EXERCISE USAGE MONITORING SYSTEM

• US 20150382325A1
• Filed: 09/08/2015
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ecofit Networks Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ecofit Networks Inc.
• Inventors: Johnson, David, Rankine, Philip, McGuire, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 9,844,032 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/00 Electric signal transmission systems G08C17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/47 using RFID associated with sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/75 by polling or interrogating the sub-stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/86 Performing a diagnostic of the sensing device
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments relate to real time monitoring of usage of multiple pieces of exercise equipment and providing exercise based metric data based thereon to devices for aggregation, display or other processing thereof. In particular, the disclosed embodiments facilitate collection of exercise based metric data from various pieces of exercise equipment, such as stationary bikes, treadmills, and the like, in real time, i.e. as the equipment is utilized by an exercising user, combine the collected data in a form suitable for use by various interested devices and broadcast or otherwise disseminate the combined data to the various devices wherein the various devices may access the broadcasted combined data to access the usage metric data from any one or more of the pieces of exercise equipment from which it was collected for subsequent aggregation, display and/or further processing.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining, from a sensor node, a set of metric data comprising a plurality of data elements collected thereby, the method comprising:

transmitting, by a processor of a base station wirelessly via a first radio thereof, a data request, capable of being received by the sensor node, for the set of metric data, the data request identifying the sensor node and further identifying a subset of a set of channels and a sequence by which the sensor node is to switch therebetween;

receiving, by the sensor node, the data request;

transmitting, by the sensor node responsive to the received data request, a response comprising at least a portion of the plurality of data elements over a first channel of the subset of channels according to the sequence and, subsequently, moving to another channel of the subset of channels according to the sequence and listening for a subsequent data request for a first defined period of time, and after the first defined period of time has elapsed without receipt of the subsequent data request, continuing to listen, according to the sequence, on each other channel of the subset of channels for the first defined period of time, until the subsequent data request is received or until the subset of channels has been exhausted;

listening, by the base station, for a response from the sensor node over the first channel, for the first defined period of time or until the response is received;

wherein when the response is received by the base station, moving, by the base station, to the another channel according to the sequence and transmitting the subsequent data request;

wherein when the response is not received by the base station over any of the subset of channels, transmitting, by the processor wirelessly via a second radio of the base station, a sync request capable of being received by the sensor node over a set of base channels, the sync request identifying the sensor node and a defined channel of the subset of channels for the sensor node to listen for the data request from the first radio;

wherein when the subset of channels has been exhausted without the sensor node having received the subsequent data request, listening, by the sensor node, for the sync request on each of the set of base channels for a second defined period of time until the sensor node receives the sync request;

wherein when the sensor node receives the sync request, moving, by the sensor node, to the defined channel and listening on the defined channel for a third defined period of time for the data request; and

wherein when the third defined period of time expires without receipt by the sensor node of the data request on the defined channel, moving, by the sensor node to the set of base channels and listening for the sync request on each of the set of base channels for the second defined period of time until the sensor node receives the sync request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor node captures the metric data from a piece of exercise equipment in real-time or substantially real-time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data request is repeatedly transmitted over a defined time interval.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when the sensor node receives the data request that does not identify the sensor node, the sensor nodes ignores the data request.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising addressably combining, by the processor, the received metric data from the sensor node;

and broadcasting, by the processor, the addressably combined received metric data over a network.

6. A method for obtaining, from a sensor node, a set of metric data comprising a plurality of data elements collected thereby, the method comprising:

transmitting, by a processor of a base station wirelessly via a first radio thereof, a data request capable of being received by the sensor node, for the set of metric data, the data request identifying the sensor node and further identifying a subset of a set of channels and a sequence by which the sensor node is to switch therebetween;

listening, by the base station, for a response from the sensor node over a first channel, for a first defined period of time or until the response is received;

wherein when the response is received by the base station, moving, by the base station, to another channel according to the sequence and transmitting a subsequent data request;

wherein when the response is not received over any of the subset of channels, transmitting, by the processor wirelessly via a second radio of the base station, a sync request capable of being received by the sensor node over a set of base channels, the sync request identifying the sensor node and a defined channel of the subset of channels for the sensor node to listen for the data request from the first radio.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first data request is repeatedly transmitted over a defined time interval.

8. A method for transmitting, by a sensor node, a set of metric data comprising a plurality of data elements collected thereby, the method comprising:

receiving, by the sensor node, a data request to transmit the set of metric data, the data request identifying the sensor node and further identifying a subset of a set of channels and a sequence by which the sensor node is to switch therebetween;

transmitting, by the sensor node responsive to the received data request, a response comprising at least a portion of the plurality of data elements over a first channel of the subset of channels according to the sequence and, subsequently, moving to another channel of the subset of channels according to the sequence and listening for a subsequent data request for a first defined period of time, and after the first defined period of time has elapsed without receipt of the subsequent data request, continuing to listen, according to the sequence, on each other channel of the subset of channels for the first defined period of time, until the subsequent data request is received or until the subset of channels has been exhausted;

