Patent Application
20130274835
The invention relates generally to a method and an apparatus for giving feedback and modifying the parameters of optical treatment apparatus.
Nowadays, people are applying various methods to improve their physical or mental condition. One may seek the improvement from traditional means, such as exercise or sleep, while another relies in more technical means, such as listening to music or receiving optical radiation. Common to the means is that the success of the method applied and the need to modify the treatment parameter values may not be reliably known afterwards.
Thus, it is important to provide a solution for giving feedback and to perform corrective actions accordingly.
Embodiments of the invention seek to improve the means for giving feedback on the optical treatment and modifying the optical treatment apparatus parameter values.
According to an aspect of the invention, there are provided apparatuses as specified in claims 1 and 31.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method as specified in claim 16.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer program product as specified in claim 32.
In the following, the invention will be described in greater detail with reference to the embodiments and the accompanying drawings, in which
The following embodiments are exemplary. Although the specification may refer to “an”, “one”, or “some” embodiment(s) in several locations of the text, this does not necessarily mean that each reference is made to the same embodiment(s), or that a particular feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.
Human nerve tissue includes regions that may be stimulated by optical radiation directed at the regions. Stimulation may have a metabolic and/or nervous response, which may appear as a change in alertness, diurnal (circadian) rhythm and in concentrations of several hormones and brain transmitters. The optical radiation may originate from nature or the optical radiation may have an artificial origin. A lack in the amount of the optical radiation energy (i.e. light) may cause a seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or depression in humans, for example.
It may thus be advisable to use artificial optical radiation when natural light is not sufficient in order to prevent undesired physiological effects. This type of artificial light may be generated by bright light therapy devices installed in homes or workplaces, for instance. However, the optical treatment may also be obtained with a portable electronic device (PED) as shown in
In an embodiment of
In an embodiment of
Thus, the optical radiation energy 106 is received in the radiationsensitive nerve tissue, which is stimulated by the optical radiation energy 106. For example, the intracranial nerve tissue of the brain 104 responsive to optical radiation energy 108 comprises, for example, cerebrum, cerebellum, vestibular organs, auditory organs, organs of smell, bulbus, a pineal body, also known as a pineal gland, and/or regions of autonomic regulation. The response may be based on a change in the concentration of melatonin hormone caused by the optical radiation 106, for example.
In an embodiment, the intracranial nerve tissue responsive to optical radiation 108 comprises a retina, whose ganglia cells may also sense light arriving from behind. Typically, the visual perception of ganglia cells is independent of seeing and not involved therein. Ganglia cells are in particular specialized for diffused light and their photosensitive pigment is melanopsin protein. When subjected to light, ganglia cells signal suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is the primary agent responsible for the circadian rhythm.
In an embodiment, the intracranial nerve tissue 102 responsive to optical radiation energy 108 comprises a suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) which regulates the pineal body, which back-regulates the SCN by excreting melatonin. The suprachiasmatic nucleus may also be responsible for controlling the circadian rhythms. The suprachiasmatic nucleus receives inputs from the photosensitive ganglion cells via the retinohypothalamic tract, which are illuminated in the embodiment of
It should be noted that the above-mentioned intracranial nerve tissues of brain 104 that are responsive to optical radiation energy 106 are only examples. Some of the light also affects through other means, for example through neuroendocrinology of diurnal rhythm. Intracranial nerve tissues, also in the cranial region, have several non-specific responses to optical radiation energy 106 and the temperature increase caused by the optical radiation energy 106. Such responses include increase in the metabolism of tissues and changes in the immune response.
The optical radiation 106 may affect the user 102 in many ways. The optical treatment that comprises illuminating an optically sensitive tissue of the user 102 with optical radiation energy 106 may improve physiological condition of the user 102. The effects which may be obtained with the optical treatment include but is not limited to the following: changes of diurnal rhythm, treatment of jetlag, treatment of sleep irregularity caused by shift work, exceptional change of sleep rhythm, treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and other affective syndromes, temporary increase of performance, waking up, alleviation of stress symptoms, nervous disorders caused by decreased light sensitivity of brain, improvement of plasticity of nerve system, and treatment of sexual insufficiency. It may further have effect in preventing an infection, treatment of certain diseases, such as the Parkinson's disease, treatment of depression, and treatment of depressive symptoms, for example.
