Portable biometric monitoring devices having location sensors

• US 8,976,062 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2014
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Park, James, Panther, Heiko Gernot Albert, Yuen, Shelten Gee Jao
• Primary Examiner(s): LIU, HARRY K
• Application Number:
  US14/242,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20140292564A1
• Time in Patent Office: 343 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.31, 342/357.28, 342/357.29, 342/357.47, 342/357.64
• US Class Current: 342/357.31
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/05 providing aiding data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/09 providing processing capability normally carried out by the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/19 Sporting applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/258 relating to the satellite constellation, e.g. almanac, ephemeris data, lists of satellites in view
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/27 creating, predicting or correcting ephemeris or almanac data within the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18513 Transmission in a satellite or space-based system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Assisted-GPS for a portable biometric monitoring device is provided. The portable biometric monitoring device may obtain updated ephemeris data from an associated secondary device via a short-range, low-power communication protocol. The secondary device may be a computing device such as a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Various rules may control when the ephemeris data is updated. The ephemeris data may be used in the calculation of the global position of the portable biometric monitoring device. Additionally, the portable biometric monitoring device may communicate downloaded position fixing data to the associated secondary device. The associated secondary device may then calculate the global position from the position fixing data.

Claims

1. A method of determining a global position of a worn biometric monitoring device with a memory configured to store ephemeris data, the method comprising:

(a) determining that the worn biometric monitoring device does not have stored updated ephemeris data in the memory; and

(b) responsive to (a), obtaining updated ephemeris data via a wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol from a secondary device associated with the worn biometric monitoring device, obtaining a last calculated global position of the associated secondary device, and storing the updated ephemeris data in the memory, wherein the updated ephemeris data originated from a server configured to serve updated ephemeris data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(c) calculating the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device using the ephemeris data obtained in (b).

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the worn biometric monitoring device comprises a navigation data receiver and the calculation of the global position in (c) comprises:

(i) determining orbital positions of navigation satellites according to the ephemeris data obtained in (b);

(ii) obtaining position fixing data via the navigation data receiver from the navigation satellites; and

(iii) calculating the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device using the position fixing data obtained in (ii).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, in addition to the previously recited operation, (a) further comprises determining that the worn biometric monitoring device has moved after the worn biometric monitoring device has been substantially stationary.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein, in addition to the previously recited operation, (b) comprises obtaining updated ephemeris data associated with the navigation satellites that transmitted position fixing data to the navigation data receiver.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary device is a portable device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the short-range, low-power communication protocol is selected from the group consisting of:

Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), ANT, near field communication (NFC), ZigBee, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, Infrared Data Association (IrDA) protocols, and standards related to any of the foregoing.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein (a) comprises:

(i) determining a time remaining before stored ephemeris data is no longer current;

(ii) comparing the time remaining determined in (i) to an ephemeris data update time threshold; and

(iii) requesting updated ephemeris data from the secondary device when the time remaining is less than the ephemeris data update time threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the ephemeris data update time threshold is a time less than 6 hours.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein (a) further comprises, between (ii) and (iii), detecting that the secondary device is within communication range.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary device obtains updated ephemeris data from a navigation satellite.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary device obtains updated ephemeris data from an Earth-based organization serving updated ephemeris data.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting a typical pattern of usage of the worn biometric monitoring device by the user, wherein (b) further includes obtaining X amount of days of ephemeris data, X is a number between 1 and 30, and X is determined from the detected typical pattern of usage.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein (a) includes determining that a more recently updated version of the ephemeris data stored on the worn biometric monitoring device is available and (b) includes obtaining the more recently updated version of the ephemeris data via the short-range, low-power communication from the secondary device associated with the worn biometric monitoring device.

29. The method of claim 12, wherein the Earth-based organization is selected from the group consisting of:

Mediatek, CSR, The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPS).

30. The method of claim 12, wherein the secondary device obtains updated ephemeris data from the Earth-based organization via a communication protocol selected from the group consisting of:

4G, 3G, LTE, GPRS, HSDPA, EV-DO, WiMax, and standards related to any of the foregoing.

15. A wearable biometric monitoring device, the wearable biometric monitoring device comprising:

communication circuitry, the communication circuitry configured to receive ephemeris data from a secondary device associated with the wearable biometric monitoring device via a wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol and output the ephemeris data to a controller; and

the controller comprising one or more processors and a memory, wherein the one or more processors, the memory, and the communication circuitry, are communicatively connected and the memory is configured to store ephemeris data and program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to;

(a) determine that the stored ephemeris data in the memory is not updated; and

(b) responsive to (a), obtain updated ephemeris data from the secondary device via the communication circuitry, obtain a last calculated global position of the associated secondary device, and store the updated ephemeris data in the memory, wherein the updated ephemeris data originated from a server configured to serve updated ephemeris data.

16. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, further comprising program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to:

(c) calculate the global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device using the updated ephemeris data obtained in (b).

17. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 16, further comprising a navigation data receiver, wherein the program instructions for calculating the global position in (c) comprise instructions for:

(i) determining orbital positions of navigation satellites according to the updated ephemeris data obtained in (b);

(ii) obtaining position fixing data via the navigation data receiver from the navigation satellites; and

(iii) calculating the global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device using the position fixing data obtained in (ii).

18. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 16, wherein the program instructions for obtaining updated ephemeris data in (b) comprise instructions for obtaining updated ephemeris data associated with the navigation satellites that transmitted position fixing data to the navigation data receiver.

19. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, wherein the secondary device is a portable device.

20. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, wherein the short-range, low-power communication protocol is selected from the group consisting of Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), ANT, near field communication (NFC), ZigBee, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, Infrared Data Association (IrDA) protocols, and standards related to any of the foregoing.

21. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, wherein the program instructions for determining that the worn biometric monitoring device does not have stored updated ephemeris data in (a) comprise instructions for:

(i) determining a time remaining before stored ephemeris data is no longer current;

(ii) comparing the time remaining determined in (i) to an ephemeris data update time threshold; and

(iii) requesting updated ephemeris data from the secondary device when the time remaining is less than the ephemeris data update time threshold.

22. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 21, wherein the ephemeris data update time threshold is a time less than 6 hours.

23. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 21, wherein the program instructions for determining that the worn biometric monitoring device does not have stored updated ephemeris data in (a) further comprise instructions forte) detecting, between (ii) and (iii), that the secondary device is within communication range.

24. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, wherein the secondary device is configured to obtain updated ephemeris data from a navigation satellite.

25. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, wherein the secondary device is configured to obtain updated ephemeris data from an Earth-based organization serving updated ephemeris data.

26. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, wherein the program instructions further include instructions for detecting a typical pattern of usage of the worn biometric monitoring device by the user and (b) further comprises instructions for determining an amount of days of ephemeris data to obtain from the detected pattern of usage, wherein the amount of days is between 1 and 30 days.

27. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, wherein the program instructions for determining that the worn biometric monitoring device does not have stored updated ephemeris data in (a) comprises instructions for determining that a more recently updated version of the ephemeris data stored on the worn biometric monitoring device is available and wherein the program instructions for obtaining updated ephemeris data from the secondary device in (b) comprises instructions for obtaining the more recently updated version of the ephemeris data via the short-range, low-power communication from the secondary device associated with the worn biometric monitoring device.

28. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 15, wherein the program instructions for (a) further includes instructions for determining that the worn biometric monitoring device has moved after the worn biometric monitoring device has been substantially stationary.