Human activity monitoring device with activity identification

• US 8,949,070 B1
• Filed: 02/08/2008
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Christensen, Mark Andrew, Lee, Brian Y., Vogel, David, Kahn, Philippe Richard, Kinsolving, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Hyun
• Application Number:
  US12/069,267
• Time in Patent Office: 2,552 Days
• Field of Search: 702/141, 702/145, 702/142, 702/149, 702/155, 702/158, 702/160, 702/189, 702/190, 73488-493
• US Class Current: 702/160
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/40 Acceleration
• 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: A63B 71/06 Indicating or scoring devices for games or players , or for other sports activities
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 Pedometers

Abstract

A method or apparatus for monitoring human activity using an inertial sensor is described. The method includes monitoring accelerations, and identifying a current user activity from a plurality of user activities based on the accelerations. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of user activities is associated with one of a plurality of types of periodic human motions that are detectable by the portable electronic device, and wherein the identification of the current user activity is made based on detecting two or more instances of the periodic human motion associated with the user activity. The method further includes counting periodic human motions appropriate to the current user activity.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring human activity using an inertial sensor, comprising:

monitoring accelerations by a portable electronic device that includes the inertial sensor;

identifying a current user activity from a plurality of potential user activities based on the accelerations, wherein each of the plurality of potential user activities is associated with one of a plurality of types of periodic human motions that are detectable by the portable electronic device, the identifying comprising;

comparing the accelerations to a plurality of motion criteria sets, each of the motion criteria sets being associated with a particular user activity;

incrementing a plurality of buffers, each of the buffers associated with one of the plurality of potential user activities, when the motion criteria associated with the buffer are satisfied, wherein each buffer stores a periodic motion count for an associated user activity, such that a single periodic movement increments a plurality of buffers;

and identifying the potential user activity whose buffer has reached a threshold value as the current user activity;

resetting the buffers associated with activities other than the current user activity, such that the periodic human motions are only counted in one buffer associated with the current user activity;

counting the periodic human motions associated with the current user activity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user activities comprise one or more of the following:

walking, inline skating, bicycling, exercising on an elliptical machine, exercising on a rowing machine, and cross country skiing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring accelerations comprises monitoring accelerations relative to a dominant axis.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

continuously determining an orientation of the inertial sensor;

assigning the dominant axis; and

updating the dominant axis as the orientation of the inertial sensor changes.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining separate data for each of the plurality of user activities.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the motion criteria sets include a positive criterion that must be met to identify the associated user activity and a negative criterion that must not be met to identify the associated user activity.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one of the motion criteria sets further includes a cadence window within which the positive criterion must be met and the negative criterion must not be met to identify the associated user activity, the method further comprising:

for each user activity, resetting the associated buffer when the negative criterion is met within the cadence window.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a single set of accelerations cause multiple buffers associated with different user activities to be incremented.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using one or more default cadence windows to count periodic human motions prior to identifying the current user activity; and

setting a new cadence window once the current user activity is identified.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the current user activity is identified regardless of placement or orientation of the portable electronic device on a user.

11. An inertial sensor based device, comprising:

an activity identification engine to identify a current user activity from among a plurality of identifiable user activities based on motion data, wherein each of the plurality of identifiable user activities is associated with one of a plurality of types of periodic human motions that are detectable by a motion processor, and wherein the identification of the current user activity is made based on detecting two or more instances of the periodic human motion associated with the user activity, the activity identification engine comprising;

a plurality of buffers, each of the plurality of buffers associated with one identifiable user activity, each buffer to store a periodic motion count for the associated identifiable user activity;

a plurality of activity identification logics, wherein each of the plurality of activity identification logics is associated with one of the plurality of buffers, and each of the activity identification logics includes an associated motion criteria set, and each of the plurality of activity identification logics to compare

the motion data to the associated motion criteria set and increment the associated buffer when the criteria for the periodic motion identifiable user activity in the associated motion criteria set are satisfied, such that a single periodic movement increments a plurality of buffers;

the activity identification engine to identify the identifiable activity whose associated buffer has reached a predetermined count as the current user activity, and the activity identification engine to reset the buffers associated with activities other than the current user activity; and

the motion processor, coupled to the activity identification engine, the motion processor to count the periodic human motions associated with the current user activity.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the plurality of user activities comprise one or more of the following:

walking, inline skating, bicycling, exercising on an elliptical machine, exercising on a rowing machine and cross country skiing.

13. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

a dominant axis logic, to continuously determine an orientation of the device, to assign a dominant axis, and to update the dominant axis as the orientation of the device changes; and

the motion processor further configured to count the periodic human motions by monitoring accelerations relative to the dominant axis.

14. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

a motion log to maintain separate data for each of the plurality of periodic human motions.

15. The inertial sensor based device of claim 11, wherein each of the motion criteria sets includes a positive criterion that must be met to identify the associated user activity and a negative criterion that must not be met to identify the associated user activity.

16. The inertial sensor based device of claim 15, wherein each of the motion criteria sets further includes a cadence window within which the positive criterion must be met and the negative criterion must not be met to identify the associated user activity, and wherein each of the plurality of activity identification logics to reset the associated counter when the negative criterion is met within the cadence window.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

monitoring accelerations by an inertial sensor based device;

identifying a current user activity from a plurality of potential user activities based on the accelerations, wherein each of the plurality of potential user activities is associated with one of a plurality of types of periodic human motions that are detectable by the inertial sensor based device, the identifying comprising;

comparing the accelerations to a plurality of motion criteria sets, each of the motion criteria sets having an associated potential user activity;

for each potential user activity, incrementing a buffer associated with the potential user activity when the associated motion criteria for the periodic motion are satisfied, wherein the buffer is one of a plurality of buffers storing a periodic motion count for an associated user activity, such that a single periodic movement increments a plurality of buffers;

and identifying the potential user activity whose associated buffer has reached a threshold value as the current user activity;

resetting buffers associated with activities other than the current user activity; and

counting the periodic human motions associated with the current user activity.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the plurality of user activities comprise one or more of the following:

walking, inline skating, bicycling, exercising on an elliptical machine, rowing, and cross country skiing.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein monitoring accelerations comprises monitoring accelerations relative to a dominant axis.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, the method further comprising:

continuously determining an orientation of the inertial sensor;

assigning the dominant axis; and

updating the dominant axis as the orientation of the inertial sensor changes.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, the method further comprising:

maintaining separate data for each of the plurality of user activities.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein each of the motion criteria sets includes a positive criterion that must be met to identify the associated user activity, a negative criterion that must not be met to identify the associated user activity.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein each of the motion criteria sets further includes a cadence window within which the positive criterion must be met and the negative criterion must not be met to identify the associated user activity, the method further comprising:

for each user activity, resetting the associated buffer when the negative criterion is met within the cadence window.