For example, when a person 102 is suffering from a bipolar disorder or manic-depressive disorder, which is also referred to as bipolar affective disorder or manic depression, the person 102 may treat the disease with certain doses of illumination directed to photosensitive tissues of the person, such as the intracranial nerve tissue. The person 102 may notice that the depression is significantly relieved with appropriate doses of the optical radiation 106. It is however important to know whether the treatment is working or not and whether the parameter values, such as the appropriate dosage of illumination, of the optical treatment apparatus are to be modified or not.
For this reason, there is provided an apparatus and a method for giving feedback on the success of the optical treatment and for modifying the optical treatment apparatus parameter values. The optical treatment apparatus may be as in
A very general architecture of an apparatus capable of giving feedback on the success of an optical treatment according to an embodiment is shown in
The connections shown in
When considering the apparatus of
Alternatively, the information related to the parameters may comprise the available parameters of the optical treatment. That is, parameters according to which the optical treatment takes place. This is advantageous so that if the user 102 has not used the optical treatment apparatus, such as the PED 100, previously or the PED 100 does not comprise predefined parameter values, the apparatus 300 may be used to define the parameter values for the first time, rather than modifying the existing parameter values.
The apparatus 300 may be comprised in a mobile phone, in a personal computer, in a palm computer, for example, or it may be a stand-alone separate apparatus. In an embodiment, the apparatus 300 is comprised in the optical treatment device, such as in the PED 100 of
The parameters, whose values may be set or modified, may be at least one of the following: at least one duration of illuminating the photosensitive nerve tissue of the user with the optical radiation energy, interval for illuminating the photosensitive nerve tissue of the user with the optical radiation energy, intensity of the optical radiation energy, and at least one point in time when the illumination takes place. The illumination may take place, for example, twice per day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Therefore, the obtained information may indicate when the at least one illumination has taken place, what was the intensity of each illumination (expressed in Lux or in Lumens, for example), and what was the duration of each illumination, for example. This way the apparatus 300 obtains knowledge of the parameters of the optical treatment.
The interface 306 may further receive second information comprising at least one indicator reflecting whether the optical treatment is successful or not, wherein the second information is different from the first information. In other words, the at least one indicator does not relate to the parameters of the optical treatment or to the values of the parameters of the optical treatment. The at least one indicator may be seen as a consequence of the optical treatment. That is, as a result of a successful treatment the user 102 tends to do certain things or act in a certain way, and as a result of an unsuccessful treatment the user 102 tends to act in another way, as will be described later.
In an embodiment as shown in
A given indicator may represent a value or characteristic related to the subject of the indicator for at least one predetermined observation period. The observation period may denote duration of time when information of the indicator is gathered, possibly stored and then communicated to the apparatus 300. The at least one predetermined observation period may be one hour, one day, one month, for example. The length of the period may depend on the physiological condition of the user 102 whose symptoms are attempted to be cured or alleviated with the optical treatment apparatus. If the condition is severe depression, the period may be selected longer than if the condition is a mere tiredness in the mornings, for example. This is because it may be assumed that alleviating a severe depression may take longer time than helping the user 102 with morning tiredness. The at least one predetermined observation period may also be such that only periods between, for example, 6 o'clock to 22 o'clock during several days are taken into account. The advantage is that the certain period of day may be discarded, such as the time when the user 102 is asleep.
In an embodiment, the at least one indicator comprises an indicator related to speech of the user 102 obtained through an external sensor worn by the user 102 during the at least one predetermined observation period. More specifically, the indicator related to the voice may be at least one of the following: the tone of the speech, the amount of laughter, the amount of aggressive speech voices, and the ratio between monologue and dialogue. The tonality of the speech voice may indicate happiness of mind or joyless mind and, thus, indicate how well the optical treatment for improving the physiological condition of the user 102 has worked because a happy mind may be seen as a result of a working optical treatment. Similarly, a high amount of laughter indicates successful treatment. Successful treatment may be indicated also by an increased social activity. The amount of social activities may be obtained when measuring the amount of dialogues, and the ratio of monologues and dialogues. A high amount of aggressive voices may on the other hand indicate unsuccessful treatment. In addition to the information obtained from the external device 310, the user 102 may input parameters to the apparatus 300 regarding the amount and type of speech during the at least one predetermined observation period.
