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EP-4478973-B1 - APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR USE WITH A TREATMENT DEVICE

EP4478973B1EP 4478973 B1EP4478973 B1EP 4478973B1EP-4478973-B1

Inventors

  • GUJRAL, Rashi Kumra
  • PATIL, RAVINDRA BALASAHEB
  • GUTTA, SRINIVAS

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20230130

Claims (15)

  1. An apparatus (42) configured to be used with a treatment device (2) configured to perform a treatment operation on a body part of a subject, wherein the treatment device is configured to apply light pulses to skin of the body part to perform the treatment operation and to generate a flash sound per light pulse generated by the treatment device, the apparatus (42) comprising - an input (48) configured to obtain an audio signal sensed during the treatment operation; - a processing unit (50) configured to - segment the audio signal into audio segments, in particular into audio segments of a set or predetermined duration, - extract, per audio segment, one or more characteristic features from the audio segments, - detect, per audio segment, if the audio segment comprises a flash sound generated by the treatment device per light pulse by applying a trained algorithm or computing system that has been trained on a plurality of audio segments each including one or more of the characteristic features to detect flash sounds generated by the treatment device per light pulse in the audio segments, and - change a flash sound counter counting the number of detected flash sounds since start of the treatment operation or a set or user-instructed moment; and - an output (52) configured to output one or more of: - the flash sound counter, - an indication if the flash sound counter exceeds a flash sound threshold, and - an indication that the treatment operation has finished.
  2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit (50) is configured to use a learning system, machine learning, a classification model, a binary classification model, a neural network, or a convolutional neural network as trained algorithm or computing system.
  3. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the processing unit (50) is configured to extract one or more features related to time, amplitude and frequency of the audio segment as characteristic feature.
  4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the processing unit (50) is configured to extract, as characteristic feature of an audio segment, one or more of start time, end time, amplitude, gradient, instrumentation, key chords, melody, rhythm, pitch, energy, note offset, one or more mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs), mel spectrogram, spectral centroid, spectral flux, zero crossing rate, beat, timbre, pitch, harmony, root-mean-square energy, amplitude envelope, band energy ratio, spectrogram, constant Q transform, spectral roll off, and spectral spread.
  5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 or 4, wherein the processing unit (50) is configured to arrange the extracted features related to time, amplitude and frequency of the audio segment into an array and to subject the array to the trained algorithm or computing system to detect, per audio segment, if the audio segment comprises a flash sound.
  6. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein applying the trained algorithm or computing system onto an audio segment by the processing unit (50) includes building classification boundaries based on the one or more characteristic features.
  7. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the processing unit (50) is configured to use the result of the detection for further training of the algorithm or computing system.
  8. Apparatus configured to be used with a treatment device (2) configured to perform a treatment operation on a body part of a subject, wherein the treatment device is configured to apply light pulses to skin of the body part to perform the treatment operation and to generate a flash sound per light pulse generated by the treatment device, the apparatus (42) comprising - an input (48) configured to obtain an audio signal sensed during the treatment operation or artificially created; - a processing unit (50) configured to - segment the audio signal into audio segments, in particular into audio segments of a set or predetermined duration, - extract, per audio segment, one or more characteristic features from the audio segments, - derive, per audio segment, from an annotation of the audio signal flash sound information indicating if an audio segment comprises a flash sound generated by the treatment device per light pulse, the annotation of the audio signal indicating flash sounds generated by the treatment device per light pulse within the audio signal, in particular temporal information of flash sounds generated by the treatment device per light pulse, and - provide, per audio segment, the extracted one or more characteristic features and the derived flash sound information to an algorithm or computing system to train it for the detection of a flash sound generated by the treatment device per light pulse within an audio segment based on one or more characteristic features.
  9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the input (48) is configured to obtain the annotation of the audio signal and/or wherein the processing unit (50) is configured to generate the annotation of the audio signal, in particular automatically or based on user input.
  10. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the claims 1-7, comprising an output (52) configured to control a user interface to: - display a first screen requesting user input regarding the treatment operation; - obtain the user input via the first screen, the user input comprising an image of the body part of the subject to be treated and/or size information of the size of the body part of the subject to be treated; - display a second screen indicating connectivity of the apparatus or an electronic device comprising the apparatus with the treatment device; - display a third screen indicating at least one of: - an operation status of the skin treatment device, - the flash sound counter counting the number of detected flash sounds since start of the treatment operation or the set or user-instructed moment, - the indication if the flash sound counter exceeds the flash sound threshold, and - the indication that the treatment operation has finished.
  11. A system, comprising: a treatment device (2) comprising one or more light sources (14, 16) configured to generate light pulses for application to skin of a subject's body to perform a treatment operation, wherein the treatment device (2) is configured to generate a flash sound per light pulse generated by the treatment device; an audio sensor (44) configured to sense an audio signal during the treatment operation; and an apparatus (42) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.
  12. A method configured to be used with a treatment device (2) configured to perform a non-therapeutical photo-epilation treatment operation on a body part of a subject, wherein the treatment device is configured to apply light pulses to skin of the body part to perform the treatment operation and to generate a flash sound per light pulse generated by the treatment device, the method comprising - obtaining an audio signal sensed during the treatment operation, - segmenting the audio signal into audio segments, in particular into audio segments of a set or predetermined duration, - extracting, per audio segment, one or more characteristic features from the audio segments, - detecting, per audio segment, if the audio segment comprises a flash sound generated by the treatment device per light pulse by applying a trained algorithm or computing system that has been trained on a plurality of audio segments each including one or more of the characteristic features to detect flash sounds generated by the treatment device per light pulse in the audio segments, and - changing a flash sound counter counting the number of detected flash sounds since start of a treatment operation or a set or user-instructed moment; and - outputting one or more of: - the flash sound counter, - an indication if the flash sound counter exceeds a flash sound threshold, and - an indication that the treatment operation has finished.
