System and method for the inference of activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living automatically

US8894576B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• University of Virginia Patent Foundation · US

Inventors

• Majd Alwan · Charlottesville, US
• Robin A. Felder · Charlottesville, US
• Steven W. Kell · Lucedale, US
• Sarah Wood · Lovingston, US
• Michael Cvetanovich · Charlottesville, US
• Beverly Turner · North Garden, US
• J. William Holman · Earlysville, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 10, 2005
• Grant date: Nov 25, 2014
• Expiry date: Mar 10, 2025

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A61B2562/046
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method and related system to, among other things, automatically infer answers to all of the ADL questions and the first four questions of the IADL in the home. The inference methods detect the relevant activities unobtrusively, continuously, accurately, objectively, quantifiably and without relying on the patient's own memory (which may be fading due to aging or an existing health condition, such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)) or on a caregiver's subjective report. The methods rely on the judicious placement of a number of sensors in the subject's place of residence, including motion detection sensors in every room, the decomposition of each relevant activity into the sub-tasks involved, identification of additional sensors required to detect the relevant sub-tasks and spatial-temporal conditions between the signals of sensors to formulate the rules that will detect the occurrence of the specific activities of interest.