wherein when the subset of channels has been exhausted without the sensor node having received the subsequent data request, listening, by the sensor node, for a sync request on each of a set of base channels for a second defined period of time until the sensor node receives the sync request;

wherein when the sensor node receives the sync request, moving, by the sensor node, to a defined channel and listening on the defined channel for a third defined period of time for the data request to transmit the plurality of data elements; and

wherein when the third defined period of time expires without receipt by the sensor node of the data request on the defined channel, moving, by the sensor node to the set of base channels and listening for the sync request on each of the set of base channels for the second defined period of time until the sensor node receives the sync request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the sensor node captures the metric data from a piece of exercise equipment in real-time or substantially real-time.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein when the sensor node receives a metric data request that does not identify the sensor node, the sensor nodes ignores the data request.

11. A system for obtaining, from a sensor node, a set of metric data comprising a plurality of data elements collected thereby, the system comprising:

at least one sensor node;

the sensor node including a transmitter and a receiver;

the transmitter operative to transmit a response comprising the plurality of data elements over a first channel of the subset of channels according to the sequence; and

the receiver operative to listen for a data request identifying the sensor node and further identifying a subset of a set of channels and a sequence by which the sensor node is to switch therebetween, wherein the receiver is further operative to subsequently move to another channel of the subset of channels according to the sequence and listen for a subsequent data request for a first defined period of time, and after the first defined period of time has elapsed without receipt of the subsequent data request, continue to listen, according to the sequence, on each other channel of the subset of channels for the first defined period of time, until the subsequent data request is received or until the subset of channels has been exhausted;

the receiver being further operative to, when the subset of channels has been exhausted, listen for a sync request for a second defined period of time on each of a set of base channels, wherein the sync request identifies the sensor node and a defined channel of the subset of channels for the sensor node to listen for the data request from the first radio, and listen on the defined channel of the subset of channels for a third defined period of time for the data request to transmit the plurality of data elements; and

a base station including a processor, a first radio and a second radio, the first radio being operative to transmit wirelessly by the processor, the data request capable of being received by the at least one sensor node, ;

the base station being further operative to listen for a response from the at least one sensor node over the first channel for the first defined period of time or until the response is received, and when the response is received by the base station, move, by the base station, to another channel according to the sequence and transmit the subsequent data request, and when the response is not received over any of the channels, transmit, wirelessly via a second radio of the base station, a sync request capable of being received by the sensor node over a set of base channels, the sync request identifying the sensor node and a defined channel of the subset of channels for the sensor node to listen for the data request from the first radio.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the at least one sensor node are operative to collect more than one set of metric data.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the at least one sensor node are capable of capturing the metric data from a piece of exercise equipment in real-time or substantially real-time.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first radio is operative to repeatedly transmit over a defined time interval.

15. A base station for obtaining a set of metric data from a set of sensor nodes, the base station comprising:

a processor, a first radio and a second radio;

the processor being operative to transmit wirelessly via the first radio, a data request capable of being received by at least one of the set of sensor nodes, for the metric data, whereby the data request identifies the at least one sensor node and further identifies a subset of a set of channels and a sequence by which the sensor node is to switch therebetween;

the processor being further operative to listen, via the first radio, for a response from the at least one sensor node over a first channel, for a first defined period of time or until the response is received, wherein when the response is received, move by the processor, to another channel on the first radio according to the sequence and transmit the subsequent data request when the response is not received over any of the channels, transmit, by the processor wirelessly via the second radio, a sync request capable of being received by the sensor node over a set of base channels, the sync request identifying the sensor node and a defined channel of the subset of channels for the sensor node to listen for the data request from the first radio.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first radio is operative to repeatedly transmit over a defined time interval.

17. A sensor node for transmitting a set of metric data comprising a plurality of data elements, the sensor node comprising:

a receiver operative to listen for a data request, wherein the data request identifies the sensor node and further identifies a subset of a set of channels and a sequence by which the sensor node is to switch therebetween, the receiver being further operative to subsequently move to another channel of the subset of channels according to the sequence and listen for a subsequent data request for a first defined period of time, and after the first defined period of time has elapsed without receipt of the subsequent data request, continue to listen, according to the sequence, on each other channel of the subset of channels for the first defined period of time, until the subsequent data request is received or until the subset of channels has been exhausted, the receiver further operative to listen for a sync request for a second defined period of time on each of a set of base channels, wherein the sync request identifies the sensor node and a defined channel of the subset of channels for the sensor node to listen for the data request, and listen on the defined channel of the subset of channels for a third defined period of time for the data request, to transmit the plurality of data elements; and

a transmitter operative to transmit a response comprising the plurality of data elements over a first channel of the subset of channels according to the sequence.

18. The sensor node of claim 17, wherein the sensor node is operative to collect more than one set of metric data.

19. The sensor node of claim 17, wherein the sensor node is capable of capturing the metric data from a piece of exercise equipment in real-time or substantially real-time.

20. The sensor node of claim 17, wherein the sensor node captures the metric data from a piece of exercise equipment in real-time or substantially real-time.