Portable biometric monitoring devices having location sensors

• US 9,335,416 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2015
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• 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:
  US14/795,767
• Publication Number:
  US 20150309182A1
• Time in Patent Office: 306 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.52
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 comprising a navigation data receiver, the method comprising:

(a) periodically and automatically syncing the worn biometric monitoring device with a secondary device associated with the worn biometric monitoring device, wherein the periodic and automatic syncing comprises repeatedly providing the worn biometric monitoring device with current ephemeris data from the secondary device using a wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol according to a schedule, wherein the current ephemeris data contains information about current satellite positions usable for position fixing;

(b) determining that a global position of the worn biometric monitoring device should be calculated; and

(c) calculating the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device using the current ephemeris data and data received by the navigation data receiver.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein at least some of the syncing is conducted when the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device is not being calculated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the schedule is a time schedule according to a length of time since the ephemeris data was last updated.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the schedule is a time schedule according to a time of day.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the schedule is a dynamic schedule determined by monitoring a pattern of interaction of a user with the biometric monitoring device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, before (a), determining a timeframe of current ephemeris data provided to the worn biometric monitoring device during the syncing.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining the timeframe of current ephemeris data provided to the worn biometric monitoring device by monitoring a pattern of interaction of a user with the biometric monitoring device.

8. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

(d) determining, before (a), that the worn biometric monitoring device is associated with the secondary device.

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

a navigation data receiver;

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) periodically and automatically syncing the wearable biometric monitoring device with the secondary device, wherein the periodic and automatic syncing comprises repeatedly obtaining current ephemeris data from the secondary device according to a schedule, wherein the current ephemeris data contains information about current satellite positions usable for position fixing,

(b) determine that a global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device should be calculated, and

(c) calculate the global position using the current ephemeris data obtained in (a), wherein at least some of the syncing is conducted when the wearable biometric monitoring device is not determining the global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device.

10. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 9, wherein the schedule is a time schedule according to a length of time since the ephemeris data was last updated.

11. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 9, wherein the schedule is a time schedule according to a time of day.

12. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 9, wherein the schedule is a dynamic schedule determined by monitoring a pattern of interaction of a user with the biometric monitoring device.

13. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 9, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to:

(d) determine, before (a), that the worn biometric monitoring device is associated with the secondary device.

14. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 9, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to determine a timeframe of current ephemeris data provided to the worn biometric monitoring device during the syncing.

15. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 14, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to determine the timeframe of current ephemeris data provided to the worn biometric monitoring device by monitoring a pattern of interaction of a user with the biometric monitoring device.

16. A method of determining a global position of a worn biometric monitoring device, the worn biometric monitoring device comprising a navigation data receiver configured to receive position fixing data from one or more navigation satellites, one or more biometric sensors, communication circuitry, and a controller comprising one or more processors and a memory, the method comprising:

(a) receiving biometric data from the one or more biometric sensors, and using the one or more processors to calculate from the biometric data a biometric performance measurement selected from the group consisting of calories burned, step count, heart rate, ambulatory speed, blood pressure, blood glucose, skin conduction, body temperature, sleep data, and stairs climbed;

(b) receiving, from the navigation data receiver, the position fixing data from the one or more navigation satellites; and

(c) providing, using the communication circuitry, the position fixing data via a wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol to an associated secondary device so that the secondary device can calculate a global position of the worn biometric monitoring device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(d) calculating, with the associated secondary device, the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device from the position fixing data.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(d) receiving via the wireless short-range, low-power communication protocol, from the associated secondary device, the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device calculated from the position fixing data.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(d) storing the position fixing data in a memory after (b) and before (c).

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(d) determining, before (b), that the global position of the worn biometric monitoring device should be calculated.

21. The method of claim 16, 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 any combinations thereof.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

(d) displaying a graphical representation of the global position on the associated secondary device.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising (d) communicating the global position from the associated secondary device to a tertiary device.

24. A wearable biometric monitoring device comprising:

one or more biometric sensors, the one or more biometric sensors configured to output biometric data to a controller;

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

a navigation data receiver, the navigation data receiver configured to receive position fixing data from one or more navigation satellites using wireless communication and output the position fixing data to the controller; and

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

(a) receive biometric data from the one or more biometric sensors,

(b) use the biometric data to calculate a biometric performance measurement selected from the group consisting of calories burned, step count, heart rate, ambulatory speed, blood pressure, blood glucose, skin conduction, body temperature, sleep data, and stairs climbed,

(c) obtain the position fixing data from the one or more navigation satellites via the navigation data receiver,

(d) provide the position fixing data to the associated secondary device via the communication circuitry so that the secondary device can calculate a global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device, and

(e) receive the global position from the secondary device.

25. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 24, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to store the position fixing data in the memory after (c) and before (d).

26. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 24, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to determine, before (c), that the global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device should be calculated.

27. The wearable biometric monitoring device of claim 24, 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 any combinations thereof.

28. A system comprising the wearable biometric monitoring device and the secondary device of claim 24, wherein the secondary device comprises:

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

a user interface, configured to communicate information to a user; and

a secondary device controller comprising one or more secondary device processors and a secondary device memory, wherein;

the one or more secondary device processors and the secondary device memory are communicatively connected,

the secondary device memory stores program instructions for receiving the positioning fixing data provided by the wearable biometric monitoring device, and

the secondary device memory stores program instructions for controlling the one or more secondary device processors to calculate the global position of the wearable biometric monitoring device from the position fixing data.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the memory and the secondary device memory store, in the aggregate, program instructions for controlling the one or more processors or the one or more secondary device processors to cause the global position to be displayed via the user interface.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the secondary device communication circuitry is further configured to output data to a tertiary device and the secondary device memory stores program instructions for controlling the one or more secondary device processors to communicate the global position from the secondary device to a tertiary device.