Physical basics of informational interaction

United States Patent 6,549,805

Nesterov et al. Apr. 15, 2003

Torsion diagnostic system utilizing

noninvasive biofeedback signals between
the operator, the patient and the central
processing and telemetry unit

ABSTRACT in the Russian Patent No. 814,337 wherein the test

is administered before and after a physical exercise.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Such systems have generally limited ability to indi-
The present invention relates generally to a cate the variety of patient’s conditions due to the fact
biofeedback medical diagnostic system. More par- that only a part of the nervous system responsible for
ticularly, the system of the invention utilizes remote processing a visual stimulus is involved with the test.
noninvasive biofeedback signal between the operator, Such complex phenomenon as a change in working
the patient, and the CPT (central processing and te- ability or the state of tiredness of a patient frequently
lemetry) device to determine a pathological condi- results from other changes in the nervous system that
tion of the patient. The biofeedback signal is gener- would go undetected by such a device.
ated subconsciously and is based on device enhanced The situation of playing a dynamic game is used
intuition. in various psycho-physiological evaluation devices to
A variety of medical diagnostic systems are determine the state of a variety of body functions. Ex-
known in the art to determine the patho-physiologi- amples include such functions as attention, memory
cal status of the patient in general and to diagnose a and vision (Russian Patent No. 825,001); sensing
variety of ailments and their state of progression. A and motor reactions (Russian Patent No. 850,043);
simple example of such a system is a visual diagnostic ability to choose (Russian Patent No. 929,060); the
device based on critical fusion frequency such as de- function of following a moving object (Russian Pat-
scribed in the U.S- Pat. No. 6,129,436 by Treskov or ent No. 827,029); ability to find the ways out of the
the Russian Patents No. 339,280 and 1,076,087. In a difficult situation (Russian Patent No. 878,258) and
self-administered test, the patient can gradually in- even the predictive abilities (Russian Patent No. 839,
crease the frequency of a blinking light until the point 488).
of fusion is reached and the patient is unable to dis- A more comprehensive biofeedback device is de-
tinguish between individual bursts of light. The fre- scribed by Schweizer in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,626
quency of that fusion is indicative of the state of the and includes application of a variety of audible, visu-
patient’s nervous system and can be tracked over time al, electrical or tactile stimuli in a specially designed
to monitor its changes. An improvement is described biofeedback chamber. Moreover, a microprocessor

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 Physical basics of informational interaction