With reference to
In order to perform the transmission from the external device 310, the interface 306 may be equipped with a connection to enable Bluetooth® communication, or any other suitable standard/non-standard wireless communication methods utilizing electric and/or magnetic fields. The interface 306 may be equipped with one or more antennas to receive the data from the external device 310, if needed.
Alternatively, or in addition to, the user 102 may input data to the apparatus 300 via inputting means such as a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, etc.
In an embodiment, the at least one indicator comprises an indicator relating to the activity of the user 102. The indicator relating to activity may indicate at least one of the following during the at least one predetermined observation period: the amount of exercise performed by the user, the difference in magnitude between the average activity when asleep and the average activity when awake, the average activity, duration of activity above a certain threshold, amount of nocturnal activity, maximum activity level, the difference in magnitude between the highest activity level and the lowest activity level, and a circadian rhythm.
The amount of exercise may be recorded with the external device 310, such as a heart pulse meter, for example. The calories consumed may be recorded and the amount of exercise may be obtained from the stored calorie consumption value(s).
The average activity may be recorded with an activity meter being the external device 310 worn by the user 102. The data stored in the activity meter may then be uploaded to the apparatus 300 for further processing. The activity meter may record the intensity of the activity in METs (Metabolic Equivalent), which is assigned to each individual activity to indicate level of intensity of the specific activity. An activity with a 1 MET corresponds to the user's 102 resting metabolic rate, the rate at which the user 102 would burn calories when resting. Other activities are assigned typically higher MET values to indicate their intensity level relative to 1 MET. For example, playing football may produce a MET of 10. Thus, 10 times more calories are burned when playing football than sitting still. Alternatively to the activity meter, the MET values may be inputted by the user 102 by selecting the activity performed from a menu, wherein each activity has been assigned a suitable MET value beforehand. Although the MET is used here as an example, any term representing the user's activity suffices.
By obtaining knowledge of the activity during the at least one predetermined observation period, an exemplary activity curve as represented in
Firstly, the amount of exercise performed by the user 102 may be determined by accumulating the activity 604 during the at least one observation period 618. In addition the maximum level of activity may be obtained.
Moderate level of activity may indicate that the optical treatment is working as planned, whereas very low level of activity may be a symptom of a depression. As an example, an average activity level 612 of a person in depression during the observation period, expressed in METS for example, may be around 1,4 MET or lower. Thus, one object of the optical treatment may be to have the average activity level 612 to be 1,6 METS, for example. Accordingly, when lower average activity level than 1,6 is observed, the parameters of the optical treatment apparatus may be adjusted to reach the higher average activity level, for example. The desired level of activity may be individually set for each user 102 depending on the exercising habits of the person.
Secondly, the difference in magnitude between the average activity when asleep and the average activity when awake may be determined and the determined information may be applied for indicating the success of the optical treatment. A person without depression symptoms has typically such a contrast between the awake and the asleep periods that there are many activities when awake, but very little activities when asleep, thus a relatively high contrast. The contrast may be measured by knowing the activity curve 604/606 of the user 102. With low contrast, the optical treatment parameter values may be modified as the desired results have not been obtained. Also the difference in magnitude 614 between the highest activity level and the lowest activity level may be determined. This reveals the contrast of the activity of the user 102. Very low contrast indicates depression symptoms, for example, whereas very high contrast reflects mania-type symptoms. The appropriate, desired contrast which reflects wellbeing of the user 102, may be predetermined for each user 102.
Thirdly, the bed time 616 of the user 102 may be obtained by the activity sensor. The period having a low average activity typically represents the asleep period 616 of the user 102. An appropriate duration of the period 616 may indicate the successfulness of the treatment because a healthy person typically spends 6-8 hours asleep. For example, the activity sensor may determine the time when the user went asleep, the time when the user woke up, and the amount of nocturnal activity. A high nocturnal activity may indicate unsuccessful optical treatment. In addition the circadian rhythm or the average circadian rhythm may be obtained when the observation period is relatively long. A stable circadian rhythm may also indicate successful treatment.
