Electronic ophthalmic lens with sleep monitoring

Abstract

An eyelid position sensor system and/or an eye movement sensor system for an ophthalmic lens having an electronic system is described herein for recording data associated with sleep of the wearer. The eyelid position sensor system is part of an electronic system incorporated into the ophthalmic lens. The electronic system in at least one embodiment includes a system controller and a data manager. In at least one embodiment, the eyelid position sensor system is utilized to determine eyelid position and the eye movement sensor system is utilized to determine eye position for the system controller to determine if the wearer is awake, asleep, or in REM sleep.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A powered ophthalmic lens, the powered ophthalmic lens comprising:
 a contact lens;   an eyelid position sensor system in the contact lens, the eyelid position sensor system including a sensor array having a plurality of measurement points vertically spaced from each other to detect eyelid position and a signal conditioner configured to sample the measurement points in the sensor array to detect eyelid position and provide an output lid signal;   an eye movement sensor system in the contact lens, the eye movement sensor system including at least one sensor to track and determine eye position and a signal conditioner cooperatively associated with the sensor and configured to track and determine eye position in spatial coordinates based on information from the sensor output and provide an output movement signal;   a system controller electrically connected with said eyelid position sensor system and said eye movement sensor system, said system controller configured to sample said eyelid position sensor system and said eye movement system based on at least one predetermined sampling rate; and   a memory in electrical communication with said system controller, and   wherein said system controller stores data based on each sample in said memory.   
     
     
         2 . The powered ophthalmic lens according to  claim 1 , further comprising an accumulator; and
 wherein said system controller is configured to store a corresponding reading from said accumulator for each sample data set stored.   
     
     
         3 . The powered ophthalmic lens according to  claim 2 , further comprising:
 a power source electrically connected to said lid position sensor system, said eye movement sensor system, and said system controller; and   a resource management system in electrical communication with at least one of said power source and said memory; said resource management system configured to determine at least one of a low energy level and memory storage threshold exceeded and in response to a positive determination, said resource management system is configured to at least one of   reduce all sampling rates of the system,   terminate all sampling of said eyelid position sensor system and said eye movement system, and   replace earlier data with newer data when memory storage threshold is exceeded.   
     
     
         4 . A system comprising:
 the powered ophthalmic lens according to  claim 2 ; and   a base station capable of housing said lens, said base station including
 a housing having a cavity of sufficient size for at least one lens, 
 a clock, 
 a communication system configured to communicate with any lens inserted in said housing including activating said lens and downloading data stored in said memory in said lens; 
 a memory configured to store downloaded data; and 
   means for communicating with an external computer to transmit data received from said memory in said lens.   
     
     
         5 . The powered ophthalmic lens according to  claim 1 , further comprising a communications system configured to communicate with an external device. 
     
     
         6 . The powered ophthalmic lens according to  claim 5 , wherein said system controller transmits any received signal output to the external device through said communications system. 
     
     
         7 . The powered ophthalmic lens according to  claim 1 , wherein said eye movement system includes at least one accelerometer. 
     
     
         8 . The powered ophthalmic lens according to  claim 7 , wherein said eye movement sensor system signal conditioner provides an output when a signal from said at least one accelerometer exceeds a movement threshold.