Systems, Devices and Methods for Monitoring Breastfeeding

Abstract

Breast monitoring systems and methods are described including a flexible substrate fabricated to substantially conform to one or more breasts of a subject; dynamically bendable optical fibers associated with the flexible substrate; a light source operably coupled to the optical fibers; a photodetector positioned to detect light reception from the optical fibers; a reporting device; and a microcontroller including a microprocessor and circuitry, wherein the circuitry includes input circuitry configured to receive a first set of signals and at least one second set of signals from the photodetector; calculation circuitry configured to calculate a curvature delta value based on a comparison of the received first and at least one second set of signals, and calculate a breast volume delta value from the calculated curvature delta value; and reporting circuitry configured to transmit a signal to the reporting device based on the calculated breast volume delta value.

1 .- 66 . (canceled) 
     
     
         67 . A breast monitoring system, comprising:
 a wearable breast monitor including
 a flexible substrate fabricated to substantially conform to external contours of at least a portion of one or more breasts of a subject; 
 one or more optical fibers associated with the flexible substrate, wherein the one or more optical fibers are dynamically bendable; 
 at least one light source operably coupled to the one or more optical fibers; 
 at least one photodetector positioned to detect light reception from the one or more optical fibers; and 
 a transmission unit including an antenna and operably coupled to the at least one photodetector, the transmission unit configured to transmit signals, the transmitted signals including light reception information from the at least one photodetector; and 
   a computing device including a receiver and a microprocessor with circuitry, the circuitry including
 input circuitry configured to receive a first set of transmitted signals from the transmission unit of the wearable breast monitor, and to receive at least one second set of transmitted signals from the transmission unit of the wearable breast monitor; 
 calculation circuitry configured to calculate a curvature delta value based on a comparison of the received first set of transmitted signals and the received at least one second set of transmitted signals from the transmission unit of the wearable breast monitor, and to calculate a breast volume delta value from the calculated curvature delta value; and 
 reporting circuitry configured to report the calculated breast volume delta value. 
   
     
     
         68 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein one or more portions along the length of the one or more optical fibers are rendered transmissive to light, and wherein the amount of light transmitted out is dependent on the curvature of the one or more optical fibers. 
     
     
         69 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein each of the one or more optical fibers includes an inner core and an outer cladding, wherein a portion of a core/cladding interface is modified to alter light transmission, and wherein the amount of light transmitted out is dependent on the curvature of the one or more optical fibers. 
     
     
         70 .- 79 . (canceled) 
     
     
         80 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor includes a form-fitting material that substantially conforms to the external contours of the at least one portion of the one or more breasts of the subject. 
     
     
         81 .- 83 . (canceled) 
     
     
         84 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor includes a first layer and a second layer, and wherein the one or more optical fibers are disposed between the first layer and the second layer of the flexible substrate. 
     
     
         85 .- 90 . (canceled) 
     
     
         91 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the one or more optical fibers are arranged in a network on the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor. 
     
     
         92 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the one or more optical fibers are arranged in a radial pattern on the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor. 
     
     
         93 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the one or more optical fibers are arranged in a spiral pattern on the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor. 
     
     
         94 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the one or more optical fibers are arranged in concentric circles on the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor. 
     
     
         95 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the one or more optical fibers are arranged in overlapping patterns on the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor. 
     
     
         96 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein at least two of the one or more optical fibers are proximate and non-parallel. 
     
     
         97 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein a first optical fiber overlays a second non-parallel optical fiber. 
     
     
         98 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein a first portion of at least one of the one or more optical fibers overlays a second non-parallel portion the at least one of the one or more optical fibers. 
     
     
         99 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the one or more optical fibers are arranged in a grid-like network on the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor, 
     
     
         100 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein at least one of the one or more optical fibers associated with the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor has a core including one or more fiber Bragg gratings. 
     
     
         101 . (canceled) 
     
     
         102 . (canceled) 
     
     
         103 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the at least one light source of the wearable breast monitor is positioned at a first end of the one or more optical fibers associated with the flexible substrate and the at least one photodetector of the wearable breast monitor is positioned at a second end of the one or more optical fibers associated with the flexible substrate. 
     
     
         104 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the at least one light source is configured to emit one or more pulses of light. 
     
     
         105 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the at least one photodetector is configured to measure a time delta between its reception of light and emission of light by the at least one light source; and wherein the calculation circuitry is configured to calculate positional information related to the curvature based upon the time delta. 
     
     
         106 . (canceled) 
     
     
         107 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the at least one photodetector is positioned along a length of the one or more optical fibers. 
     
     
         108 . The system of  claim 67 , further comprising a plurality of photodetectors positioned along a length of at least one of the one or more optical fibers. 
     