controlled rhythmical pattern of these stimuli is pro- nals from healthy individuals to diagnose a brain dys-
posed and is adjusted based on the patient’s own re- function.
actions. A method for determining the intensity of fo-
Ross et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,142 sug- cused attention is proposed by Cowan et al. in the
gests electro-neurological stimulation of specifically U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,129 and includes obtaining a
described places on the skin of the patient. Produc- frontal lobe brainwave EEG signal and subtracting it
tion of such tactile stimulation of the skin is used to from a separately obtained reference EEG signal to
generate electrical characteristics of the organism re- produce the attention indicator signal.
sponsive to a particular condi-tion. The system of the Finally, an electroencephalograph based bio-
invention is also used to train the organism to change feedback system is described by Freer in the U.S.
its reaction to the stimuli by concentrating on in- Pat. No. 6,097,981 in which a computer animation is
creasing or inhibiting the tactile sensation. maintained by the computer and presented to the pa-
An even more sophisticated system involves de- tient while EEG response signals are simultaneously
tecting the patient’s electrical brainwaves via electro- being obtained and analyzed. Results of the analysis
encephalogram or EEG as measured from a number are then used to control the animation. A provision
of electrodes attached to the patient’s scalp. Several is made to send the EEG signals from the head of
examples of EEG based biofeedback devices are the patient or user to the machine by remote infrared
worth mentioning here among a large number of such transmitter.
systems described in the prior art. All the above systems suffer from a number of
A multiple channel biofeedback .computer is de- common limitations, which stem from their depend-
scribed in the U.S. Pal. No. 4,031,883 by Fehmi et ence on the conscious state of mind of the patient.
al. which contains a number of monopolar electrical Another limitation is that the patient himself is used
contacts applied to the scalp and the body of the pa- to interpret the biofeedback signal rather then an in-
tient and a computer for collecting, filtering and am- dependent entity such as an operator. Finally, hard-
plifying the electrical signals therefrom. The overall ware is used to obtain the EEG signals and transmit it
feedback signal is then presented back to the patient via a wire or infrared method to the main data collec-
to create awareness of the function being monitored tion and computing apparatus.
of for other purposes. One further improvement in the accuracy of bio-
Ross et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,893 de- feedback analysis is described in the Russian Patent
scribes a kinesthetic physical movement display in No. 759,092 in which various biofeedback signals
which a number of electrodes feed their respective are assigned a certain value of relative weight by a
signals to an EEG apparatus equipped with a video dedicated designation unit acting based on individual
display. Generation of kinesthetic physical move- characteristics of each patient or a test subject. Vary-
ments allows the user to produce desired thought ing these weight factors allows the apparatus to cus-
patterns. tomize the results of analysis for each individual user.
A method for treating a patient using an EEG The use of magnetic and electromagnetic fields
feedback is described by Ochs in the U.S. Pat. No. is also known in the art to remotely and non-inva-
5,365,939 and involves selecting a reference site for sively assess certain conditions of a patient or to in-
determining a brainwave frequency and entraining it fluence his state of fatigue and abilities to perform
in both directions until a predetermined stop point certain functions.
is reached. Flexibility assessment is then conducted Farmer et al. has described a device for moni-
with respect to the ability of the patient to change the toring a magnetic field emanating from an organism
brainwave frequency. in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,458.142. It includes a mag-
A method and device for interpreting concepts netic field sensor containing a ferromagnetic core
and conceptual thoughts from a brainwave date of a surrounded by a multi-turn fine wire. The sensor is
patient and for assisting in diagnosis of a brainwave used to record the magnetic fields of an organism
dysfunction is described is proposed by Hudspeth in for diagnostic purposes as well as to control a mag-
the U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,788. A system is described to netic field generator in order to produce a thera-
include a transducer for transmitting a stimuli to the peutic magnetic field complimentary to that of an
patient, EEG transducers for recording brainwave organism.
signals, and a computer to control signal presenta- A bio-magnetic analytical system is described
tion, EEG signal recording and analysis. A compari- by Zanakis et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,674 and
son is made between the recorded EEG signals and includes a number of fiber-optic magnetic sensors
a model of conceptual perceptional and emotional to obtain information about the magnetic field from
thought or as an alternative to the known EEG sig- various tissues in the body including the brain.

