Biometric monitoring device with contextually- or environmentally-dependent display

• US 9,026,927 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2013
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Brumback, Christine Boomer, Knight, David Wayne, Park, James, Axley, Andrew Cole, Yuen, Shelten Gee Jao
• Primary Examiner(s): Durkin, James T
• Application Number:
  US14/045,574
• Publication Number:
  US 20140176335A1
• Time in Patent Office: 579 Days
• Field of Search: 715/764, 715/810, 715/811, 715/813, 715/822, 715/825, 715/829, 715/832, 715/853, 715/854, 715/863, 715/864, 715/866, 340/870.16, 482/8, 482/9, 600/300, 600/301
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0015 characterised by features of the telemetry system
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7445 Display arrangements, e.g. multiple display units
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7475 User input or interface means, e.g. keyboard, pointing device, joystick
• 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: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/01 Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer G06F3/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/015 Input arrangements based on nervous system activity detection, e.g. brain waves [EEG] detection, electromyograms [EMG] detection, electrodermal response detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A biometric monitoring device with a display is provided. The display may, in response to receiving page advance requests from a user, advance through a plurality of different data display pages, at least some of which show aspects of biometric data recorded by the device. The biometric monitoring device may also, based on the biometric data, modify the sequential display order of the data display pages. In some implementations, a biometric monitoring device integrated into a wristband may be configured to turn a display of the biometric monitoring device on and display the time in response to biometric sensors of the biometric monitoring device detecting motion of the wearer'"'"'s forearm consistent with moving the forearm into a watch-viewing position.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

two or more biometric sensors including at least one accelerometer and at least one other biometric sensor;

a display;

at least one processor; and

a memory, wherein;

the memory, the at least one processor, the two or more biometric sensors, and the display are communicatively connected with one another, and

the memory stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to;

determine a sequential display order for a plurality of data display pages;

receive one or more page advance requests;

cause, for each received page advance request, the display to advance to the data display page that is next in the sequential display order with respect to the data display page that is displayed on the display prior to the advance;

receive biometric data from the two or more biometric sensors, the biometric data including biometric data from the at least one accelerometer and from the at least one other biometric sensor;

determine that the biometric data from the at least one accelerometer and from the at least one other biometric sensor indicates, at least in part, a first contextual or environmental state, wherein the biometric data that is determined to indicate, at least in part, the first contextual or environmental state is not biometric data that is indicative of a deliberate user request or interaction with the apparatus; and

modify the sequential display order of the data display pages based on the determination that the biometric data from the at least one accelerometer and from the at least one other biometric sensor indicates, at least in part, the first contextual or environmental state in conjunction with a determination that a mode of the apparatus is active to produce a first sequential display order, wherein;

the modification of the sequential display order is defined, at least in part, by a set of heuristics associated with the mode of the apparatus that is active,

an interpretation of the biometric data from the two or more biometric sensors is impacted by the mode of the apparatus, and

the first environmental or contextual state is associated with an activity of a user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein when the data display page that is displayed on the display prior to the advance is the last data display page in the sequential display order, the data display page that is first in the sequential display order is treated as the data display page that is next in the sequential display order.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sequential display order reverses when the data display page that is displayed on the display prior to the advance is the last data display page in the sequential display order.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first contextual or environmental state is associated with activities selected from the group consisting of walking, running, stair climbing, bicycling, swimming, resting, working, being at home, being in transit in a car or other powered vehicle, driving, and being in a meeting.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the page advance requests are generated responsive to data collected from the two or more biometric sensors.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a page advance input separate from the two or more biometric sensors, wherein;

the memory, the at least one processor, the two or more biometric sensors, the page advance input, and the display are communicatively connected with one another, and the memory and/or at least one processor are configured to receive the one or more page advance requests responsive to corresponding one or more activations of the page advance input.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the page advance input is a button.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the apparatus is free of buttons except for the page advance input and wherein the two or more biometric sensors and the page advance input are the only mechanisms in the apparatus that are capable of detecting tactile or audio input to the apparatus.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to:

determine that the biometric data indicates, at least in part, a second contextual or environmental state different from the first contextual or environmental state; and

modify the sequential display order of the data display pages based on the determination that the biometric data indicates the second contextual or environmental state to produce a second sequential display order, wherein the first sequential display order and the second sequential display order are different.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to:

modify the sequential display order of the data display pages by adding or removing a data display page from the plurality of data display pages based on the determination that the biometric data indicates the first contextual or environmental state.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to:

determine that the first contextual or environmental state is associated with a first user-specified sequential display order; and

modify the sequential display order of the data display pages to correspond to the first user-specified sequential display order to produce the first sequential display order.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a communications interface, wherein the memory, the at least one processor, the two or more biometric sensors, the page advance input, the display, and the communications interface are communicatively connected with one another, and

the memory and/or at least one processor are configured to receive data indicating the user-specific sequential display order via the communications interface and from a device external to the apparatus.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to:

determine that at least one of the data display pages in the plurality of data display pages has a user-specified priority; and

