PORTABLE BIOMETRIC MONITORING DEVICES HAVING LOCATION SENSORS

• US 20140292565A1
• Filed: 04/29/2014
• Published: 10/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Park, James, Panther, Heiko Gernot Albert, Yuen, Shelten Gee Jao
• Granted Patent: US 9,035,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.2
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/05 providing aiding data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/09 providing processing capability normally carried out by the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/19 Sporting applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/258 relating to the satellite constellation, e.g. almanac, ephemeris data, lists of satellites in view
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/27 creating, predicting or correcting ephemeris or almanac data within the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18513 Transmission in a satellite or space-based system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Assisted-GPS for a portable biometric monitoring device is provided. The portable biometric monitoring device may obtain updated ephemeris data from an associated secondary device via a short-range, low-power communication protocol. The secondary device may be a computing device such as a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Various rules may control when the ephemeris data is updated. The ephemeris data may be used in the calculation of the global position of the portable biometric monitoring device. Additionally, the portable biometric monitoring device may communicate downloaded position fixing data to the associated secondary device. The associated secondary device may then calculate the global position from the position fixing data.

Claims

1. A method of determining a global position of a worn biometric monitoring device, the method comprising:

(a) repeatedly and automatically syncing the worn biometric monitoring device with a secondary device associated with the worn biometric monitoring device, wherein the syncing comprises providing the worn biometric monitoring device with current ephemeris data from the secondary device using a wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(b) determining that a global position of the worn biometric monitoring device should be calculated; and

(c) calculating the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device using the ephemeris data obtained in (a), wherein at least some of the syncing is conducted when the worn biometric monitoring device is not determining the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each syncing comprises:

(i) determining an elapsed time from when the ephemeris data was last updated;

(ii) comparing the elapsed time with a sync time threshold;

(iii) determining that the elapsed time exceeds the sync time threshold; and

(iv) obtaining updated ephemeris data from the secondary device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the sync time threshold is between about every 5 minutes to about every 6 hours.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the worn biometric monitoring device is regularly synced with the secondary device according to a schedule.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the schedule is a time schedule according to a time of day.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining the schedule by monitoring a pattern of interaction of a user with the biometric monitoring device.

8. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

(d) determining, before (a), that the worn biometric monitoring device is associated with the secondary device.

9. A wearable biometric monitoring device, the wearable biometric monitoring device comprising:

communication circuitry, the communication circuitry configured to receive ephemeris data from a secondary device associated with the wearable biometric monitoring device via a wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol and output the ephemeris data to a controller; and

the controller comprising one or more processors and a memory, wherein the one or more processors, the memory, and the communication circuitry, are communicatively connected and the memory is configured to store ephemeris data and program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to;

(a) repeatedly and automatically sync the wearable biometric monitoring device with the secondary device, wherein the sync comprises obtaining current ephemeris data from the secondary device,

(b) determine that a global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device should be calculated, and

(c) calculate the global position using the current ephemeris data obtained in (a), wherein at least some of the syncing is conducted when the wearable biometric monitoring device is not determining the global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device.

10. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 9, wherein the program instructions for (a) comprise instructions for:

(i) determining an elapsed time from when the ephemeris data was last updated;

(ii) comparing the elapsed time with a sync time threshold;

(iii) determining that the elapsed time exceeds the sync time threshold; and

(iv) obtaining updated ephemeris data from the secondary device.

11. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 10, wherein the sync time threshold is between about every 5 minutes to about every 6 hours.

12. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 9, wherein the program instructions for (a) comprise instructions for regularly syncing with the secondary device according to a schedule.

13. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 12, wherein the schedule is a time schedule according to a time of day.

14. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 12, further comprising program instructions for determining the schedule by monitoring a pattern of interaction of a user with the biometric monitoring device.

15. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 9, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to:

(d) determine, before (a), that the worn biometric monitoring device is associated with the secondary device.

16. A method of determining a global position of a worn biometric monitoring device, the method comprising:

(a) obtaining position fixing data by interacting with one or more navigation satellites; and

(b) providing the position fixing data to an associated secondary device via a wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(c) receiving the global position from the secondary device.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the worn biometric monitoring device comprises a navigation data receiver.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the worn biometric monitoring device comprises a navigation data receiver and wherein interacting with the one or more navigation satellites comprises receiving the position fixing data from the one or more navigation satellites via the navigation data receiver using wireless communication.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(c) storing the position fixing data in a memory after (a) and before (b).

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(c) determining, before (a), that the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device should be calculated.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the short-range, low-power communication protocol consists of protocols selected from the group consisting of Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), ANT, near field communication (NFC), ZigBee, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, Infrared Data Association (IrDA) protocols, and standards related to any of the foregoing.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising (c) displaying a graphical representation of the global position on the associated secondary device.

24. The method of claim 16, further comprising (c) communicating the global position from the associated secondary device to a tertiary device.

25. A system comprising a wearable biometric monitoring device, the wearable biometric monitoring device comprising:

communication circuitry, the communication circuitry configured to output data to a secondary device associated with the wearable biometric monitoring device via a wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol and receive a global position from the secondary device;

a navigation data receiver, the navigation data receiver configured to receive the position fixing data from a navigation satellite and output the position fixing data to a controller; and

the controller comprising one or more processors and a memory, wherein the one or more processors, the memory, the communication circuitry, and the navigation data receiver are communicatively connected and the memory is configured to store program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to;

(a) obtain the position fixing data from the navigation satellite,

(b) provide the position fixing data to the associated secondary device via the communication circuitry so that the secondary device can calculate a global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device, and

(c) receive the global position from the secondary device.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to store the position fixing data in the memory after (a) and before (b).

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to determine, before (a), that the global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device should be calculated.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the short-range, low-power communication protocol consists of protocols selected from the group consisting of Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), ANT, near field communication (NFC), ZigBee, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, Infrared Data Association (IrDA) protocols, and standards related to any of the foregoing.

29. The system of claim 25, further comprising the secondary device, wherein the secondary device comprises:

a user interface, configured to communicate information to a user; and

a secondary device controller comprising one or more secondary device processors and a secondary device memory, wherein;

the one or more secondary device processors and the secondary device memory are communicatively connected, and

the memory and the secondary device memory store, in the aggregate, program instructions for controlling the one or more processors or the one or more secondary device processors to cause the global position to be communicated via the user interface.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the secondary device memory store program instructions for controlling the one or more secondary device processors to communicate the global position from the secondary device to a tertiary device.