PHYSICAL ACTIVITY-BASED DEVICE CONTROL

• US 20120239173A1
• Filed: 11/23/2010
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy
• Original Assignee: Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy
• Inventors: Laikari, Arto, Ermes, Miikka, Repokari, Lauri, Haapala, Teemu, Harvela, Juhani
• Granted Patent: US 8,923,994 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/91
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0247 Pressure sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7239 using differentiation including higher order derivatives
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0065 Evaluating the fitness, e.g. fitness level or fitness index
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0068 Comparison to target or threshold, previous performance or not real time comparison to other individuals
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/30 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/40 Acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/803 Motion sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/833 Sensors arranged on the exercise apparatus or sports implement
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/04 heartbeat characteristics, e.g. ECG, blood pressure modulations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/30 blood pressure A63B2230/04 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0062 Monitoring athletic performances, e.g. for determining the work of a user on an exercise apparatus, the completed jogging or cycling distance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A method for controlling the configuration, such as access and/or one or more other features, of an application in an electronic device from the standpoint of a particular user, comprising obtaining an indication of the identity of the user determined based on sensor data associated with physical activity by the user, obtaining an indication of the physical activity identified based on the sensor data, and modifying or at least providing information enabling to modify the identified user'"'"'s configuration of an application logic based on the identified activity and optionally other activity information derived utilizing the sensor data. Related mobile device, electronic arrangement and system are presented.

Claims

1. A mobile device comprising

a sensor data storage for obtaining sensor data indicative of physical activity associated with a user monitored via a sensor,

a user recognizer for identifying the user on the basis of the sensor data obtained,

an activity recognizer for identifying the physical activity, such as a sports activity, on the basis of the sensor data obtained, and

an interface for providing an indication of the user identity and indication of the identified activity to an application logic to enable modifying the identified user'"'"'s configuration, such as access and/or one or more other features, relative to said application logic, said application logic being either local or external relative to the mobile device.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, comprising at least one sensor selected from the group consisting of:

an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a pedometer, a pulse meter, a movement sensor, a pressure sensor, a location sensor or other location determination entity, a distance sensor, a velocity sensor, a speed sensor, and a blood oxygen sensor.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, comprising a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver for position sensing.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the user recognizer is configured to utilize a user-specific, and optionally an activity-specific, reference signal and/or other reference data to identify the user on the basis of the sensor data.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the user recognizer is configured to utilize a user-specific, and optionally an activity-specific, reference signal and/or other reference data to identify the user on the basis of the sensor data, and wherein a plurality of references is associated with a certain user, preferably at least one reference per activity to be identified.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the user recognizer is configured to utilize a user-specific, and optionally an activity-specific, reference signal and/or other reference data to identify the user on the basis of the sensor data, and wherein a plurality of references is associated with a certain user preferably at least one reference per activity to be identified, and further wherein a sum signal based on a plurality of acceleration signals corresponding to an activity-specific segment of sensor data is formed and utilized as such and/or in modified form to extract a plurality of sub-elements therefrom, such as step pairs in connection with walking activity, to be applied for determining the activity-specific reference.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the user recognizer is configured to utilize a user-specific, and optionally an activity-specific, reference signal and/or other reference data to identify the user on the basis of the sensor data, and wherein a plurality of references is associated with a certain user, preferably at least one reference per activity to be identified, and further wherein a sum signal based on a plurality of acceleration signals corresponding to an activity-specific segment of sensor data is formed and utilized as such and/or in modified form to extract a plurality of sub-elements therefrom, such as step pairs in connection with walking activity, to be applied for determining the activity-specific reference, and wherein a number of said sub-elements are processed, such as normalized and summed together, to establish the activity-specific reference.

8. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the user recognizer is configured to utilize at least one analysis tool for identifying the user based on the sensor data, the tool being selected from the group consisting of:

cross correlation, a number of Fourier coefficients, neural network, and structured pattern recognition.

