Granted Patent B2

US 12,745,803 · App. 18/005,624 · Granted Sep 29, 2026

Inventors: Bernard Fuemmeler (Henrico, VA); Thomas Eissenberg (Henrico, VA); Corby Martin (Baton Rouge, LA); Eric Soule (Greenville, NC)

Assignees: Virginia Commonwealth University; PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE; East Carolina University

A24F40/50A24F40/60A24F40/65

Abstract

Claims (42)

1 . A computer-implemented method of determining an amount of delivered active agent emitted from a plurality of different electronic vaporizers to a subject over a period of time, comprising:

obtaining a plurality of images with a camera on a mobile device of each of the plurality of different the electronic vaporizers the subject consumes over the period of time, wherein the plurality of images capture information for identifying a type of electronic vaporizer being used by the subject, and wherein sequential images of the plurality of images associated with any single electronic vaporizer of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time are useable to determine a depletion in volume from the single electronic vaporizer;

transmitting the plurality of images to a server or system of servers,

wherein the server or system of servers comprises a memory having an image database comprising

i) a plurality of images associated with a plurality of different electronic vaporizers, and

ii) device information associated with each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers;

at the server or system of servers, identifying a match between each single electronic vaporizer of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time and at least one image of the plurality of the images in the image database of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, wherein the identifying step produces an identified electronic vaporizer;

at the server or system of servers, and for each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, detecting the depletion in volume from the sequential images of the plurality of images associated with the identified electronic vaporizer for each of a plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time, and calculating a volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time; and

using, at the server or system of servers, at least a portion of the device information for the identified electronic vaporizer and the volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the period of time to compute an amount of active agent emitted to the subject over the period of time from all of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the device information is selected from the group consisting of type of vaporizer, voltage, heater resistance, power, type of liquid, maximum refillable amount of liquid, maximum concentration of liquid, and combinations thereof.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each electronic vaporizer is an electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) device.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising using the mobile device to provide the server or system of servers with one or more inputs selected from the group consisting of a text message, a voice recording, a video, a user interface, a data file and combinations thereof.

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the period of time is measured in days, weeks, months, or years.

6 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions embodied in the computer readable medium that when executed by a processor of a computer control the computer to perform steps comprising:

obtaining a plurality of images with receiving one or more inputs including at least one image of each electronic vaporizer from a camera on a mobile device of a plurality of different electronic vaporizers a subject consumes over a period of time, wherein the plurality of images capture information for identifying a type of electronic vaporizer being used by the subject, and wherein sequential images of the plurality of images associated with any single electronic vaporizer of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time are useable to determine a depletion in volume from the single electronic vaporizer;

transmitting the plurality of images to a server or system of servers,

wherein the server or system of servers comprises a memory having an image database comprising

i) a plurality of images associated with a plurality of different electronic vaporizers and

ii) device information associated with each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers;

at the server or system of servers, identifying a match between each single electronic vaporizer of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time and at least one image of the plurality of the images in the image database of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, wherein the identifying step produces an identified electronic vaporizer;

at the server or system of servers, and for each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, detecting the depletion in volume from the sequential images of the plurality of images associated with the identified electronic vaporizer for each of a plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time, and calculating a volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time; and

using, at the server or system of servers, at least a portion of the device information for the identified electronic vaporizer and the volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the period of time to compute an amount of active agent emitted to the subject over the period of time from all of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers.

7 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the device information is selected from the group consisting of type of device, voltage, heater resistance, power, type of nicotine, maximum refillable amount of liquid nicotine, maximum concentration of liquid nicotine, and combinations thereof.

8 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6 , wherein each electronic vaporizer is an electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) device.

9 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise instructions for using the mobile device to provide the server or system of servers with one or more inputs selected from the consisting of a text message, a voice recording, a video, a user interface, a data file and combinations thereof.

10 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6 wherein the period of time is measured in days, weeks, months, or years.

11 . A system for determining an amount of delivered active agent emitted from a plurality of different electronic vaporizers to a subject over a period of time, comprising:

a remote server or system of remote servers in communication with a mobile device configured to obtain a plurality of images with a camera on the mobile device of each of the plurality of electronic vaporizers the subject consumes over the period of time, wherein the plurality of images capture information for identifying a type of electronic vaporizer being used by the subject, and wherein sequential images of the plurality of images associated with any single electronic vaporizer of the one or more electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time are useable to determine a depletion in volume from the single electronic vaporizer;

wherein the remote server or system of remote servers is operatively coupled to one or more processors and a memory having an image database comprising

i) a plurality of images associated with a plurality of different electronic vaporizers, and

ii) device information associated with each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, wherein the remote server or system of remote servers is configured to:

receive the plurality of images of each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers the subject consumes over the period of time;

identify a match between each single electronic vaporizer of the one or more electronic vaporizers used by the subject during the period of time and at least one image of the plurality of images in the image database of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers to produce an identified electronic vaporizer;

for each of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers, detect the depletion in volume from the sequential images of the plurality of images associated with the identified electronic vaporizer for each of a plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time, and calculate a volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the identified electronic vaporizer for the period of time; and

use at least a portion of the device information for the identified electronic vaporizer and the volume of fluid consumed from each of the plurality of sets of sequential images for the period of time to compute an amount of active agent emitted to the subject over the period of time from all of the plurality of different electronic vaporizers.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the device information is selected from the group consisting of type of vaporizer, voltage, heater resistance, power, type of liquid, maximum refillable amount of liquid, maximum concentration of liquid, and combinations thereof.

13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein each electronic vaporizer is an electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) device.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the remote server or system of remote servers is further configured to analyze the volume of nicotine consumed by the user over a fixed time period for determining an estimate of nicotine consumption metric.

15 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote server or system of remote servers is further configured to receive one or more inputs from a user of the mobile device describing the electronic vaporizer.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the one or more inputs are a text message, a voice recording, a video, a user interface, a data file or any combination thereof.

17 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the remote server or system of remote servers is further configured to transmit the at least a portion of the device information to the mobile device via a user interface, a text message, a social networking message, a phone call, an automated voice message, a display, or any combination thereof.

18 . The system of claim 11 wherein the period of time is measured in days, weeks, months, or years.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (15)