Fourthly, the duration of activity 604/606 above a certain threshold 610 may be determined. This threshold 610 may be linked to the level that represents a typical exercise activity level of the user 102. This is advantageous so that the duration spent for exercising with certain intensity may be easily obtained and used as indication of the successfulness of the treatment. A person having no symptoms of depression typically exercises with intensity above the set level for a certain period of time during the predetermined observation period.
Fifthly, the point in time 608 for the highest activity level may be determined. A typical person without any symptoms of illness or disease may have predetermined the point in time when the highest activity usually takes place. Then, if it is noticed that the highest activity takes place during the asleep-period 616, it may imply that something is not correct. Thus, the treatment parameter values may need to be reconsidered.
In an embodiment, an external device 310 of
In an embodiment, the at least one indicator comprises an indicator relating to at least one of the following during the at least one predetermined observation period: mood of the user, and the health of the user.
In order to measure the mood of the user 102, the external device 310 of
The health of the user 102 may be enquired from the user 102 by using a questionary. The answers of which may be fed to the apparatus 300 by the user 102. The answers may be processed by the apparatus 300 in order to determine the success of the optical treatment. Thus, if the person provides improved health condition, the success of the treatment may be seen to exist, and vice versa.
In general, the questionary type of input method may be applied to any given indicator input.
In an embodiment, the at least one indicator comprises an indictor relating to at least one of the following: user's blood pressure, user's blood oxygen saturation, user's blood sugar level, user's encephalogram, user's skin electro conductivity, user's breathing frequency, user's eye movements, and user's limb movements.
Each of the indicators that are related to the user 102 may be linked to the previously recorded value of the same indicator. This is advantageous so that the trend of the indicator in question may be obtained and used as indication of a successful optical treatment. The target or desired level/value for each indicator may be predetermined taking into account the personal habits of the user 102. When comparing the desired level/value of the indicator to the trend of the indicator, the successfulness of the treatment may be determined. It should be noted thought that a person with semi-regular exercising habits, may not use the target levels of a high performance athlete who may exercise twice per day when no symptoms for depression exist. Thus, the desired target/level may be individually set for each user 102.
According to an embodiment, the apparatus of
The processor 302 may apply an individual predetermined weighting coefficient for each of the received at least one indicator. Let us take as an example of a case when the user 102 inputs his/her indicator to the apparatus 300 in the form of answers to the questionary as shown in
As shown in
The processor 302 may then combine the weighted at least one indicator to one joint indicator value. In the example as shown in
but the combination may be any arithmetic operation of the weighted values V=[v1, v2, . . . , vn].
The predetermined value of the weighting coefficient may be based on the implication the indicator gives in relation to the successfulness or unsuccessfulness of the optical treatment. For example, when the given indicator reflects very successful treatment, a high or a low weighting coefficient value may be given. When the given indicator reflects very unsuccessful treatment, a low or a high weighting coefficient value may be given, respectively.
A person skilled in the art may learn which weighting coefficients values vi to use by testing different values for different indicators and selecting those values that seem to reflect the successfulness of the optical treatment in the most reliable way. In this learning period the actual physiological state of the user 102 may be analyzed so that the weighting coefficients may be set appropriately. For example, when the analysis reveals that the user is in an excellent physiological state (i.e., no depression exists), the answer(s) of at least one indicator given by the user 102 may be given a relatively high weighting coefficient. When the state of the user 102 is worse, the weighting coefficient for that answer of the same indicator is lower.
The processor 302 may then determine whether the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus are to be modified or not, on the basis of the received first information and the joint indicator value. The first information may denote the current parameter values of the optical treatment, as described earlier. The result of the determination may be that the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus are to be modified or that there is no need to modify the current parameter values. When there is no need to modify the parameter values, the processor 302 may further determine the optical treatment as successful. Thus, processor 302 may determine the success of the optical treatment on the basis of the received first information and the joint indicator value. When there is a need to modify the parameter values, the processor 302 may determine the optical treatment as unsuccessful.
