Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining, monitoring and predicting levels of alertness by detecting microsleep episodes includes a plurality of channel processing units and a channel combining unit. Each of the channel processing units receives an information channel which conveys information associated with the mental state of the subject, such as an EEG channel, and classifies the information into a distinct category. Such categories may include microsleep, non-microsleep, one or more of a plurality of stages of sleep, one or more of a plurality of stages of wakefulness, or a transition state characterized by a transition from one of the aforementioned states to another. Each of the channel processing units includes a neural network which has been trained with a set of example input/result vector pairs.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 3, 2000
Date of Patent:
January 28, 2003
Assignee:
Circadian Technologies, Inc.
Inventors:
Martin C. Moore-Ede, Udo E. Trutschel, Rainer Guttkuhn, Anneke M. Heitmann
Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining, monitoring and predicting levels of alertness by detecting microsleep episodes includes a plurality of channel processing units and a channel combining unit. Each of the channel processing units receives an information channel which conveys information associated with the mental and behavorial state of the subject, such as for example an EEG channel, and classifies the information into a distinct category. Such categories may include microsleep, non-microsleep, one or more of a plurality of stages of sleep, one or more of a plurality of stages of wakefulness, or a transition state characterized by a transition from one of the aforementioned states to another. Each of the channel processing units includes a neural network which has been trained with a set of example input/result vector pairs.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 10, 1998
Date of Patent:
May 30, 2000
Assignee:
Circadian Technologies, Inc.
Inventors:
Martin C. Moore-Ede, Udo E. Trutschel, Rainer Guttkuhn, Anneke M. Heitmann