Athletic Watch

• US 20120274508A1
• Filed: 01/04/2012
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Inventors: Rice, Jordan M., Weast, Aaron B., Lakovic, Tomislav, Brown, Miles W., Capozzi, Matthew V., Hoffman, Michael T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,141,087 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.25
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/00 Electric or electronic controls for exercising apparatus of preceding groups; Controlling or monitoring of exercises, sportive games, training or athletic performances
• 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: A63B 71/06 Indicating or scoring devices for games or players , or for other sports activities
• CPC Class Codes: G04F 10/00 Apparatus for measuring unknown time intervals by electric means
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 17/04 Mounting of electronic components
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 17/06 Electric connectors, e.g. conductive elastomers
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 17/08 Housings
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/02 Detectors of external physical values, e.g. temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/025 for measuring physiological data
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/04 using radio waves radio-controlled time-pieces G04R
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/22 in connection with sports or games
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/24 Race time-recorders

Abstract

A device for monitoring athletic performance of a user has a wristband configured to be worn by the user. The electronic module may include a controller and a screen and a plurality of user inputs operably associated with the controller. The user inputs may include a user input configured to be applied by the user against the screen and in a direction generally normal to the screen. The controller may further be configured to generate one or more user interfaces in response to various user inputs and conditions. For example, the controller may generate workout mode interfaces and non-workout mode interfaces including various goal information, workout data, reminders and the like. In one or more arrangements, multiple types of information may be displayed simultaneously.

Claims

1. A device for monitoring athletic performance of a user, the device comprising:

a first sensor configured to detect movement of a user;

a second sensor configured to detect movement of the user; and

memory operatively coupled to a processor and storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the device to;

receive a first data set from the first sensor during performance of athletic activity by the user;

determine at least one metric of the performance based on the first data set;

determine a validity of a second data set received from the second sensor; and

in response to determining that the second data set is valid, calibrate the at least one metric using the second data set.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein calibrating the at least one metric using the second data set includes calibrating the first data set using the second data set.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the second sensor is a location-aware sensor.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein calibrating the at least one metric includes determining a calibration value for converting the at least one metric to a calibrated metric.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein determining the calibration value includes:

determining a first calibration value based on the second data set; and

determining a second calibration value for one or more previous data sets received from the second sensor; and

determining a cumulative calibration value based on the first and second calibration values.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein determining the validity of the second data set further includes determining a signal strength with which data in the second data set was acquired and comparing the signal strength with a threshold signal strength, wherein the second data set is determined to be invalid when a specified amount of data in the second data set was acquired with a signal strength below the threshold signal strength.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein determining a validity of the second data set includes determining an amount of data missing in the second data set, wherein the second data set is determined to be invalid when a threshold amount of data is missing from the second data set.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein determining a validity of a second data set received from the second sensor includes filtering out invalid data from the second data set.

9. A device comprising:

a sensor for detecting movement of a user;

a processor; and

memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the device to;

detect a connection of the device to a power source;

upon detecting the connection of the device to the power source, initiate an ephemeris acquisition process in which an ephemeris of location determination satellites is acquired; and

using the acquired ephemeris to detect a location of the user using the sensor.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the device is further caused to:

detect a subsequent connection of the device to another computing device;

receive a reset instruction from the other computing device; and

in response to the reset instruction, perform a reset process while maintaining the acquired ephemeris.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein the device is further caused to:

determine an expiration time of the acquired ephemeris; and

in response to determining that the expiration time has been reached, acquire an updated ephemeris.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the sensor for detecting movement of a user is a location determination sensor configured to receive signals from one or more satellites.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein the connection to the power source includes a connection to another computing device and wherein the ephemeris is generated by the other computing device.

14. The device of claim 9, wherein the ephemeris is generated based on satellite location information received from a plurality of athletic performance monitoring devices having a location aware sensor.

15. The device of claim 9, wherein the device is configured to be worn by the user and includes a connector for the connection to the power source.