In an embodiment, the processor may determine the optical treatment as successful when the joint indicator value exceeds at least one predetermined threshold T, as shown in
The threshold T may be set individually for each user 102. The correct value may be learnt by trying different values for the thresholds and observing the user's physiological condition at the same time. When it is noticed that the physiological condition is not good, the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus may be adjusted, the joint indicator value representing the non-adequate physiological condition may be calculated and the current threshold may be determined as a non-appropriate threshold value. On the other hand, when the physiological condition is at a sufficient level, the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus may be kept unmodified, the joint indicator value representing the adequate physiological condition may be calculated and the current threshold may be determined as an appropriate threshold value. Thus the selected threshold value T may be used in the future so that the joint indicator value (representing the current physiological condition of the user 102) is compared against the selected threshold T. Amendments on the optical treatment values may be performed when the comparison result between the joint indicator and the threshold T so indicates.
In an embodiment, the processor 302 may analyze the currently determined joint indicator value such that the change from the previously determined joint indicator value is determined. The processor 302 may then determine the optical treatment as successful when the change from the previous joint indicator value is in the positive (desired) direction, in which case no modification of the parameter values may be needed. If the previously set joint indicator value is 10, for example, and the currently determined value is 12, then the processor 302 may keep the optical treatment parameter values unmodified as the trend is to the desired direction (in this case, the desired trend is increasing).
The processor 302 may observe the trend of the joint indicator value as well as the result of the comparison between the joint indicator value and the threshold T. Then, the processor 302 may determine whether to change the parameter values on the basis of both the trend and the comparison result. As an example, if the trend is increasing, but the target threshold is not reached, the processor 302 may determine to change the parameter values so that the target level may be obtained faster, for example. This may be achieved by increasing the dosage of the optical radiation, for example. On the other hand, if the threshold is reached but the trend is decreasing, the processor 302 may again decide to change the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus so that the joint indicator value would not go below the threshold T.
This is shown in
The curve 704 may be seen as a “happy line” of the person. Alternatively only the threshold comparison or only the trend may be taken into account instead of both. The user 102 may himself determine how often the curve 704 is updated by inputting the indicators to the apparatus 300 with certain intervals.
Although the embodiment has been described so that indicators reflecting success are given higher weighting coefficients than indicators reflecting unsuccessful treatment, the opposite method is naturally possible. In an embodiment, there are x number of questions, each with y number of answer possibilities. Each answering possibility is weighted with a certain weighting coefficient within a range from zero to three. However, in this case three points for an indicator reflects a poor treatment and zero points for an indicator reflects a successful treatment. The value for a “happy line” may be set as value=100−(J*100/(x*3)), when the range for the happy line is limited between zero and one hundred, and J is the sum of points, i.e., the joint indicator value of
Certain indicators may be given higher importance. For example, if the weighting coefficients for certain indicator inputs are within zero and three points, the weighting coefficient for certain other indicator inputs, such as for the feeling of the user 102, may be given a higher maximum weighting coefficient, such as four.
Certain indicator inputs may also be taken into account after the joint indicator value J has been established. Those indicator inputs may then be given also negative weighting coefficients. For example, low amount of activity may decrease the calculated J with three points, whereas high amount of activity may increase the J with 3 points. That is, in this case the weighting factor for the activity input would be between −3 and 3.
Similarly as in the example of
Similarly, each indicator that is inputted to the apparatus 300 affects the joint indicator value so that if the inputted indicator reflects successful treatment, the joint indicator value will be increased, whereas if the inputted indicator reflects unsuccessful treatment, the joint indicator value will be decreased. Of course when two given indicators reflect the opposite with regards to the successfulness of the treatment, the joint indicator value will either stay the same (if the weighting coefficients are the same for both inputs), increase (if the weighting coefficients for the indicator reflecting successful treatment is higher than the weighting coefficient for the indicator reflecting unsuccessful treatment), and decrease (if the weighting coefficients for the indicator reflecting unsuccessful treatment is higher than the weighting coefficient for the indicator reflecting successful treatment). Therefore, the joint indicator value reflects the total accumulated input and represents the successfulness of the optical treatment.