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 A device for influencing an organism is proposed to intuitively cause the triggering sensor to send the
by Hein in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,361 and involves feedback signal, a device called «cadistor» provides
exposing the patient to a number of short pulsed sig- an intuition enhancement. This devise subjects the
nals supplied with increasing or decreasing frequency patient to a series of small level energy bursts with
to stimulate the cerebral waves. the 5 frequency preferably coinciding with the theta
U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,878 by Kamei suggests a rhythm of the patient’s brainwaves.
device for non-invasive enhancing the immuno-sur-
veillance capacity of a person by supplying a pulsed BRIEF DESCRIPTION
light to his forehead (while shielding the eyes) in the OF THE DRAWINGS
frequency range between 0.5 to 13 Hz and preferably A more complete appreciation of the subject
in the frequency of the alpha wave band as measured matter of the present invention and the various ad-
from the EEG signals. vantages thereof can be realized by reference to the
Finally, our Russian Patent No. 2,342,826 de- following detailed description in which reference is
scribes a method and device for increasing non-in- made to the accompanying drawings in which:
vasively the accuracy and output of an operator of a FIG. 1 is a general block-diagram of the diag-
bio-location device by using a low frequency unipolar nostic system of the present invention, and
magnetic field. FIG. 2 is a general block-diagram of the trigger-
The need therefore exists for a non-invasive di- ing sensor of the diagnostic system.
agnostic system excluding the conscious influence of
the patient and his own interpretation of the biofeed- DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
back signal. PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE
INVENTION
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A detailed description of the present invention
Accordingly, it is an object of the present inven- follows with reference to accompanying drawings in
tion to overcome these and other drawbacks of the which like elements are indicated by like ference let-
prior art by providing a novel non-invasive diagnos- ters and numerals. FIG. 1 shows the main block-dia-
tic system using a central processing and telemetry gram of the proposed system of the present invention.
device and an operator to interpret the biofeedback
signal from the patient.
It is another object of the present invention to
provide a diagnostic system capable of processing the
biofeedback from both the patient and the operator.
It is a further object of the present invention to
provide a diagnostic system in which the biofeedback
from the patient is collected non-invasively.
It is yet a further object of the present invention
to provide a diagnostic system in which a device is
provided to enhance the intuition of the patient to fa-
cilitate the formation of the biofeedback signal from
to the patient to the apparatus.
The diagnostic system of the invention includes a
central processing and telemetry (CPT) device capa-
ble of providing a predetermined series of stimuli to FIG. 1
both the operator and the patient. Such stimuli can
be chosen of various types depending on the purpose A CPT device 10 contains a situation-generating
of evaluation. They can be of optical (such as a screen block designed to output a predetermined series of
of a monitor, a series of light diodes, etc.), sound (via stimuli, also called «information codes» and trans-
headsets or speakers), or magnetic nature. A trigger- mits it through a dual peripheral device to both the
ing sensor facilitates the biofeedback formation and operator 20 and the patient 30 (shown as dotted lines
transmittal from the patient to the CPT device via on FIG. 1). A number of appropriate peripheral de-
an analog-to-digital converter. Another biofeedback vices can be employed with the system depending
loop is formed in parallel between the operator and on the nature of the information code. Examples of
the patient. It is therefore the operator who is actively such peripheral device include but not limited to: a
participating in the evaluation and interprets its re- magnetic induction coil for modulated magnetic field
sults. To further increase the ability of the patient transmission, headsets or speakers for audio trans-

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 Physical basics of informational interaction

mission, video monitor or a light display for visual chamber with the size selected to be a multiple of the
signal transmission such as an image of the evaluated wavelength of the incoming signal, preferably about
organ for example, etc. It is essential to point out that 1.45 GHz.
such information codes are transmitted to both the FIG. 2 depicts the general block-diagram of the
operator 20 and the patient 30, a unique feature of triggering sensor 40. It consists of a sensing element
the diagnostic system of the invention. 41, integrator 42, source of electrical current 43, dif-
A triggering sensor 40 collects the biological re- ferential amplifier 44, amplifier 45, comparator 46,
sponse from the patient 30 as an analog signal (solid galvanic decoupling unit 47, and detector channel
line on FIG. 1), converts it into a digital one and 48 designed to increase the influence of the patient
sends it back to the CPT unit (dash-and-dot line on on the sensing element 41. The detector channel 48
FIG. 1) as will be described in more detail below. The in turn consists of a logoperiodic antenna 48a, mixer
CPT unit is also equipped with the designation block 48b, rectifier 48c, discriminator 48d, and heterodyne
for assigning specific relative weights in the input 48e.
signals from the sensor 40 depending on individual
characteristics of the patient.
Cadistor 50 is designed to work directly with the
patient 30 to facilitate the work of the triggering sen-
sor 40. It consists of a silicon-based semi-conductive
transistor crystal acting as optoelectronic radioele-
ment when illuminated by a light source such as a
laser. Preferably, a silicon field-effect transistor is
used in which a control area is in the form of a thin
flat channel. When a laser light is directed at cadis-
tor, an abrupt temporary short circuit is formed in the
semiconductor and a small level of energy is released.
Repeating of that process with high frequency caused
periodic releases and accumulation of the energy. It
has been established that the preferred wavelength of
laser light is between 630 and 680 nanometers, the
laser power should be below 5 MW and most impor-
tantly the light pulsation has to coincide with the
theta-rhythm of the patient’s brainwaves.
The cadistor is placed on the forehead of the FIG. 2
patient about 1/2 of an inch above the nose and the
eyes and symmetrical there between. Appropriate eye The function of the triggering sensor 40 is to
shielding and other precautions are recommended to sense the response produced by the patient in reac-
avoid damage by the laser. The laser source is located tion to the information codes supplied by the CPT
only about 5-6 inches from the patient’s forehead and unit, transform them into a digital signal and send
is directed onto the cadistor placed on the patient’s them back to the CPT unit 10. The sensing element
head as described above. Activation of periodic illu- 41 is the noise generator based for example on the
mination of the cadistor with the laser light causes radioelement 2G401V that is remotely subjected to
periodic release of the energy, which in this situation the influence of the patient’s brainwaves. A direct
was clearly shown to increase the intuitive potential electrical current of an optimized value in the range
of the patient. It is also important to orient the cadis- of only several microamps, preferably between 1 and
tor properly in a space relative to one of the elements 5, is provided to power this element by power supply
of the triggering sensor 40, namely its antenna. 49. This current is adjustable and is determined indi-
In the above-described situation, both the elec- vidually during the fine-tuning of the device in-vitro.
tromagnetic and the torsion components of the laser Electrical current source 43 consists of an oper-
Sight are directed at the patient. To block the electro- ation amplifier such as for example the type UD25A
magnetic component, a cavity resonator is deployed (made by Voshod company in Kaluga, Russia) and
which prevents the electromagnetic component from an adjusting element such as a bi-polar transistor
getting through while forming and directing the tor- with low noise coefficient, for example the model
sion component as the only stimulus to effect the KT3107L (made by Eleks company in Alexandrov,
patient (dashed line on FIG. 1). The cavity resona- Russia) capable of supplying a consistent level of
tor is typically made of metal and has a volumetric electrical current which is not effected by fluctua-