16. A device comprising:

a location detection sensor;

a processor; and

memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the device to;

determine whether a predefined event has occurred prior to a user initiating recording of an athletic activity using the device; and

in response to determining that the predefined event has occurred, initiate a signal acquisition process of the location detection sensor at a specified amount of time prior to the user initiating the recording of the athletic activity, wherein prior to initiating the signal acquisition process, the location detection sensor is not acquiring location signals from one or more remote devices.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the predefined event includes a user selecting an athletic activity configuration mode on the device.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the user is required to enter the athletic activity configuration mode prior to initiating the recording of the athletic activity.

19. The device of claim 16, wherein the predefined event includes a specified time of day.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the specified time of day is learned by the device based on a frequency of user behavior with the device.

21. The device of claim 16, wherein the device is further caused to:

determine whether a threshold amount of time has expired since initiating the signal acquisition process;

determine whether the user has initiated the recording of the athletic activity; and

in response to determining that the threshold amount of time has expired and that the user has not initiated recording of the athletic activity, deactivating the signal acquisition process.

22. The device of claim 16, wherein the predefined event includes a threshold amount of motion detected by the device.

23. The device of claim 16, wherein the device is further caused to:

receive sensor data from the location detection sensor;

determine at least one of a firmware version, a software version and a hardware version of the device; and

determine whether to provide the received sensor data for processing based on the determined at least one of the firmware version, the software version and the hardware version of the device.

24. The device of claim 23, wherein the device is further caused to:

select a processing server based on the determined at least one of the firmware version, the software version and the hardware version of the device in response to determining to provide the received sensor data for processing; and

transmit the received sensor data to the selected processing server.

25. The device of claim 16, wherein the device further includes another sensor and wherein the device is further caused to:

receive a first data set from the location detection sensor;

receive a second data set from the other sensor;

receive a request to display a value for at least one metric, wherein the value is associated with at least one of an amount of athletic activity performance time and an amount of athletic activity performance distance; and

generate the value for the at least one metric for display using the first data set when the at least one of the amount of athletic activity performance time and the amount of athletic activity performance distance is above a specified threshold; and

generate the value for the at least one metric for display using the second data set when the at least one of the amount of athletic activity performance time and the amount of athletic activity performance distance is equal to or below the specified threshold.

26. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause an apparatus to:

receive a first data set from a user-borne sensor during performance of athletic activity by a user;

receive a second data set from a location-aware sensor during the performance of the athletic activity, wherein the second data set includes geographic location information and wherein the first and second data sets correspond to a same time period during the performance of the athletic activity;

determine at least one metric of the performance based on the first data set;

determine a validity of a second data set received from the second sensor including filtering out invalid data from the second data set; and

in response to determining that the second data set is valid, calibrate the user-borne sensor using the second data set including modifying the determined at least one metric according to the second data set.

27. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein determining the validity of the second data set includes comparing geographic location data of the second data set to geographic location data of a predefined activity route.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the predefined activity route is stored in the apparatus.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the predefined activity route is stored in a device separate from the apparatus and wherein the apparatus is further caused to retrieve the predefined activity route from the separate device.

30. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause an apparatus to:

receiving a user instruction to initiate an athletic performance recording session for recording an athletic performance;

providing a list of multiple sensors for detecting performance metrics of the athletic performance;

receiving user configuration of at least one of the multiple sensors, the user configuration indicating whether the at least one of the multiple sensors is to be used during the athletic performance;

activating a sensor initiation process with each of a plurality sensors configured to be used during the athletic performance; and

in response to determining that the sensor initiation process is successful with at least one of the plurality of sensors configured to be used during the athletic performance, providing an athletic performance recording start option,

wherein prior to the link being established with the at least one of the plurality of sensors, the athletic performance recording start option is not provided to the user.

31. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 30, wherein the sensor initiation process includes establishing data communications with a corresponding sensor.

32. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 30, wherein the sensor initiation process includes insuring that consistent data is received from the corresponding sensor for a specified amount of time.