When the joint indicator value reflects a successful treatment, no modification of the parameter values may be needed. When the joint indicator value reflects an unsuccessful treatment, a modification of the parameter values may be needed in order to increase or decrease the effect of the optical treatment. The need to decrease the effect may exist when the user 102 is determined to have manic symptoms which may be related to bipolar mental disorder, for example. The need to increase the effect may exist when the user 102 is determined to have depression symptoms, for example. The means to increase or decrease the effect of the optical treatment will be described later.
In an embodiment, the interface 306 may receive third information comprising at least one factor affecting the successfulness of the optical treatment. The processor 302 may then take the third information into account when determining whether the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus are to be modified or not.
In an embodiment, the at least one factor comprises a factor relating to the surrounding environment of the user 102 during the at least one predetermined observation period. In an embodiment, the third information may comprise a factor relating to the temperature of the environment. In an embodiment, the factor related to the surrounding environment of the user 102 may, as shown in
The interface 306 may be used in such a way that the factor relating to the ambient light 400 and/or 404 is obtained from a personal database, wherein the personal database is generated by the user 102 and the personal database stores information relating to the amount of ambient light experienced during the at least one predetermined observation period. The magnitude may be given in Lux or in Lumens. The person may generate such personal database himself or he may wear an external device 310 which measures the amount of ambient light experienced. The database may be a combination of the above, so that the user 102 may discriminate between sunlight and artificial light whereas the external device 310 may determine the amount of the ambient light 400 and 404. The data may then be communicated to the apparatus 300 by the user 102 or transferred directly from the external device 310.
In an embodiment, the apparatus 300 may receive the indicator from the network 312. For this purpose the interface 306 may be equipped with a wireless or wired connection to the network 312, such as a local area network (LAN) or a wireless local area network (WLAN). This is advantageous so that the user does not have to update the information to the apparatus 300, but the apparatus 300 may itself collect the predetermined indicator from the network 312.
Alternatively, or in addition to, the user 102 may input the database to the apparatus 300 via inputting means such as a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, etc.
As an example, the magnitude of ambient light may be obtained from the network 312 when the at least one location of the user 102 during the at least one predetermined observation period is known. Thus, the network 312 may be responsible of keeping an updated time-stamped weather related database for each location, such as for each city or village. When the location of the user 102 is known, the amount of the ambient light may be collected directly from the network 312 and, more specifically, from a weather database stored in the network. The location of the user 102 may be inputted by the user 102 himself, or downloaded from an external device keeping record of the locations of the user 102. Such an external device 310 may be a device capable of receiving information from the global positioning system (GPS), in other words, a GPS receiver. This is advantageous so that the apparatus 300 is aware of the prevailing weather condition (and the ambient light) in the location(s) of the user 102. Thus, the time of the year and the latitude of the location of the user 102 may be taken into account.
In an embodiment, the weather database in the network comprising the ambient light information may inform the user of the expected ambient light conditions in the current location. In this sense, the database works as a weather forecast for the user, wherein the forecast comprises information of the ambient light. Thus, in an embodiment, the factor related to the surrounding environment of the user 102 may comprise the expected magnitude of ambient light 400 during the next at least one observation period. The informing of the expected magnitude of ambient light may take place with a message to the user's mobile phone, the personal computer, etc. The information may also be directed directly to the apparatus 300. This enables the adjustment of the optical treatment apparatus parameters, such as when and how much optical radiation is to be taken from the optical radiation apparatus. The adjustment may take place so that the user adjusts the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus, or so that the apparatus 300, without any interaction by the user, adjusts the parameter values. For example, if the user is in an area of high sun-light exposure, then the amount of the optical radiation taken from the optical treatment apparatus may be reduced, and vice versa. The weather forecast may be obtained from the network as described above, or inputted by the user. In this embodiment, the user 102 may provide the user's 102 expected whereabouts during the next at least one observation period.
In an embodiment, the at least one factor of the third information comprises a factor relating to a noise of the environment. This factor may affect the success of the treatment because noisy environments are generally not improving the user's physiological condition. Therefore, in a noisy environment, the amount of dosage from the optical treatment apparatus may be increased, the interval for taking the dosage may be reduced, for example.
