Oral care monitoring and habit forming for children
View Patent ↗A brushing tracker configured to be mounted to a toothbrush has a motion sensor and a transceiver that collect and output raw motion data. The raw motion data is received by a relay and forwarded to a cloud-based remote processing system that processes the raw motion data to determine brushing adequacy based on predetermined criteria. The motion sensor and transceiver are disposed in a flexible case. An attachment band enables the brushing tracker to be affixed to a standard toothbrush for use and affixed to a different toothbrush when desired.
1 . A toothbrushing monitoring system, comprising:
a first use-monitoring toothbrush configured to output packets of motion data in response to detection of motion; and
a remote processing system configured to:
receive, at overlapping periods of time and in variable order, the packets of motion data outputted by the first use-monitoring toothbrush and first packets of motion data outputted by a plurality of other use-monitoring toothbrushes;
identify subsets of the received packets of motion data and the received first packets of motion data that are associated with same brushing activities associated with the first use-monitoring toothbrush and each of the plurality of other use-monitoring toothbrushes, wherein a same brushing activity of the same brushing activities is a single brushing session performed with a single toothbrush;
arrange the received packets of motion data and the received first packets of motion data of each subset of the subsets in proper order; and
process the received packets of motion data and the received first packets of motion data of each subset to generate brushing data for each same brushing activity of the same brushing activities.
2 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the first use-monitoring toothbrush further comprises a motion sensor.
3 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 2 wherein the first use-monitoring toothbrush further comprises a transceiver adapted to output the packets of motion data.
4 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 3 wherein the first use-monitoring toothbrush further comprises an antenna adapted to transmit the packets of motion data.
5 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 4 wherein the first use-monitoring toothbrush further comprises a compression processor adapted to compress the packets of motion data.
6 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 1 further comprising at least one relay device of a plurality of relay devices configured to relay the packets of motion data from the first use-monitoring toothbrush over a network to the remote processing system.
7 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 6 wherein the at least one relay device is configured to perform one or more of: data compression, de-compression, encryption, decryption, digital signature, authentication, hashing, and message digest.
8 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the remote processing system further comprises data receivers and processing servers, and wherein each data receiver receives the first packets of motion data from the plurality of other use-monitoring toothbrushes and sends the first packets of motion data to one of the processing servers for further processing, and wherein each of the processing servers is configured to transform the first packets of motion data into a supported format, and then process the transformed first packets of motion data to perform analysis of brushing performance.
9 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 1 further comprising the remote processing system being configured to calculate usage of a disposable or consumable oral care product based on monitored toothbrush usage.
10 . The toothbrushing monitoring system of claim 9 further comprising the remote processing system being configured to auto-replenish the disposable or consumable oral care product based on the calculated usage.
11 . A method, comprising:
outputting, by a first use-monitoring toothbrush, packets of motion data in response to detection of motion; and
with a remote processing system:
receiving, at overlapping periods of time and in variable order, the packets of motion data outputted by the first use-monitoring toothbrush and first packets of motion data outputted by a plurality of other use-monitoring toothbrushes;
identifying subsets of the received packets of motion data and the received first packets of motion data that are associated with same brushing activities associated with the first use-monitoring toothbrush and each of the plurality of other use-monitoring toothbrushes, wherein a same brushing activity of the same brushing activities is a single brushing session performed with a single toothbrush;
arranging the received packets of motion data and the received first packets of motion data of each subset of the subsets in proper order; and
processing the received packets of motion data and the received first packets of motion data of each subset to generate brushing data for each same brushing activity of the same brushing activities.
12 . The method of claim 11 further comprising the first use-monitoring toothbrush sensing the motion with a motion sensor.
13 . The method of claim 12 further comprising the first use-monitoring toothbrush outputting the packets of motion data with a transceiver.
14 . The method of claim 13 further comprising the first use-monitoring toothbrush transmitting the packets of motion data with an antenna.
15 . The method of claim 14 further comprising the first use-monitoring toothbrush compressing the packets of motion data with a compression processor.
16 . The method of claim 11 further comprising at least one relay device of a plurality of relay devices relaying the packets of motion data from the first use-monitoring toothbrush over a network to the remote processing system.
17 . The method of claim 16 further comprising the at least one relay device performing one or more of: data compression, de-compression, encryption, decryption, digital signature, authentication, hashing, and message digest.
18 . The method of claim 11 further comprising data receivers of the remote processing system receiving the first packets of motion data from the use-monitoring toothbrushes and sending the first packets of motion data to one of a plurality of processing servers for further processing, and each of the processing servers transforming the first packets of motion data into a supported format, and then processing the transformed first packets of motion data to perform analysis of brushing performance.
19 . The method of claim 11 further comprising further comprising the remote processing system calculating usage of a disposable or consumable oral care product based on monitored toothbrush usage.
20 . The method of claim 19 further comprising the remote processing system auto-replenishing the disposable or consumable oral care product based on the calculated usage.