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tions of the power source voltage. The choice of low (such as the type AA123 made by NIIPP company in
levels of such current is dictated by the desire to in- Tomsk, Russia) onto which a voltage is fed from the
crease the sensitivity of the device to the outside dis- heterodyne 48e. Such heterodyne is typically a sine
turbances. voltage generator and is widely used in radio receiv-
The information signal is obtained from the ers. It is tunable simultaneously with the tuning of
sensing element 41 and taken through an amplify- the oscillatory circuit of the receiver, to which the an-
ing phase consisting of a differential amplifier 44 tenna is connected. This makes it possible to mark a
and an amplifier 45. As a result, the signal is am- stationary value of difference at a frequency between
plified with a total amplification factor of about 30 that of the received signal and the heterodyne sig-
dB. The sensing element 41 is influenced by both nal in any position of the settings of a radio receiver.
the useful disturbances and random disturbances An example of an appropriate heterodyne is the one
such as those from static electromagnetic fields. To based on the diode of the type KA717B-4 produced
eliminate such random disturbances, a precision by Nalchk’s PP factory in Nalchik, Russia.
differential amplifier 44 is used as a first phase of The rectifier 48c is designed to separate the low
amplification. One possible type of such an ampli- frequency phase from the useful signal, which is in
fier may be INA 128UB by BUR BRAUN in which turn fed into the discriminator 48d such as for exam-
the signal voltage from the sensing element 41 is fed ple a differential amplifier INA128UB. Discrimina-
onto one input of the amplifier 44 while the other tor 48d subtracts the integrated signal from the raw
input is supplied with the same voltage after feeding signal and arrives at informational voltage bursts.
it through the integrato integrator 42. As a result, Such voltage bursts are then fed back into the inte-
only the useful disturbance signal is allowed to go grator 42 and further into the current source 43 which
through to the next phase of amplification in the changes the value level of the current and shifts the
amplifier 45 while the noise signal is filtered out. power current of the sensing element 41. Such fluc-
Any appropriate commonly known amplifier can be tuations of the current of the sensing element 41 ulti-
used as an amplifier 45. mately effect the frequency spectrum of its operation
Comparator 46 can be of the type 521SA3 (made and the frequency range of the useful signal produced
by NIIME company in Zelenograd. Russia) and is thereby.
designed to transfer the analog signal from the ampli- The diagnostic system of the present invention
fier 45 into a series of impulses such as for example functions in the following way. Upon initiation of the
in an A-D converter and then transmits it onto a gal- test sequence, the CPT unit 10 generates information
vanic decoupling unit 47 for further transformation. codes as electromagnetic, radio, audio, or light sig-
The need for a galvanic decoupling unit 47 is dic- nals depending on the nature of evaluation. Such sig-
tated by the presence of random fluctuating electro- nals or stimuli influence the receptors of the nervous
magnetic noise fields from the power supply lines of system of the operator 20 shifting it to a highly sen-
the device itself as well as from other nearby located sitive and reactive state and therefore increasing the
electrical devices. This device is designed to sepa- strength of a biological feedback between the opera-
rate alternating component from direct current and tor 20 and the patient 30. The action of the cadistor
contains an optical channel including a photo diode 50 assists the patient 30 in generating his influence as
PhD265A and an emitter AL107B made for example a useful disturbance signal for the sensing element 41
by Diode company in Moscow, Russia. of the triggering sensor 40 thereby completing a sec-
The detector channel 48 is designed to increase ond biofeedback loop between the CPT unit 10, the
the influence of the patient to the sensing element 41. patient 30, and the triggering sensor 41.
Reception is conducted in the short wave range, pref-
erably at a frequency of 1.45 GHz, which is known EXAMPLE OF OPERATION
to be in the range of radiowave transmission by hu- Table 1 presents one example of various stimuli
man organs and tissues. Reception element is made to be generated by the CPT unit 10 of the diagnos-
with the help of logoperiodic antenna 48a which has tic system of the present invention. The moments in
a multi-turn spiral tapered design to ensure narrow time when each stimuli sequence begins are all co-
direction of reception but in a wide range of trans- ordinated with each other and with the initiation of
mission frequencies. The taper is oriented with the the triggering sensor and cadistor so that the operator
help of the laser pointer in such a way that its narrow and the patient receive the stimuli and both loops of
portion is aimed directly at the middle of the front biofeedback are formed.
forehead of the patient about ½ inch above the eyes. As a result, the CPT unit accumulates a response
The mixer 48b is mounted preferably directly of the patient and the operator so that a database is
onto the antenna 48a and comprises a series of diodes formed of such responses for each series of individual