In an embodiment, the at least one factor of the third information comprises a factor relating to at least one of the following during the at least one predetermined observation period: nutrition taken by the user 102, and medicine taken by the user 102. The nutrition consumed may be used to indicate the amount of fatty acids taken. Appropriate amount of fatty acids taken may boost the effects of the optical treatment to the right direction. Thus, it affects the successfulness of the optical treatment. By taking the amount of fatty acids consumed into account, the successfulness of the optical treatment may be more reliably determined. For example, if the user 102 has consumed a lot of fatty acids, such as the Omega fatty acids, and the treatment seems to be successful, part of the successfulness may be due to the appropriate eating habits and not entirely due to the optical treatment. Therefore it may be wise to verify the success of the treatment by further observation periods before making a decision whether to modify the optical treatment parameter values or not. This type of verification may be done also when the amount of ambient light is one factor of the third information. The nutrition consumed may be inputted by the user 102 himself. When the person has healthy eating habits, the dosage of the treatment may be decreased and vice versa, for example.
The medicines taken may also affect the success of the optical treatment in the same way as the proper nutrition taken. Thus, this information may be given by the user 102 to the apparatus 300.
In an embodiment, the third information represents a change in the location of the user. When the user 102 travels across time-zones the user 102 may need to adapt to a new circadian rhythm, for example. Moreover, the user 102 may suffer from a jet-lag which affects the successfulness of the treatment. As the apparatus 300 may receive the information relating to the change of the location of the user 102 during the at least one predetermined observation period, the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus may be modified accordingly. For example, when the user 102 should to go to bed later due to the current time zone at the new location, the time of day when the last optical energy dosage is taken may be postponed, or the user 102 may take an additional dosage of the optical energy so that the user 102 may stay awake later.
Similarly as with the second information, the factors comprised in the third information may be weighted with predetermined weighting coefficients. Then a resulting joint factor value may be used similarly as the joint indicator value is used with references to
As said, the processor 302 may then take the third information into account when determining whether the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus are to be modified or not. For example, when the user 102 has experienced a lot of ambient light the usage (effect) of the optical treatment may be decreased, and vice versa, for example.
It may also happen that one third information factor may imply to increase the dosage while another third information factor implies to decrease the usage of the optical treatment. In this case, the predetermined weighting factors may determine the value of the first factor more important than the inputted value of the second factor. This causes the joint factor value to change accordingly and the processor 302 to modify the parameter values in the direction as implied by the joint factor value and, therefore, as implied by the first inputted factor value. For example, when the first inputted factor reflects a successful treatment, a determined joint factor curve (similarly determined as the joint indicator curve 704) may have an increasing slope or it may be above the threshold T2. As a result, the processor 302 may decide to keep the parameters unchanged.
When the second information implies to change the dosage so that the effect of the optical treatment is increased (increase the dosage and/or shorten the interval for taking the dosage) while the third information implies to decrease the effect (decrease the dosage and/or lengthen the interval for taking the dosage), the processor 302 may decide to give priority to the implication of the second information and to increase the effect of the optical treatment. This may be because, even though the user 102 has obtained a lot of ambient light and/or taken appropriate nutrition, for example, the previous setting of the treatment boosted with the third information factors has not been enough to reach the desired level of a successful optical treatment.
As said, the processor 302 may modify the parameter values of the optical treatment. The parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus that may be modified comprise at least one of the following with reference to FIG. 9: at least one duration 904A to 904C for illuminating the user 102 with the optical radiation energy, at least one interval 912A to 912B for illuminating the user with the optical radiation energy, power of the optical radiation energy 906A to 9060, and at least one point in time 910A to 910C when the illumination takes place. In
By changing these parameter values, the processor 302 may increase or decrease the effect of the optical treatment. The increment may be done by increasing the dosage, by shortening the interval, by lengthening the duration, or by changing the time of point for giving the treatment. By changing the time of giving the treatment to earlier point in the morning, for example, the effect may be increased. Performing the opposite actions, the effect of the optical treatment may be decreased.
In an embodiment, a person skilled in the art may determine beforehand, for example by testing, how the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus are to be modified when the joint indicator value is on the side of the threshold that reflects an unsuccessful treatment and/or when the joint indicator value reflects an undesired trend. The knowledge of how the parameter values are to be changed may comprise information on which parameters are to be changed, how much the selected parameter values are to be changed and to which direction the selected parameter values are to be changed.
