Fitness Activity Related Messaging

• US 20140337450A1
• Filed: 07/28/2014
• Published: 11/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Choudhary, Nichiketa, Roberts, Timothy, Knight, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,344,546 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0214 of power generation or supply
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0242 adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• 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 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/22 Ergometry; Measuring muscular strength or the force of a muscular blow exercising apparatus A63B21/00 ; measuring of work or force in general G01L
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/222 combined with detection or measurement of physiological parameters, e.g. heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4809 Sleep detection, i.e. determining whether a subject is asleep or not
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4812 Detecting sleep stages or cycles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6838 Clamps or clips
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• 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: G01C 22/006 : Pedometers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/00 : Digital computers in general details G06F1/00 – G06F13/00; Data processing equipment in general
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 : using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 : Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 : Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 : Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 : Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 3/10 : using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/36 : using visible light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 6/00 : Tactile signalling systems, e.g. personal calling systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 : relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 : ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 : Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 : User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 : Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 : for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 : Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 : User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for generating a message to a friend of a user is provided, comprising: processing activity data of a first user measured by an activity monitoring device to update a value of an activity metric for the first user; identifying a change in an inequality relationship between the value of the activity metric for the first user and a value of the activity metric for a second user; in response to identifying the change in the inequality relationship, prompting the first user to generate a message to the second user.

Claims

1. A method for generating a message to a friend of a user, comprising:

processing activity data of a first user measured by an activity monitoring device to update a value of an activity metric for the first user;

identifying a change in an inequality relationship between the value of the activity metric for the first user and a value of the activity metric for a second user;

in response to identifying the change in the inequality relationship, prompting the first user to generate a message to the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the inequality relationship is defined by the value of the activity metric for the first user changing, from being less than the value of the activity metric for the second user, to being greater than the value of the activity metric for the second user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the inequality relationship is defined by the value of the activity metric for the first user changing, from being greater than the value of the activity metric for the second user, to being less than the value of the activity metric for the second user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the inequality relationship between the value of the activity metric for the first user and the value of the activity metric for the second user defines a relative ranking of the first user and the second user on a competitive leaderboard for the activity metric.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the change in the inequality relationship defines a change in the relative ranking of the first user and the second user on the competitive leaderboard for the activity metric.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein prompting the user to generate a message includes identifying the change in the relative ranking of the first user and the second user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein prompting the first user to generate a message to the second user includes triggering a notification to the first user, the notification providing access to an interface configured to receive input from the first user to define content of the message to the second user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the notification is a push notification to a mobile device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the interface provides at least one option to send a predefined message to the second user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity metric is defined by one or more of the following:

stepcount, elevation climbed, distance traveled, active amount of time.

11. A method for providing a competitive leaderboard, comprising:

receiving a request to display a messaging thread, the messaging thread defined by one or more messages between members of the messaging thread;

in response to the request, presenting the messaging thread;

for each of the members, retrieving a value of an activity metric;

determining a ranked order for the members based on each member'"'"'s respective value of the activity metric;

presenting a leaderboard in conjunction with the messaging thread, the leaderboard defined to display each member'"'"'s value of the activity metric according to the ranked order;

wherein the method is executed by at least one processor.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the value for the activity metric for a given member is processed from activity data captured by an activity monitoring device associated with the given member.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving the request to display the messaging thread is defined by access activity associated with an inbox defined for a member of the messaging thread.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining whether each of the members of the messaging thread are linked to each other on a social network, and if so, then performing the operation of presenting the leaderboard, and if not, then not performing the operation of presenting the leaderboard.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the activity metric is selected from a quantity of steps taken, a quantity of floors climbed, or a quantity of calories burned.

16. A method for generating a competitive group, comprising:

determining a number of messages in a message thread;

when the number of messages in the message thread reaches a predefined threshold, providing an option to a first member of the message thread to generate a competitive group for members of the message thread;

in response to activation of the option by the first member, sending invitations to remaining members of the message thread to join the competitive group;

receiving responses to the sent invitations;

generating the competitive group, the competitive group defined to include the first member and, each of the remaining members of the message thread that provides a positive response to the invitation;

wherein membership in the competitive group provides access to a value of an activity metric for each of the members of the competitive group.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the value for the activity metric for a member of the competitive group is processed from activity data captured by an activity monitoring device associated with the member.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein activation of the option includes identifying the activity metric for which membership in the competitive group provides access.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the activity metric is selected from a quantity of steps taken, a quantity of floors climbed, or a quantity of calories burned.

20. A method for forming a competitive group, comprising:

determining a quantity of messaging from a first user to one or more second users;

when the quantity of messaging exceeds a predefined threshold, then providing an option to the first user to create a competitive group inclusive of the first user and the one or more second users;

wherein membership in the competitive group provides access to values of an activity metric for each of the members of the competitive group.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the quantity of messaging is defined by a number of messages sent from the first user to the one or more second users.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the quantity of messaging is defined by a frequency of messages sent from the first user to the one or more second users.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

in response to activation of the option to create the competitive group, sending invitations to each of the one or more second users to join the competitive group;

receiving responses to the invitations;

generating the competitive group based on the responses to the invitations.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein membership in the competitive group provides access to a group leaderboard, the group leaderboard configured to present a ranked order of the members of the group according to the values of the activity metric for each of the members of the competitive group.