lens, garment) and the challenges of body-fluid sampling, calibration, motion-artifact handling, and skin-electronics interfacing. Prior art establishing that the modality/form-factor combinations enumerated here were collected and surveyed by 2018; useful against later claims to those combinations. General anchor.

Cross-cut: other