When performing the tryouts, the physiological state of the user 102 may be determined on the basis of the second information given, and different modifications of the optical treatment may be tried. For each try, it may be analyzed whether the physiological condition is improved or not. If the physiological condition did improve, the previously given second information is recorded and the change of the parameter values that led to the change are also recorded as appropriate modification in relation to the given second information. If the physiological condition did not improve, the same takes place but now the modified parameter values are recorded as a non-appropriate modification relation to the given second information. This way the processor 302 may know how to modify the parameter values when the processor 302 obtains the second information.
In relation to the third information, similar tryouts may be performed in order to know what the appropriate modification is when the third information is known.
In an embodiment, there may be a set of parameter values from which sets the processor 302 selects one whenever modification is needed. The set may then change the current parameter values to correspond to the parameter values in the selected set. The sets may be so that one set is to be used when the trend of the joint indicator value is decreasing with a slope of −10 degrees, while other set is used for a steeper slope, for example. Similarly, the difference to the threshold T/T2 may be determined, and the set corresponding to the difference may be selected. The parameter values for each set may be determined by using the tryouts, for example.
The processor 302 may automatically without any user interaction perform the modification of the parameter values of the optical treatment apparatus. Alternatively, the processor 302 may output a question to the user 102. The question may ask the user 102 whether the user 102 accepts the proposed modifications. The user 102 may then either accept or decline the proposed changes. The question may be outputted through a display comprised in the apparatus 300, or via an external output means which may be connected to the apparatus 300 via an input/output connection 314. Alternatively, the processor 302 may instruct the user to modify the parameter values in a way as shown in the output means.
The output connection 314 of
The time instance of each modification and the type of each modification may be visually shown to the user 102 in a single view together with the joint indicator curve and/or the joint factor curve. This allows the user 102 to easily see how the modification has affected the physiological state of the user 102 over the period for which the information is shown.
Even thought the method and the apparatus have been described in view of a single user, the method and the apparatus may be applied with respect to a plurality of users 102. The plurality of users 102 may be present, when, for example, a number of users enjoy the optical treatment. Then the need to modify the parameter values for the plurality of users 102 and the successfulness of the optical treatment for the plurality of users 102 are determined.
The modification may take place individually meaning that the modification is performed individually for each user according to the first, the second, and possibly, the third information related him/her. Alternatively, the modification may take place such that the first, the second, and possibly, the third information related each user is determined and obtained. Then, a common joint indicator value and, possibly, a common joint factor value are determined. The common joint indicator value and the common joint factor value may be obtained as an average of the individual joint indicator values and as an average of the individual joint factor values, respectively. Alternatively, the weighting factors for the given indicators/factors related to every user 102 may be all combined into one value without any averaging taking place. The decision to modify the parameters and the determination of the successfulness of the treatment may then be based on the common joint indicator value and the common joint factor value. Thus, the same modifications, if any, are performed for each of the users in the plurality of users.
The techniques and methods described herein may be implemented by various means. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more devices), firmware (one or more devices), software (one or more modules), or combinations thereof. For a hardware implementation, the apparatus of
Thus, according to an embodiment, the apparatus may comprise means for performing the tasks of
Embodiments of the invention may be implemented as computer programs in the apparatus 300 according to the embodiments. The computer programs comprise instructions for executing a computer process for determining whether to modify he optical treatment parameter values or not. The computer program implemented in the apparatus 300 may carry out, but is not limited to, the tasks related to
The computer program may be stored on a computer program distribution medium readable by a computer or a processor. The computer program medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electric, magnetic, optical, infrared or semiconductor system, device or transmission medium. The computer program medium may include at least one of the following media: a computer readable medium, a program storage medium, a record medium, a computer readable memory, a random access memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, a computer readable software distribution package, a computer readable signal, a computer readable telecommunications signal, computer readable printed matter, and a computer readable compressed software package.
Even though the invention has been described above with reference to an example according to the accompanying drawings, it is clear that the invention is not restricted thereto but can be modified in several ways within the scope of the appended claims. Further, it is clear to a person skilled in the art that the described embodiments may, but are not required to, be combined with other embodiments in various ways.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/FI2010/050794 | 10/13/2010 | WO | 00 | 7/1/2013 |
