Healthy city living guide and related functionality for managing health

• US 20070179359A1
• Filed: 01/09/2007
• Published: 08/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Buzz Holdings L.P.
• Original Assignee: Buzz Holdings L.P.
• Inventors: Goodwin, Amanda
• Application Number:
  US11/651,924
• Publication Number:
  US 20070179359A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/06 heartbeat rate only
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/75 calorie expenditure
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0075 Means for generating exercise programs or schemes, e.g. computerized virtual trainer, e.g. using expert databases
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/00 Games or sports accessories not covered in groups A63B1/00 - A63B69/00 starting appliances A63K3/02
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets

Abstract

Techniques are described for managing a user'"'"'s health. In various embodiments, these techniques include a receiving a caloric request and a resting metabolic rate, computing an expended number of calories based on the user'"'"'s resting metabolic rate and physical activity performed by the user, computing a consumed number of calories based on food the user consumes, determining a status for the user based on whether the user is to consume calories or expend calories, and sending an alert to the user.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer system for enabling a user to manage the user'"'"'s health by using a mobile computing device that communicates with a health system, the method comprising:

receiving a caloric request from the user, the caloric request indicating an amount of calories that the user desires to consume during a first time interval;

identifying a resting metabolic rate for the user, the resting metabolic rate indicating a theoretical number of calories the user consumes during a second time interval;

receiving information relating to physical activity performed by the user beginning at the start of the first time interval and ending at a specified time;

computing an expended number of calories based on the physical activity performed by the user and resting metabolic rate by retrieving information from a database located on the mobile computing device, the database containing a correspondence between foods and calories;

receiving information relating to food consumed by the user beginning at the start of the first time interval and ending at the specified time;

computing a consumed number of calories based on the food consumed by the user;

determining a status for the user based on whether the user is to consume calories or expend calories by analyzing the computed expended number of calories and the computed consumed number of calories;

receiving geographic location information identifying a geographic location at which the user is located;

sending an alert to the user based on the status for the user and the received geographic location information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining comprises:

computing a difference between the computed expended number of calories and the computed consumed number of calories; and

when the computed consumed number of calories exceeds the computed expended number of calories, the method further comprises identifying a recommended physical activity to the user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first time interval is a twenty-four hour period and the second time interval is an hour.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing an expended number of calories includes retrieving information from a database located on a server computing system.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the alert includes sending a motivational message to the user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the alert includes sending an advertisement to the user.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the alert includes sending a location of a retail establishment that is located near the user'"'"'s identified geographic location.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the alert includes sending a location of a restaurant serving healthy food that is located near the user'"'"'s identified geographic location.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the alert includes sending a location of a health club that is located near the user'"'"'s identified geographic location.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending a scheduled alert to the user that is unrelated to the alert that is sent to the user based on the status for the user.

11. A computer-computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for enabling a user to manage the user'"'"'s health by using a computing device that communicates with a health system implemented by the computer system, the method comprising:

receiving a caloric request from the user, the caloric request indicating an amount of calories that the user desires to consume during a first time interval;

identifying a resting metabolic rate for the user, the resting metabolic rate indicating a theoretical number of calories the user consumes during a second time interval;

receiving information relating to physical activity performed by the user beginning at the start of the first time interval and ending at a specified time;

computing an expended number of calories based on the physical activity performed by the user and resting metabolic rate;

receiving information relating to food consumed by the user beginning at the start of the first time interval and ending at the specified time;

computing a consumed number of calories based on the food consumed by the user;

determining a status for the user based on whether the user is to consume calories or expend calories by analyzing the computed expended number of calories and the computed consumed number of calories; and

sending an alert to the user based on the status for the user.

12. The computer-computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising receiving geographic location information identifying a geographic location at which the user is located.

13. The computer-computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising sending a scheduled alert to the user that is unrelated to the alert that is sent to the user based on the status for the user and that provides an indication of the computed expended number of calories or the computed consumed number of calories.

14. The computer-computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the receiving information relating to physical activity performed by the user includes receiving the user'"'"'s heart rate and the expended number of calories is computed based at least on the user'"'"'s heart rate.

15. A system for enabling a user to manage the user'"'"'s health, comprising:

a component that receives a caloric request and a resting metabolic rate indicating a theoretical number of calories the user consumes during a second time interval, the caloric request indicating an amount of calories that the user desires to consume during a first time interval;

a component that computes an expended number of calories based on the user'"'"'s resting metabolic rate and physical activity performed by the user;

a component that computes a consumed number of calories based on food the user consumes beginning at the start of the first time interval and ending at a specified time;

a component that determines a status for the user based on whether the user is to consume calories or expend calories by analyzing the computed expended number of calories and the computed consumed number of calories; and

a component that sends an alert to the user based on the status for the user.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising a sensor component that monitors physical activity on an exercise equipment and transmits an indication of the physical activity to the component that computes an expended number of calories.

17. The system of claim 15 further comprising a biometric sensor component that monitors a physiological condition of the user and transmits an indication of the physiological condition to the component that computes an expended number of calories.

18. The system of claim 15 further comprising a sensor component that monitors physical activity performed by the user and wirelessly transmits an indication of the physical activity to the component that computes an expended number of calories.

19. The system of claim 15 further comprising a display unit that displays sent alerts and menus to the user, the menus identifying foods that the user can consume based on the received caloric request.

20. The system of claim 15 further comprising a display unit that displays advertisements to the user, the advertisements based on diet choices made by the user, the diet choices associated with the received caloric request.

21. A method performed by a computer system for providing a healthy city living guide, comprising:

receiving a caloric goal from a user, the caloric request indicating an amount of calories that the user desires to consume during a twenty-four hour time interval;

receiving a resting metabolic rate for the user, the resting metabolic rate indicating a theoretical number of calories the user consumes during a one-hour time interval;

receiving information relating to physical activity performed by the user and food consumed by the user;

computing a caloric difference based on the received caloric goal, the received resting metabolic rate for the user, and the received information relating to physical activity performed by the user and food consumed by the user; and

when the computed caloric difference indicates that the caloric goal will not be met, sending an alert to the user wherein the alert comprises a multimedia content relating to physical activity, a menu selection identifying a food, a meeting location for physical activity, or a message from a health professional.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the meeting location provided by the alert identifies a meeting location at which other users will be engaged in a physical activity identified as beneficial to the user'"'"'s caloric goal.

23. The method of claim 21 further comprising sending a message to a health professional indicating the computed caloric difference.

24. The method of claim 21 further comprising sending a message to a health professional indicating the physical activity performed by the user or the food consumed by the user.

25. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing a news article to the user relating to the caloric goal.