modify the sequential display order of the data display pages based on the determination that the biometric data indicates the first contextual or environmental state and the user-specified priority of the at least one data display page to produce the first sequential display order.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to:

determine that the display is turned off when a page advance request is received;

determine the data display page displayed on the display when the display was turned off;

cause the display to turn on responsive to the page advance request; and

modify the sequential display order such that the data display page that was displayed on the display when the display was turned off is displayed on the display after the display is turned on again and responsive to the page advance request.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to:

determine that the display is turned off when a page advance request is received;

determine the data display page displayed on the display when the display was turned off;

cause the display to turn on again;

modify the sequential display order such that at least one interim data display page different from the data display page that was displayed on the display when the display was turned off is the first data display page or pages displayed on the display after the display is turned on again and responsive to the page advance request; and

modify the sequential display order such that the data display page that was displayed on the display when the display was turned off is the next data display page that is displayed on the display after the at least one interim data display page is displayed.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one interim data display page includes a data display page showing a time-of-day clock.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one interim data display page includes a data display page selected from the group consisting of:

a data display page showing a low battery indicator, a data display page showing a low memory indicator, and a data display page showing a sync-in-progress indicator.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one interim data display page includes a data display page showing user achievement indicator that indicates that one or more quantities based on data provided by the two or more biometric sensors have exceeded a pre-defined threshold, the user achievement indicator in addition to displaying the one or more quantities.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

a communications interface configured to communicate with a device external to the apparatus, wherein;

the memory, the at least one processor, the two or more biometric sensors, the display, and the communications interface are communicatively connected with one another, and

the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to;

receive a message from the device external to the apparatus via the communications interface, and

display a data display page on the display indicating at least some content associated with the message as an interim data display page of the at least one interim data page.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein:

the message is a text message, tweet, social networking website comment, or email.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein:

the message includes data indicating a user achievement indicator that indicates that one or more quantities based on data provided by another two or more biometric sensors external to the apparatus have exceeded a pre-defined threshold.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein:

the plurality of data display pages includes a first subset of at least one data display page, and

the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to;

cause the at least one data display page of the first subset to be displayed on the display after the display is turned on again regardless of whether the data display page that was displayed on the display when the display was turned off is in the first subset.

23. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the data display pages in the plurality of data display pages has a plurality of data display subpages, wherein each of the data display subpages in the plurality of data display subpages displays a metric that is based on the biometric data received from at least one of the two or more biometric sensors when that data display subpage is displayed, and

the memory further stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to;

determine a sequential subpage display order for the plurality of data display subpages,

receive one or more subpage advance requests,

cause, for each received subpage advance request received when the data display subpage having the plurality of data display subpages is displayed, the display to advance to the data display subpage that is next in the sequential subpage display order with respect to the data display subpage that is displayed on the display prior to the advance, wherein when the data display subpage that is displayed on the display prior to the advance is the last data display subpage in the sequential subpage display order, the data display subpage that is first in the sequential subpage display order is treated as the data display subpage that is next in the sequential subpage display order, wherein the data display page having the data display subpage that is displayed on the display is represented by the data display subpage that is displayed on the display.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein each data display subpage of the plurality of data display subpages presents data associated with the data page display having the data display subpages in different units, different formats, or a combination thereof.

25. A method comprising:

determining, by one or more processors of a biometric tracking device, a sequential display order for a plurality of data display pages;

receiving, by the one or more processors, one or more page advance requests;

causing, for each received page advance request, a display of the biometric tracking device to advance to the data display page that is next in the sequential display order with respect to the data display page that is displayed on the display prior to the advance;

receiving biometric data from two or more biometric sensors in communication with the biometric tracking device, the two or more biometric sensors including at least one accelerometer and at least one other biometric sensor and the biometric data including biometric data from the at least one accelerometer and from the at least one other biometric sensor;

determining, by the one or more processors, that the biometric data from the at least one accelerometer and from the at least one other biometric sensor indicates, at least in part, a first contextual or environmental state, wherein the biometric data that is determined to indicate, at least in part, the first contextual or environmental state is not biometric data that is indicative of a deliberate user request or interaction with the apparatus; and

modifying, by the one or more processors, the sequential display order of the data display pages to produce a first sequential display order based on the determination that the biometric data from the at least one accelerometer and from the at least one other biometric sensor indicates, at least in part, the first contextual or environmental state in conjunction with a determination that a mode of the apparatus is active, wherein;

the modification of the sequential display order is defined, at least in part, by a set of heuristics associated with the mode of the apparatus that is active,

an interpretation of the biometric data from the two or more biometric sensors is impacted by the mode of the apparatus, and

the first environmental or contextual state is associated with an activity of a user.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein when the data display page that is displayed on the display prior to the advance is the last data display page in the sequential display order, the data display page that is first in the sequential display order is treated as the data display page that is next in the sequential display order.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the sequential display order reverses when the data display page that is displayed on the display prior to the advance is the last data display page in the sequential display order.