Chest strap having human activity monitoring device

• US 7,753,861 B1
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Kahn, Philippe, Christensen, Mark Andrew, Vogel, David, Kinsolving, Arthur, Lee, Brian Y
• Primary Examiner(s): Hindenburg, Max
• Assistant Examiner(s): DOUGHERTY, SEAN PATRICK
• Application Number:
  US11/732,949
• Time in Patent Office: 1,196 Days
• Field of Search: 482/8, 600300-301, 600/508, 600/587, 600/595
• US Class Current: 600/595
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• 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 5/6831 Straps, bands or harnesses

Abstract

A method for monitoring human activity using an inertial sensor includes monitoring accelerations from an inertial sensor disposed in a chest strap. The accelerations are processed to determine one or more acceleration statistics. The acceleration statistics are formatted to a generic format understandable by a plurality of devices. The formatted acceleration statistics are then transmitted.

Claims

1. A machine-accessible medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

monitoring accelerations from an inertial sensor disposed in a chest strap, the inertial sensor having a plurality of axes;

processing the accelerations to determine one or more user activity statistics, the processing comprising;

creating a rolling average of accelerations for each of the plurality of axes;

comparing a value of the rolling average of accelerations for a first axis to values of the rolling averages of accelerations for one or more additional axes of the plurality of axes; and

assigning a dominant axis based upon relative values of the rolling averages of accelerations;

formatting the user activity statistics to a generic format understandable by a plurality of devices; and

transmitting the generically formatted user activity statistics from the chest strap to an electronic device.

2. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, the method further comprising:

monitoring one or more additional metrics from one or more additional sensors; and

correlating the additional metrics to the one or more user activity statistics.

3. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein the user activity statistics include at least one of a breathing rate, a current user activity, a count of periodic human motions for the current user activity, a total distance traveled, vertical distance traveled, a current speed, an average speed, calories burned, heart rate, and a user orientation to gravity.

4. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein the formatted user activity statistics are transmitted wirelessly.

5. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein the generic format is an XML format.

6. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, the method further comprising:

providing user feedback based on the user activity statistics, the user feedback including at least one of aural, visual and tactile feedback.

7. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein the user feedback includes at least one of an indication to speed up and an indication to slow down.

8. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein processing accelerations includes determining information regarding a user'"'"'s gait, the information including at least a comparison between right foot and left foot activity.

9. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining whether the chest strap has been properly positioned on a user'"'"'s body based at least in part on the dominant axis.

10. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein another of the user activity statistics is a periodic human motion count that is determined using only accelerations along the dominant axis.

11. The machine-accessible medium of claim 1, wherein the chest strap is to be positioned on a user'"'"'s body such that the inertial sensor is located approximately along an axis of symmetry of the user'"'"'s body, the method further comprising:

differentiating between first accelerations caused by motions from a right half of the user'"'"'s body and second accelerations caused by motions from a left half of the user'"'"'s body.

12. An inertial sensor based device, comprising:

a chest strap;

an inertial sensor disposed in the chest strap to monitor accelerations along a plurality of axes;

a processor disposed in the chest strap and coupled to the inertial sensor to process the accelerations to determine one or more user activity statistics, the processing comprising;

creating a rolling average of accelerations for each of the plurality of axes;

comparing a value of the rolling average of accelerations for a first axis to values of the rolling averages of accelerations for one or more additional axes of the plurality of axes; and

assigning a dominant axis based upon relative values of the rolling averages of accelerations;

the processor further to format the user activity statistics to a generic format understandable by a plurality of devices; and

a transmitter disposed in the chest strap to transmit the generically formatted user activity statistics from the chest strap to an electronic device.

13. The inertial sensor based device of claim 12, further comprising:

a memory to store at least one of the accelerations and the user activity statistics.

14. The inertial sensor based device of claim 12, further comprising:

one or more feedback elements, each of the one or more feedback elements to provide at least one of aural, visual and tactile feedback.

15. The inertial sensor based device of claim 12, further comprising:

one or more additional sensors to provide one or more additional metrics to correlate to the one or more user activity statistics.

16. The inertial sensor based device of claim 12, wherein the user activity statistics include at least one of a breathing rate, a current user activity, a count of periodic human motions for the current user activity, a total distance traveled, vertical distance traveled, a current speed, an average speed, calories burned, heart rate, and a user orientation to gravity.

17. The inertial sensor based device of claim 12, wherein the transmitter is a wireless transmitter.

18. The inertial sensor based device of claim 12, wherein the generic format is an XML format.

19. The inertial sensor based device of claim 12, wherein the chest strap is configured to be positioned on a user'"'"'s body such that the inertial sensor is approximately located along an axis of symmetry on a user'"'"'s body, the inertial sensor based device further comprising:

where the processor differentiates between first accelerations caused by motions from a right half of the user'"'"'s body and second accelerations caused by motions from a left half of the user'"'"'s body.

20. An inertial sensor based device, comprising:

a chest strap;

an inertial sensor disposed in the chest strap to monitor accelerations along a plurality of axes; and

a processor disposed in the chest strap and coupled to the inertial sensor to process the accelerations to determine one or more user activity statistics, the processing comprising;

creating a rolling average of accelerations for each of the plurality of axes;

comparing a value of the rolling average of accelerations for a first axis values of the rolling averages of accelerations for one or more additional axes of the plurality of axes; and

assigning a dominant axis based upon relative values of the rolling averages of accelerations.