U.S. Patent 9,913,591
On March 13, 2018, Week 11, Number 1448-2, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published issued U.S. Patent Number 9,913,591. The patent claims, inter alia:
A wearable device comprising:
a housing;
a mount configured to mount the housing to a first external body surface, wherein the first external body surface is at a wrist location of a particular arm of a wearer;
a first electrical contact disposed on an inner surface of the mount, wherein the first electrical contact is configured to contact skin at the first external body surface responsive to the housing being mounted to the first external body surface;
a second electrical contact disposed on an outer surface of the mount, wherein the second electrical contact is configured to be contacted by skin of a second external body surface, and wherein the second external body surface is at a location other than the particular arm;
a third electrical contact disposed also on the inner surface of the mount, wherein the third electrical contact is electrically isolated from the first electrical contact, wherein the third electrical contact is configured to contact skin at the first external body surface responsive to the housing being mounted to the first external body surface,
a signal conditioner disposed in the housing, wherein the signal conditioner is electrically coupled to the first electrical contact, the second electrical contact, and the third electrical contact, and wherein the signal conditioner is configured to determine data indicative of a biological state of the wearer based on voltage fluctuations between the second electrical contact and an average voltage of the first electrical contact and the third electrical contact.
The patent attorney that drafted U.S. Patent No. 9,913,591 provided that
a device is provided that includes a housing and a mount configured to mount the housing to a wrist of a wearer. The device also includes a first electrical contact disposed on an inner surface of the mount and configured to contact skin at a first external body surface. The device also includes a second electrical contact disposed on an outer surface of the mount and configured to be contacted by skin of a second external body surface. The device also includes a signal conditioner disposed in the housing. The signal conditioner is configured to determine data indicative of a biological state of the wearer based on voltage fluctuations between the first electrical contact and the second electrical contact.
Figure 1 describes an example
wearable device 110 mounted to a wrist of a first arm 105 a of a wearer 100 during a first period of time. The wearable device 110 includes a housing 120 mounted to the wrist of the first arm 105 a by a mount 140 (e.g., a strap or band). The wearable device further includes first (not shown) and second 130 electrical contacts. The first electrical contact is disposed on an inside (i.e., wrist-facing) side of the housing 120 and configured to contact skin at a first external body surface (i.e., skin of the wrist of the first arm 105 a) when the housing 120 is mounted on the wrist of the first arm 105 a. The second electrical contact 130 is configured to be contacted by skin of a second external body surface (e.g., by finger, hand, wrist, or other skin of a second arm 105 b of the wearer 100). The wearable device 110 additionally includes electronics (e.g., a signal conditioner, not shown) electrically connected to the first and second 130 electrical contacts and configured to extract an ECG waveform (related to the electrical activity of the heart 101 of the wearer 100) from voltage fluctuations between the first and second 130 electrical contacts.
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