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 Physical basics of informational interaction

TABLE 1
Peripheral Device

Magnetic
Induction Video Monitor Stereo Headsets
Coils Stimuli

Electromagnetic Sound
Impulses Color

Frequency of Visual
Sequence Coil Interruptions Audio (music notes)

1 1.66 Dark Maroon DO

2 2.49 Red RE
3 3.32 Orange MI
4 4.15 Yellow FA
5 4.56 Green FA-Dies
6 4.98 light Blue SOL
7 5.81 Blue LA
8 6.64 Violet SI
9 7.47 Dark Violet DO

stimulus. In case of electromagnetic impulses, a left gree of pathology and the state of disease develop-
part of the patient’s brain is subjected to the North ment of the organ.
portion of the magnetic impulse, and a right part of Further characterization of the disease state is
the patient’s brain is subjected to the South portion possible using the following classification method
of the magnetic impulse. developed by the inventors:
The studies conducted by the inventors have Class 0—ideal correlation of the digital signature
shown that the effect from the patient on the trig- of the organ under evaluation with the normal signa-
gering sensor is more reproducible when the fre- ture on file. Example—human egg cell at the begin-
quency of interruptions of electromagnetic impulses ning of the division process;
is close to that of the theta rhythm of the patient’s Class 1—the tissue of a healthy embryo before
brainwaves. That frequency tends to fluctuate to- birth (without any body functions or toxins present);
wards increasing or decreasing depending on the Class 2—the tissue of a healthy newborn at the
state of health of the patient. In fact, a relation- beginning of its life outside the mother, tissue func-
ship is determined between the deviation in that tioning at the beginning stages;
frequency and the specific pathological conditions Class 3—actively functioning tissue without tox-
of certain body systems, selected organs, and even ins present;
separate cells and chromosome fragments. Such re- Class 4—tissue with impaired function, toxin ac-
lationship allows for specific diagnosis of a variety cumulation is just beginning;
of pathological conditions. Examples include di- Class 5—tissue with organic changes in which
agnosis of protrusions of spinal disks, remote me- the toxins are accumulated within the cells of the tis-
tastases of various cancerous tumors, broken bones sue and actively restrict its function; and
and trauma in general, blood vessel thrombosis, Class 6—extreme and irreversible state of organic
acute and chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis of liver, and damage and overall tissue disbalance.
a large variety of other pathological conditions. Although the invention herein has been de-
It is important to highlight that such diagnosis is scribed with respect to a particular embodiment, it is
possible to conduct using the subconscious level of understood that this embodiment is merely illustra-
brain function and therefore is independent of the tive of the principles and applications of the present
patient’s influ-ence. invention. It is therefore to be understood that nu-
Another possibility of using the apparatus is to merous modifications may be made to the illustra-
collect the digital signature of an organ as obtained tive embodiment and that other arrangements may be
by the triggering sensor with the library of available devised without departing from the spirit and scope
signatures collected previously from normal volun- of the present invention as defined by the appended
teers. Such comparison allows determining the de- claims.

