Sleep diagnostics using cellular data transfer from remote testing locations

What is this patent about?

’512 is related to the field of wireless physiological data acquisition, specifically for monitoring electroencephalogram (EEG) and other vital signs during clinical or research studies. The background context involves the transition from cumbersome, tethered monitoring systems to mobile solutions that can track sleep disorders, alertness, and emergency brain activity without restricting patient movement. Traditional systems often suffer from signal interference, limited bandwidth, and motion-induced noise, creating a need for a more robust, programmable, and integrated wireless architecture.

The underlying idea behind ’512 is the integration of a multi-channel physiological interface with motion-aware artifact correction to ensure data integrity in a mobile environment. By combining high-sensitivity EEG inputs with built-in sensors like accelerometers and pressure transducers, the system can distinguish between actual physiological events and noise caused by physical movement. This insight allows the device to clean the data stream—either locally or at a remote station—by using the motion data as a reference to subtract artifacts that would otherwise lead to a misdiagnosis.

The claims of ’512 focus on a portable, wearable interface box that acts as a single hub for collecting and wirelessly transmitting sleep diagnostic data to a mobile device, such as a cell phone or PDA. The independent claims specifically protect the hardware-software ecosystem where the wearable box, containing a battery and signal processing unit, communicates with a mobile device over frequencies above 2 GHz. This mobile device then acts as a gateway, re-transmitting the processed sleep data over cellular networks to a remote computer for final analysis and clinical diagnosis.

In practice, the system functions by tethering various sensors—such as pulse oximeters, respiratory belts, and EEG electrodes—directly to the wearable box secured to the patient's body. The interface box digitizes these signals and utilizes its internal 3-D accelerometer to track the subject's posture and movement in real-time. This data is then bundled into packets and sent to a smartphone, which leverages its own connectivity to bridge the gap between the patient's home or field location and a medical professional's remote workstation.

This approach differentiates itself from prior art by eliminating the need for specialized base stations and dedicated AC power, instead utilizing the ubiquitous connectivity of mobile transceivers and USB-powered receivers. Furthermore, the invention reduces hardware complexity by using software filtering to derive multiple respiratory parameters, such as tidal volume and snore detection, from a single pressure transducer. By shifting the burden of data relay to cellular infrastructure and providing integrated artifact rejection, the system achieves a level of diagnostic reliability previously reserved for tethered clinical environments.