Patent Application

App. No. 14/480,446

Abstract

Claims (57)

1 . A wearable pod comprising:

a first pod cover comprising micro-perforations in a metal substrate;

a cradle configured to house circuitry and to accept conductors extending external to the wearable pod;

a touch-sensitive detector disposed in the cradle and coupled to the first pod cover to detect a capacitance at a surface portion of the first pod cover in a range of capacitance values and to generate one or more signals indicating a value is detected in the range;

a conductive path between the first pod cover and the touch-sensitive detector;

a signal decoder configured to receive the one or more signals to decode a command; and

a second pod cover.

2 . The wearable pod of claim 1 , further comprising:

an interface including a display formed in the metal substrate at the surface portion of the first pod cover,

wherein the display includes arrangements of subsets of the micro-perforations in the metal substrate, at least one of which forms a pixelated symbol.

3 . The wearable pod of claim 2 , wherein the touch-sensitive detector is configured to detect the capacitance at the display.

4 . The wearable pod of claim 1 , wherein the signal decoder is further configured to decode an enable command to enable decoding of the one or more signals or a disable command to disable decoding of the one or more signals.

5 . The wearable pod of claim 1 , further comprising:

a context detector configured to generate a signal representative of a context of the wearable pod based on a type of activity,

wherein the signal decoder is configured to implement a first set of commands based on a pattern of capacitance values based on a first context, and is further configured to implement a second set of commands based on the pattern of capacitance values based on a second context

6 . The wearable pod of claim 1 , wherein the signal decoder is further configured to decode a mode command to transition the wearable pod to a mode of operation as a function of a capacitance pattern that forms the one or more signals.

7 . The wearable pod of claim 6 , further comprising:

a mode controller configured to determine a mode of operation based on the mode command, the mode of operation being one or more of an active mode, a sleep mode and a heart rate presentation mode.

8 . The wearable pod of claim 7 , further comprising:

a display controller configured to determine the mode of operation and to cause emission of light through a subset of the micro-perforations from light sources,

wherein the subset of the micro-perforations constitute a set of symbols indicative of the mode of operation.

9 . The wearable pod of claim 1 , further comprising:

a bioimpedance circuit disposed in the cradle and configured to couple to a first subset of conductors to receive electrical signals embodying physiological data.

10 . The wearable pod of claim 1 , further comprising:

a galvanic skin response circuit disposed in the cradle and configured to couple to a second subset of conductors to receive electrical signals indicative of a conductance value across a portion of tissue.

11 . A method to operate a wearable pod comprising:

detecting a capacitance value at a top pod cover portion in a range of capacitance values;

determining a mode of operation based on the capacitance value;

receiving subsets of sensor data;

selecting a subset of the sensor data based on the mode of operation;

determining values of at least one physiological signal based on the subset of sensor data;

identifying a subset of light sources to emit light through an arrangement of micro-perforations constituting symbols indicative of the values of the physiological signal.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

displaying the symbols via a metal substrate to the top pod cover portion; and

detecting another capacitance value at the top pod cover portion that includes a portion of the metal substrate.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

determining a pattern of detected capacitance values; and

generating a command based on the pattern of detected capacitance values.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein determining the pattern of the detected capacitance values comprises:

detecting durations of the detected capacitance values; and

detecting quantities of the detected capacitance values as a function of time.

15 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

identifying a first pattern of the detected capacitance values associated with the command to disable implementation of a subset of subsequent detected capacitance values; and

disabling implementation of the subset of subsequent detected capacitance values.

16 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

identifying a second pattern of the detected capacitance values associated with the command to transition to another mode of operation; and

transitioning the wearable pod to the another mode of operation.

17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein selecting the subset of the sensor data comprises:

receiving bioimpedance signals indicative of a heart rate values as the physiological signal.

18 . The method of claim 12 , wherein identifying the subset of light sources comprises:

identifying a quantity of lights from which to emit light, the quantity of lights being proportional to the heart rate.

19 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

selecting another subset of the sensor data;

receiving accelerometer signals indicative of an activity; and

determining a value indicative of the activity.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein identifying the subset of light sources comprises:

identifying another quantity of lights from which to emit light, the quantity of lights being proportional to the value indicative of the activity.

Assignments (11)