US-12620491-B1 - Integrated risk-based blast and environmental monitoring with mitigation systems and methods of producing same

Abstract

Methods and devices related to blast and environmental exposure monitoring, introducing a risk-based model for system deployment, and at its highest level, performing head-based blast vectoring within the system for monitoring the exposure and post-event surveillance, including biometric data acquisition, and probing behavioral indicators to perform device driven traumatic brain injury risk assessment.

Inventors

• James Engall
• Chris Rodewald

Assignees

• BLAST ANALYTICS AND MITIGATION, INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260505

Application Date

20220916

Claims (11)

1. 1 . A wearable system for simultaneously monitoring 360-degrees and mitigating exposure to occupational and environmental hazards to a user from weapons or devices, comprising: (a) a body wearable system for the user to wear; (b) at least two juxtaposed sensors connected to the wearable system to detect, monitor and record exposure to the environmental hazards; (c) providing post-event monitoring for detection of changes in behavioral, physiological, and cognitive markers of head trauma, body trauma and environmental hazard exposure; (d) a real time authentication dosimetry circuit configured as a closed loop biometric module verifying device wear and user attribution during exposure, wherein the dosimetry circuit is supervised or unsupervised; and (e) an onboard computer data acquisition system configured to convert, process, store, analyze, retrieve, alert, and transmit changes in voltage over time from at least one sensor, wherein the onboard computer can trigger a configuration routine, wherein the system is integrated into personal protection equipment worn by the user, wherein authenticated exposure data is transmitted to a computer system configured to initiate postprocessing and post-event protocols.
2. 2 . The wearable system of claim 1 , wherein the system is integrated into a housing of a hearing protection element.
3. 3 . The wearable system of claim 1 , wherein the system is attached to a housing of an ear protection element.
4. 4 . The wearable system of claim 1 , wherein the sensors are configured to detect at least one occupational and environmental hazard selected from the group consisting of blast overpressure, acoustics, toxicants, chemicals, radiation, magnetic fields, electromagnetic energy, radio frequencies, coherent light sources and microwaves or a combination thereof.
5. 5 . The wearable system of claim 1 , wherein the closed loop biometric module is further comprised of a microcontroller configured to compare sensor measured data to a stored standardized range for a user profile.
6. 6 . The wearable system of claim 1 , wherein the onboard computer data acquisition system may be further comprised of: a digital signal processor; a solid-state memory module; firmware for implementing algorithms; a machine learning inference core; an inertial sensor; a microphone; and a power management system.
7. 7 . The wearable system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensors comprises unimodal or multimodal sensors further connected to at least one selected from the group consisting of a computer, microprocessor, controller unit, clock and memory, comprising: (a) providing a head-mounted system for the user to wear; and (b) providing a means to calculate a vector of the exposure in relation to the user's head direction.
8. 8 . The wearable system of claim 5 , wherein the closed-loop biometric module further comprises a microcontroller configured to compare measured bioelectric or physiological sensor data to a stored standardized range associated with a verified user profile in order to authenticate the wearer.
9. 9 . The wearable system of claim 5 , wherein the microcontroller executes firmware that identifies sensor data when the measured values fall outside of the stored standardized range for longer than a predefined continuity interval for further analysis in order to prevent false exposure attribution.
10. 10 . The wearable system of claim 5 , wherein the closed-loop biometric module further comprises a secure memory element configured to encrypt and store user profile parameters and comparison results prior to transmission to any external device.
11. 11 . The wearable system of claim 10 , wherein the secure memory element employs a hardware-rooted routine that prevents modification or access to the stored user profile data without authentication of the device.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This application relates generally to the field of environmental hazards from use of weapon systems or explosive devices, such as blast overpressure exposure, for monitoring and mitigation of the effects of weapon system operation or explosive devices to individuals who use them or are positioned around them. Specifically, the methods and devices of the present invention relate to blast and environmental exposure monitoring, introduce a risk-based model for system deployment, and at its highest level, perform head-based blast vectoring within the system for monitoring the exposure and post-event surveillance, including biometric data acquisition, and probing behavioral indicators to perform device driven traumatic brain injury risk assessment. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Explosive blasts from high-explosives or propellant explosives have devasting effects on structures, objects, and people in the blast radius. Blast overpressure exposure from these sources has received significant scientific and US congressional attention due to increased awareness of potential adverse outcomes associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI), and more specifically blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI). A specialized novel system that aims to monitor and mitigate blast overpressure exposure is necessary because bTBI. 1) often is the result from exposure to a concussive blast or from repeated exposure to subconcussive blast, 2) presents with symptomology that is dependent on the extent and location of brain injury, and 3) can resolve within days or persist over time (weeks, months, years, or even a lifetime.) Brain health initiatives and programs that focus on blast exposure monitoring (BEMO) have generated a variety of techniques and leveraged technologies to generate a form of dosimetry to assist users and medical professionals in understanding exposure levels to blast. While rudimentary shot logs, shot counters, and wearable blast sensor technology have been used to approximate and measure dose and cumulative blast overpressure exposure the existing technologies have limitations and a specialized system that can be integrated into standard operating procedures and standard issue equipment to reduce device crowding on a user has yet to be developed to encompass monitoring and mitigation strategies into a single system of the hazards of using weapon systems and/or explosive device exposure. The current state of the art of blast sensor systems is to detect and record rapid changes in pressure caused by an explosion from a blast event and if worn, to function as a dosimeter by recording characteristic wavefront data from the event to infer concomitant user exposure. Examples of limiting systems in the prior art include those inventions described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,339,224, 9,568,389, 9,138,172, 8,984,664, and 8,056,391. One weakness to dosimetry and current blast monitoring techniques is the assumption that the sensor is on the individual/user at the time of the exposure. Additionally, devices that concomitantly monitor exposure and perform post-event monitoring for injury detection have also been developed, as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 10,395,501. While these devices provide a method to monitor blast exposure, they lack universal utility for the diverse population of users and the expanding number of possible events from explosions from high-explosives, weapons systems, and explosive devices. Therefore, operator-directed solutions are necessary to advance integrative blast and environmental hazard monitoring, and new concurrent methods to authenticate exposures in real-time and perform injury risk assessments are needed to advance the traditional dosimetry technologies that measure exposure to hazards, such as radiation. This technology described in the prior art provides less granular exposure related information when variability from a potential blast source is present. Blast sensor systems are used individually or in a plurality to extend the functionality of the system, as further evidenced in US Patent Pub. Nos. 2016/0097756 and US 2011/0191039 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,984,664 and 9,568,389. Inertial sensors, such as accelerometers, have been incorporated into these systems described in the prior art in order to record concomitant movement data to derive force and direction of system movement at the time of a recorded event, as further evidenced in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,795,177, 10,582,883, 10,667,737, 8,554,509, 5,621,922, and 10,401,380. This method can be used to assess the state of the system, but has limited utility to assess the state and/or disposition of the user. Combining blast sensor and inertial data yields rudimentary blast vectoring capabilities. However, while these systems provide valuable dosimetry information, user variability, such as sensor location, position, and orientation when worn ultimately limit vectoring capabilities of the exposure which can provide inaccurate exposure info