Combined exercise management and entertainment unit

• US 20070243974A1
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitac Technology Corporation (MiTAC Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Mitac Technology Corporation (MiTAC Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Chen, Yen-Jen, Li, Chun-Hsing
• Granted Patent: US 7,491,153 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 482/8
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0625 Emitting sound, noise or music
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0627 when used improperly, e.g. by giving a warning
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/20 with means for remote communication, e.g. internet or the like
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/065 within a certain range
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/202 glucose
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/30 blood pressure A63B2230/04 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/70 body fat
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/75 calorie expenditure
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0084 Exercising apparatus with means for competitions, e.g. virtual races
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0622 Visual, audio or audio-visual systems for entertaining, instructing or motivating the user
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A combined exercise management and entertainment unit includes a sensor for sensing a user'"'"'s body state during exercise and producing an exercise signal to a microprocessor, so as to calculate the user'"'"'s calorie consumption during exercise each time and the accumulated calorie consumption; a personal characteristics database for storing data of a user'"'"'s body physical characteristics; an exercise course memory for storing exercise courses set by the user, including the time period, item, and duration of an exercise to be done; a setting unit for the user to set the data of body physical characteristics to be stored in the personal characteristics database; and a play unit having an entertainment information memory for storing a plurality of entertainment information entries, which correspond to the exercise items set by the user and may be selectively played corresponding to the exercise item being done.

Claims

1. A combined exercise management and entertainment unit, comprising:

a sensor for sensing a user'"'"'s body state during exercise, the body state during exercise being processed by an exercise signal processing circuit to produce an exercise signal;

a personal characteristics database for storing data of the user'"'"'s body physical characteristics;

an exercise course memory for storing exercise courses set by the user, each of the exercise courses including information about exercise time period, exercise items, and duration of each exercise item each time;

a setting unit for the user to set the data of body physical characteristics for storing in the personal characteristics database, the exercise courses for storing in the exercise course memory, and musical data corresponding to the exercise items set in the exercise course memory;

a microprocessor adapted to receive the exercise signal produced by the sensor, and calculate calorie consumption in each exercise item each time and accumulated calorie consumption based on the exercise signal received from the sensor, the data of body physical characteristics stored in the personal characteristics database, and the exercise items included in the exercise course being executed;

a display for showing the exercise signal, the data of personal body physical characteristics, the exercise courses, the exercise items, and the calculated calorie consumption; and

a play unit having an entertainment information memory for storing a plurality of entries of entertainment information that separately correspond to the exercise items set in the exercise course memory, so that the user may select to play one of the entertainment information entries corresponding to an exercise item being done.

2. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor is a heartbeat detector for sensing the user'"'"'s heartbeats during exercise.

3. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data of body physical characteristics stored in the personal characteristics database includes the user'"'"'s height, weight, required daily calorie consumption, body fat, and body mass index.

4. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the entertainment information entries corresponding to the exercise items set in the exercise course memory are musical data, and the musical data having different rhythms and being selected according to an intensity of the exercise item being done.

5. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the entertainment information stored in the entertainment information memory are digital musical data.

6. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a recipe database for storing information about calorie contents of different foods and diet menus.

7. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display is provided with an exercise recommendation zone for showing exercise recommendations, the exercise recommendations being provided by the microprocessor based on the exercise signal, the data of body physical characteristics stored in the personal characteristics database, the calorie consumption calculated according to the exercise items in the exercise course being executed;

and the exercise recommendations including information about time required for recovery, dietary intake, daily calorie consumption, and estimated weight-loss duration for the user.

8. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a sounding unit, whereby when the sensor detects the user'"'"'s heartbeats during exercise, a sound is emitted by the sounding unit to remind or warn the user that his or her heartbeat count has reached, exceeded, or not reached a desired value.

9. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a data transmission interface adapted to connect to a computer apparatus, such that the entertainment information may be transmitted to or received from the computer apparatus.

10. The combined exercise management and entertainment unit as claimed in claim 9, wherein the computer apparatus is adapted to link with a remote computer apparatus via an Internet interface and the Internet, so that the entertainment information may be transmitted to or received from the remote computer apparatus via the Internet.