9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the activity recognizer is configured to utilize an activity-specific, and optionally user-specific, reference signal and/or other reference data to identify the activity on the basis of the sensor data.

10. The mobile device of claim 1, comprising a remote identification device such as an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) or NFC (Near Field Communication) tag, preferably provided with a unique ID.

11. The mobile device of claim 1, comprising application logic, such as optionally a game application or other end application or a control application for controlling one or more other applications, said application logic applying the activity information for controlling a user-specific configuration thereof and/or of one or more other application logics.

12. An electronic arrangement, optionally an electronic device or a plurality of at least functionally connected devices, for controlling and optionally hosting one or more applications, said arrangement comprising

an input collector for obtaining sensor data such as accelerometer data, acquired by a mobile device, and indicative of physical activity associated with a user, such as sports activity,

a user recognizer for identifying the user of the mobile device on the basis of the sensor data,

an activity recognizer for identifying the physical activity on the basis of the sensor data, and

a control entity configured to modify or at least provide information enabling to modify the identified user'"'"'s configuration of an application logic, such as access and/or one or more other features relative to the application logic, based on the identity of the activity and optionally other activity information derived utilizing the sensor data, said application logic being either local or external relative to the electronic arrangement.

13. The arrangement of claim 12, wherein the user recognizer is configured to analyze the sensor data for identifying the user based on the sensor data using at least one analysis method or element selected from the group consisting of:

cross correlation, a number of Fourier coefficients, neural network, and structured pattern recognition.

14. The arrangement of claim 12, configured to determine the number of cycles of a cyclic physical activity during a predetermined time period represented by the sensor data.

15. The arrangement of claim 12, configured to determine the number of cycles of a cyclic physical activity during a predetermined time period represented by the sensor data, and further configured to utilize the determined number of cycles and an indication of the identified activity to establish an estimate of an overall energy consumption of the user relative to the period.

16. The arrangement of claim 12, configured to segment the sensor data based on the detection of cyclic physical activity and related cycles in the data.

17. The arrangement of claim 12, configured to provide activity information comprising at least one information element selected from the group consisting of:

the user'"'"'s or user group'"'"'s activity profile, activity rank, activity class, activity points, activity credits, energy consumption information, frequency information, duration information, numerical information, symbolic information, textual information, qualitative information, quantitative information, stressfulness information, training effect information, and intensity information.

18. The arrangement of claims 12, configured to modify the configuration via the control of at least one configuration element selected from the group consisting of:

a parental control feature, a game feature, an application content feature, a personal training feature, a training log, a locked feature, a reward feature, a punishment feature, a bonus feature, activation feature, deactivation feature, an instructive feature, and a communications feature.

19. A system comprising a mobile device and at least one electronic device external thereto, said system comprising

a sensor for obtaining data indicative of physical activity associated with a user,

a user recognizer for identifying the user on the basis of the sensor data obtained,

an activity recognizer for identifying the physical activity on the basis of the sensor data obtained, and

a control entity configured to modify or at least provide information enabling to modify the identified user'"'"'s configuration of an application logic based on the identity of the activity and optionally other activity information derived utilizing the sensor data.

20. A method for controlling the configuration, optionally access and/or one or more other features, of an application in an electronic device from the standpoint of a particular user, comprising

obtaining an indication of the identity of the user determined based on sensor data associated with physical activity by the user,

obtaining an indication of the physical activity identified based on the sensor data, and

modifying or at least providing information enabling to modify the identified user'"'"'s configuration of an application logic based on the identified activity and optionally other activity information derived utilizing the sensor data.

21. A computer program product in a computer readable storage medium for controlling the configuration of an application in an electronic device from the standpoint of a particular user, comprising program code for obtaining an indication of the identity of the user determined based on sensor data associated with physical activity by the user, for obtaining an indication of the physical activity identified based on the sensor data, and for modifying or at least providing information enabling to modify the identified user'"'"'s configuration of an application logic based on the identified activity and optionally other activity information derived utilizing the sensor data claims 20.

22. (canceled)