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 We claim: 5. T he biofeedback diagnostic system as in claim
1. A biofeedback diagnostic system comprising 1 further comprising an intuition enhance-
a central processing and telemetry unit and a ment means for assisting the patient in gener-
non-invasive triggering sensor equipped with ating a response to said stimuli.
a noise generator, said central processing unit 6. The biofeedback diagnostic system as in claim
including a situation-generating block for pro- 5, wherein said intuition enhancement means
ducing a predetermined series of stimuli, said including an optoelectronic radioelement and
central processing unit also including a dual a light source directed thereon, said radioele-
peripheral means for transmitting said stimuli ment adapted for placement on a forehead of
in parallel to both an operator and a patient said patient.
and therefore forming two biofeedback loops, 7. T he biofeedback diagnostic system as in claim
consisting of both: 6, wherein said radioelement is a silicon-based
a) a first biofeedback loop including said central field-effect transistor with a control area be-
processing and telemetry unit sending said stimuli to ing a thin flat channel, said light source being
said patient, said triggering sensor for remotely de- a laser having the power of less than 5 MW,
tecting said patient’s brainwaves representing said said laser controlled to illuminate Said control
patient’s response to said stimuli, said triggering area of said radioelement with pulses of light
sensor further generating a signal in response to said with the wavelength of between about 630 and
brainwaves and sending it back to said central pro- 680 nanometers.
cessing unit, and 8. T he biofeedback diagnostic system as in claim
b) a second biofeedback loop including said cen- 7, wherein said pulses of light having a fre-
tral processing unit sending said stimuli to said oper- quency coinciding with the patient’s brain-
ator, said operator affecting said patient to alter said waves theta-rhythm.
patient’s brainwaves, said triggering sensor reflecting 9. The biofeedback diagnostic system as in claim
said alteration in said signal back to said central pro- 8, wherein said intuition enhancement means
cessing and telemetry unit. further including a cavity resonator to block
2. The biofeedback diagnostic system as in claim the electromagnetic component of said pulses
1, wherein said stimuli is selected from a group of light while permitting the torsion compo-
consisting of magnetic, electromagnetic, au- nents thereof to reach the patient.
dio, and visual stimuli. 10. T  he biofeedback diagnostic system as in
3. The biofeedback diagnostic system as in claim claim 9, wherein said cavity resonator hav-
1, wherein said triggering sensor further in- ing a volumetric chamber with the size be-
cluding a detector channel equipped with a ing a multiple of the wavelength of about
logoperiodic antenna to enhance detection of 1.45 GHz.
said patient’s brainwaves. 11. T  he biofeedback system as in claim 1, where-
4. The biofeedback diagnostic system as in claim in said central processing and telemetry unit
3, wherein said logoperiodic antenna is a mul- further comprising a designation block for
ti-turn tapered spiral antenna for short wave assigning specific relative weights to said sig-
reception at about 1.45 GHz. nals from said triggering sensor.

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