WRIST COMPUTER WIRELESS COMMUNICATION AND EVENT DETECTION

• US 20150256689A1
• Filed: 03/05/2014
• Published: 09/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Polar Electro Oy
• Original Assignee: Polar Electro Oy
• Inventors: Erkkila, Mika, Granqvist, Niclas
• Granted Patent: US 9,374,477 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/10 Athletes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• 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: 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: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/30 on the same track as the main recording
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3027 used signal is digitally coded
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2129 Recording in, or reproducing from, a specific memory area or areas, or recording or reproducing at a specific moment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0096 Portable devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8045 using predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A system includes a wrist computer and a portable video camera. The wrist computer acquires physical activity data measured by a sensor device, generates a time marker on the basis of the physical activity data, and transmits the time marker to the portable video camera according to a predefined wireless communication protocol. The portable video camera is configured to record video data, encode the video data into a video data file, and store the received time marker as meta data in the video file.

Claims

1. A wrist computer comprising:

a bi-directional wireless communication interface configured to communicate wirelessly with a portable video camera according to a predefined communication protocol; and

a processor configured to acquire physical activity data measured by a sensor device, to generate a time marker on the basis of the physical activity data, and to cause the bi-directional wireless interface to transmit the time marker to the portable video camera according to the predefined communication protocol.

2. The wrist computer of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to process the acquired physical activity data into performance metrics data and to cause the bi-directional wireless communication interface to communicate the performance metrics data to the portable video camera according to the predefined communication protocol.

3. The wrist computer of claim 2, wherein the performance metrics data is associated with timing indicated by the time marker.

4. The wrist computer of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to identify a performance event from the physical activity data and to generate, when the performance event has been identified, the time marker indicating timing of the identified performance event.

5. The wrist computer of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to record physical activity data for a performance period of a physical performance, wherein the performance period spans over at least a plurality of seconds, to apply post-processing to the recorded physical activity data after the performance period has ended, and to acquire the time marker as a result of said post-processing, wherein the time marker indicates a timing within the performance period.

6. The wrist computer of claim 1, wherein the bi-directional wireless interface is configured to communicate the time marker to a plurality of portable video cameras simultaneously according to the predefined communication protocol.

7. The wrist computer of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to generate, on the basis of the physical activity data, a start command triggering start of video recording and to cause the bi-directional wireless communication interface to communicate the start command to at least one portable video camera according to the predefined communication protocol.

8. The wrist computer of claim 1, further comprising a graphical interface, and wherein the processor is configured to automatically retrieve graphical content associated with the time marker from the portable video camera within a predefined time period through the bi-directional wireless communication interface and, upon retrieving the graphical content, to cause the graphical interface to display the graphical content.

9. The wrist computer of claim 1, wherein the bi-directional wireless interface is configured to receive camera location data from at least one portable video camera according to the predefined communication protocol, and wherein the processor is configured to determine location of the wrist computer, to compare the location of the wrist computer with the camera location data, and to generate the time marker when the comparison exceeds a predefined threshold.

10. The wrist computer of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to retrieve user information from a memory and to cause the bi-directional wireless communication interface to transmit the user information to the at least one portable video camera according to the predefined communication protocol.

11. The wrist computer of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to synchronize its clock with a clock of the portable video camera through the bi-directional wireless communication interface, thereby obtaining a common time reference for the time marker.

12. A portable video camera comprising:

a camera device configured to capture video data;

an encoder configured to encode the captured video data into a video data file;

a bi-directional wireless communication interface configured to communicate wirelessly with a wrist computer according to a predefined communication protocol; and

a processor configured to acquire a time marker from the wrist computer through the bi-directional wireless interface, and to store the acquired time marker as meta data in the video data file.

13. The portable video camera of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire from the wrist computer performance metrics data associated with the time marker and to store the performance metrics data as the meta data in the video data file.

14. The portable video camera of claim 13, wherein the performance metrics data is associated with timing indicated by the time marker.

15. The portable video camera of claim 12, wherein the processor acquire, through the bi-directional wireless communication interface, a start command and to cause the camera device to start video data capturing in response to the start command.

16. The portable video camera of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to receive, through the bi-directional wireless communication interface a request for transfer of graphical content associated with the time marker, to retrieve graphical content associated with the time marker from the video data file, and to cause the bi-directional wireless communication interface to transmit the retrieved graphical content to the wrist computer for display.

17. The portable video camera of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to acquire, through the bi-directional wireless communication interface user information from the wrist computer and to store the acquired user information as the meta data in the video data file.

18. The portable video camera of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to synchronize its clock with a clock of the wrist computer through the bi-directional wireless communication interface, thereby obtaining a common time reference for the time marker.

19. A system comprising:

a wrist computer comprising a bi-directional wireless communication interface configured to communicate wirelessly with a portable video camera according to a predefined communication protocol; and

a processor configured to acquire physical activity data measured by a sensor device, to generate a time marker on the basis of the physical activity data, and to cause the bi-directional wireless interface to transmit the time marker to the portable video camera according to the predefined communication protocol,

said portable video camera comprising;

a camera device configured to capture video data;

an encoder configured to encode the captured video data into a video data file;

a bi-directional wireless communication interface configured to communicate wirelessly with the wrist computer according to the predefined communication protocol; and

a processor configured to acquire a time marker from the wrist computer through the bi-directional wireless interface, and to store the acquired time marker as meta data in the video data file.

20. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory distribution medium readable by a computer and comprising program instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, perform a computer process comprising:

acquiring physical activity data measured by a sensor device;

generating a time marker on the basis of the physical activity data; and

causing a bi-directional wireless interface of the apparatus to transmit the time marker to a portable video camera according to a predefined communication protocol.