  13. A method configured to be used with a treatment device (2) configured to perform a non-therapeutical photo-epilation treatment operation on a body part of a subject, wherein the treatment device is configured to apply light pulses to skin of the body part to perform the treatment operation and to generate a flash sound per light pulse generated by the treatment device, the method comprising - obtaining an audio signal sensed during a treatment operation or artificially created, - segmenting the audio signal into audio segments, in particular into audio segments of a set or predetermined duration, - extracting, per audio segment, one or more characteristic features from the audio segments, - deriving, per audio segment, from an annotation of the audio signal flash sound information indicating if an audio segment comprises a flash sound generated by the treatment device per light pulse, the annotation of the audio signal indicating flash sounds generated by the treatment device per light pulse within the audio signal, in particular temporal information of flash sounds generated by the treatment device per light pulse, and - providing, per audio segment, the extracted one or more characteristic features and the derived flash sound information to an algorithm or computing system to train it for the detection of a flash sound generated by the treatment device per light pulse within an audio segment based on one or more characteristic features.
  14. A method as claimed in claim 12, the method being configured to control a user interface to: - display a first screen requesting user input regarding the treatment operation; - obtain the user input via the first screen, the user input comprising an image of the body part of the subject to be treated and/or size information of the size of the body part of the subject to be treated; - display a second screen indicating connectivity of an apparatus or an electronic device comprising the user interface with the treatment device; - display a third screen indicating at least one of: - an operation status of the skin treatment device, - the flash sound counter counting the number of detected flash sounds since start of the treatment operation or the set or user-instructed moment, - the indication if the flash sound counter exceeds the flash sound threshold, and - the indication that the treatment operation has finished.
  15. Computer program comprising program code means for causing a computer to carry out the steps of the method as claimed in claim 12, 13 or 14 when said computer program is carried out on the computer.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to apparatuses and methods configured to be used with a treatment device that is configured to perform a non-therapeutical photo-epilation treatment operation on a body part of a subject, wherein the treatment device is configured to apply light pulses to skin of the body part to perform the treatment operation and to generate a flash sound per light pulse generated by the treatment device. The present invention relates further to computer-implemented methods of such apparatuses, a system comprising a treatment device and a computer program. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Techniques for removal of unwanted hairs include shaving, electrolysis, plucking, laser and light therapies (known as photo-epilation) and injection of therapeutic anti-androgens. Light-based technologies are also used in other types of dermatological treatments, including hair growth reduction and treating acne. Through the use of an appropriate configuration of the light energy, i.e. in terms of wavelength, intensity and/or pulse duration (if the light is to be pulsed), selective heating of the hair root and subsequent temporary or permanent damage to the hair follicle can be achieved. Home-use photo-epilation devices, for example the Philips Lumea device, use intense pulsed light (IPL) from high intensity light sources, e.g. Xenon flash lamps that produce high output bursts of broad spectrum light. A photo-epilation treatment is characterized by the user of the photo-epilation device treating relatively small areas of the skin for the purpose of hair removal. The photo-epilation treatment uses intense light to heat melanin in hair and hair roots, which puts the hair follicles into a resting phase, preventing hair re-growth. For effective use of this technology for hair removal, the user must treat the skin completely without leaving any gaps. Since this effect is only of limited duration, treatment has to be repeated on a regular basis: typically, once every 4 to 8 weeks in the maintenance phase after an initial period of about two months in which treatment is performed once every two weeks. The Lumea device is supported by a Lumea app (i.e., an application program or software application than can be run on a computer, laptop, tablet and/or smartphone, which can be coupled, e.g. wirelessly, to the treatment device) to aid the user with hair removal treatment. This enhances the user experience and user engagement with the Lumea device. In many photo-epilation devices, each flash/burst of light emitted for treatment is immediately followed by a flash sound, which is a short sound impulse specific in both time (e.g. of approximately one second) and frequency (e.g. of approximately 9 kHz). The number of flashes required for treatment depends on the size of the body part where the pulses are to be applied. The exposure to high intensity laser pulses for a duration beyond the recommended amount can cause to overtreatment and serious damages to the skin. WO 2019/079972 A1 discloses a specific voice recognition method by means of which specific voices can be recognized with a simple algorithm, small calculation amounts, and low requirements on hardware equipment. The method includes sampling a voice signal, obtaining the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient characteristic parameter matrix of the voice signal, and extracting characteristic parameters from the characteristic parameter matrix. The characteristic parameters are supplied to a deep neural network-based specific voice feature model for identification, so as to determine whether the voice signal comprises a specific voice feature. The specific voice recognition device is configured to receive the voice of a user and to determine whether the voice comprises a specific voice feature. An example of a specific voice feature mentioned in WO 2019/079972 A1 is a cough sound. EP3562420 A1 discloses an apparatus configured to be used with a treatment device and configured to obtain an audio signal and to detect a sound in the audio signal. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide measures to avoid or at least reduce the risk of overtreatment. In a first aspect of the present invention an apparatus is presented configured to be used with a treatment device configured to perform a treatment operation on a body part of a subject, wherein the treatment device is configured to apply light pulses to skin of the body part to perform the treatment operation and to generate a flash sound per light pulse generated by the treatment device, the apparatus comprising an input configured to obtain an audio signal sensed during the treatment operation;a processing unit configured to segment the audio signal into audio segments, in particular into audio segments of a set or predetermined duration,extract, per audio segment, one or more characteristic features from the audio segments,detect, per audio segment, if the audio segmen