     
         109 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the at least one photodetector is positioned along at least one of the one or more optical fibers to detect light transmission through the at least one of the one or more optical fibers from the at least one light source. 
     
     
         110 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the at least one photodetector is positioned along at least one of the one or more optical fibers to detect light reflected from the at least one of the one or more optical fibers. 
     
     
         111 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein at least one of the one or more optical fibers has a cladding component having a first optical absorption coefficient and a core component having a second optical absorption coefficient. 
     
     
         112 . The system of  claim 111 , wherein at least one first photodetector is configured to detect light reception from the core component and at least one second photodetector is configured to detect light reception from the cladding component; and wherein the calculation circuitry is configured to calculate positional information related to the curvature based upon a difference between a signal from the at least one first photodetector and a signal from the at least one second photodetector. 
     
     
         113 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the one or more optical fibers are photonic crystal fibers; and wherein the calculation circuitry is configured to calculate the curvature delta value based upon a difference in optical modal structure associated with a first set of signals and a second set of signals. 
     
     
         114 .- 119 . (canceled) 
     
     
         120 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the calculation circuitry of the computing device includes an algorithm for calculating the breast volume delta value from the calculated curvature delta value. 
     
     
         121 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the calculation circuitry of the computing device includes circuitry configured to calculate a volume of milk expressed during a breastfeeding event from the calculated breast volume delta value. 
     
     
         122 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the computing device includes compilation circuitry configured to compile calculated breast volume delta values over time and transmit a signal including information regarding the compilation to a reporting device. 
     
     
         123 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the input circuitry, the calculation circuitry, and the reporting circuitry are part of a breast monitoring application configured for implementation on the computing device. 
     
     
         124 . The system of  claim 123 , wherein the breast monitoring application includes non-transitory signal bearing medium including one or more instructions, the one or more instructions when implemented on the computing device include
 one or more instructions for receiving the first set of transmitted signals from the transmission unit of the wearable breast monitor;   one or more instructions for receiving the at least one second set of transmitted signals from the transmission unit of the wearable breast monitor;   one or more instructions for calculating the curvature delta value based on the comparison of the received first set of transmitted signals and the received at least one second set of transmitted signals from the transmission unit of the wearable breast monitor;   one or more instructions for calculating the breast volume delta value from the calculated curvature delta value; and   one or more instructions for reporting the calculated breast volume delta value.   
     
     
         125 . (canceled) 
     
     
         126 . (canceled) 
     
     
         127 . The system of  claim 67 , wherein the reporting circuitry of the computing device is configured to report the calculated breast volume delta value to a social media website. 
     
     
         128 . A method for monitoring breastfeeding, comprising:
 measuring curvature of a breast during a breastfeeding event at a first time point and at least one second time point with one or more optical fibers associated with a flexible substrate of a wearable breast monitor;   calculating a change in curvature of the breast during the breastfeeding event between the first time point and the at least one second time point;   correlating the calculated change in curvature of the breast during the breastfeeding event with a volume of milk expressed between the first time point and the at least one second time point; and   reporting the volume of milk expressed during the breastfeeding event between the first time point and the at least one second time point to a user.   
     
     
         129 . A method for monitoring breastfeeding, comprising:
 receiving a first set of signals at a first time point from at least one photodetector positioned to detect light reception from one or more optical fibers associated with a flexible substrate of a wearable breast monitor;   receiving at least one second set of signals at least one second time point from the at least one photodetector positioned to detect light reception from the one or more optical fibers associated with the flexible substrate of the wearable breast monitor;   calculating a curvature delta value based on comparing the received first set of signals and the received at least one second set of signals;   calculating a breast volume delta value from the calculated curvature delta value; and   transmitting one or more signals having information regarding the calculated breast volume delta value to a reporting device.   
     
     
         130 . The method of  claim 129 , wherein transmitting the one or more signals having the information regarding the calculated breast volume delta value to the reporting device comprises transmitting the one or more signals having the information regarding the calculated breast volume delta value to at least one of a haptic reporting device, an audio reporting device, or an optical reporting device. 
     
     
         131 .- 134 . (canceled) 
     
     
         134 . The method of  claim 129 , further comprising calculating a volume of milk expressed during a breastfeeding event from the calculated curvature delta value; and transmitting one or more signals having information regarding the calculated volume of expressed milk to an external device. 
     
     
         135 . The method of  claim 134 , further comprising tracking the calculated volume of milk expressed during a first breastfeeding event and at least one second breastfeeding event. 
     
     
         136 . The method of  claim 134 , further comprising generating a graphic representation of the calculated volume of milk expressed during a first breastfeeding event and at least one second breastfeeding event.