Automatic location detection of a physiological measurement system on a user's body

Abstract

Embodiments provide physiological measurement systems, devices and methods for continuous health and fitness monitoring. A wearable strap may detect reflected light from a user's skin, where data corresponding to the reflected light is used to automatically and continually determine a heart rate of the user. Based on signals associated with the user's heart rate, the system may detect the location of the wearable strap on the user's body, and then adjust its analysis of the reflected light data to determine the heart rate of the user.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A wearable physiological measurement system, comprising:
 a wearable strap configured to be couplable to an appendage of a user, the wearable strap comprising:
 one or more light emitters for emitting light toward the user's skin, 
 one or more light detectors for receiving light reflected from the user's skin, and 
 an electronic circuit board comprising a plurality of electronic components configured for analyzing data corresponding to the reflected light to automatically and continually determine a heart rate of the user, the electronic circuit board comprising a processing module configured to:
 based on one or more signals associated with the heart rate of the user, detect an identity of a portion of a user's body to which the strap is coupled, and 
 based on the identity of the appendage, adjust data analysis of the reflected light to determine the heart rate of the user. 
 
   
     
     
         2 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the identity of the appendage is a wrist, an arm, or an ankle of the user. 
     
     
         3 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the processing module is further configured to:
 determine that the strap is taken off from the user's body; and   if the strap is determined to be taken off from the user's body, deactivate the one or more light emitters and the one or more light detectors and cease monitoring of the heart rate of the user.   
     
     
         4 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the identity of the portion of the user's body is determined based on an absorbance or reflectance level of the light emitted by the one or more light emitters to determine a position of the wearable strap. 
     
     
         5 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the identity of the portion of the user's body is determined based on data collected from a motion sensor to determine a position of the wearable strap. 
     
     
         6 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the identity of the portion of the user's body is determined based on data collected on an altitude of the wearable strap to determine a position of the wearable strap. 
     
     
         7 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the processing module is further configured to automatically and continually determine a sequence of instantaneous heart rate of the user. 
     
     
         8 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 7 , wherein the processing module is further configured to determine a heart rate variability of the user based on the sequence of the instantaneous heart rate. 
     
     
         9 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the wearable strap further comprises a motion sensor for detecting a motion of the user. 
     
     
         10 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 9 , wherein the processing module is further configured to determine a motion status of the user based on data received from the motion sensor, and based on the motion status of the user, automatically and selectively activate one or more of the light emitters to determine a heart rate of the user. 
     
     
         11 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the electronic circuit board further comprises:
 a signal processing module configured to process one or more signals associated with the reflected light and/or associated with a motion of the user; and   a microcontroller configured to perform data analysis to automatically determine the heart rate of the user based on the one or more signals processed by the signal processing module.   
     
     
         12 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , further comprising a piezo-sensor for detecting a pulse rate at the user's skin. 
     
     
         13 . The wearable physiological measurement system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more of the light emitters are selectively activated based on historical data corresponding to the user. 
     
     
         14 . A method comprising:
 emitting light toward a user's skin using one or more light emitters included in a wearable strap configured to be couplable to an appendage of the user;   receiving light reflected from the user's skin using one or more light detectors;   automatically and continually determining a heart rate of the user using an electronic circuit board including a plurality of electronic components configured to analyze data corresponding to the reflected light, the electronic circuit board including a processing module;   detecting an identity of a portion of a user's body to which the strap is coupled using the processing module based on one or more signals associated with the heart rate of the user; and   adjusting data analysis of the reflected light using the processing module to determine the heart rate of the user based on the identity of the appendage.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the identity of the appendage is a wrist, an arm, or an ankle of the user. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 determining that the strap is taken off from the user's body; and   if the strap is determined to be taken off from the user's body, deactivating the one or more light emitters and the one or more light detectors and ceasing to monitor the heart rate of the user.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the identity of the portion of the user's body is determined based on an absorbance or reflectance level of the light emitted by the one or more light emitters to determine a position of the wearable strap. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the identity of the portion of the user's body is determined based on data collected from a motion sensor to determine the position of the wearable strap. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the identity of the portion of the user's body is determined based on data collected on an altitude of the wearable strap to determine the position of the wearable strap. 
     
     
         20 . A computer program product comprising non-transitory computer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps of:
 emitting light toward a user's skin using one or more light emitters included in a wearable strap configured to be couplable to an appendage of the user;   receiving light reflected from the user's skin using one or more light detectors;   automatically and continually determining a heart rate of the user using an electronic circuit board including a plurality of electronic components configured to analyze data corresponding to the reflected light, the electronic circuit board including a processing module;   detecting an identity of a portion of a user's body to which the strap is coupled using the processing module based on one or more signals associated with the heart rate of the user; and   adjusting data analysis of the reflected light using the processing module to determine the heart rate of the user based on the identity of the appendage.