Methods, systems and devices for automatic linking of activity tracking devices to user devices

• US 9,390,427 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2014
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Messenger, Jayson, Burton, Barry, Park, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Raymond, Edward
• Application Number:
  US14/261,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20140237028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 810 Days
• Field of Search: 702/160, 702/150, 702182-185, 702/188
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0214 of power generation or supply
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0242 adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0271 using a remote monitoring unit
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/222 combined with detection or measurement of physiological parameters, e.g. heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4809 Sleep detection, i.e. determining whether a subject is asleep or not
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4812 Detecting sleep stages or cycles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4815 Sleep quality
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6838 Clamps or clips
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 Pedometers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 : Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 : Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 : for social networking applications
• 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: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup

Abstract

Methods, systems and devices are provided for automatically linking a device to an activity tracking device. One method includes obtaining, at the device, a identifier from a website. The identifier is for an activity tracker that has been paired to a user account of the website. The method includes scanning, by the device, for the identifier. The scanning is of advertising messages generated by one or more activity trackers. The method identifies the activity tracker by matching the advertised identifier to the identifier obtained from the website. The method then includes establishing a link between the activity tracker and the device. The link is established without requiring user initiation to link the activity tracker to the device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising,

advertising, by an activity tracking device, data that includes an identifier of the activity tracking device, the advertising of the data being configured for detection by a device that is scanning for advertised data, the activity tracking device including a housing, a sensor disposed in the housing for capturing motion data of activity of a user, and memory for storing the captured motion data and the identifier of the activity tracking device, the housing being part of a smartwatch with wireless communication logic;

connecting, by the activity tracking device, with the device once the identifier is found by the device;

determining that the identifier matches a copy of the identifier previously obtained by the device for the activity tracking device; and

establishing a link between the activity tracking device and the device, the link automatically occurring after the device determines the match, the copy of the identifier being previously obtained by the device being associated to a user account, the method being executed by a processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user account is associated with an activity tracking website that provides for access to settings of the activity tracking device and for viewing activity data collected by the activity tracking device over time.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

from time to time, repeating the advertising, and the connecting, to provide an option to connect a second device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

generating the identifier using a serial number of the activity tracking device, or wherein the identifier is a portion of the serial number of the activity tracking device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein advertising the identifier includes transmitting one or more advertising packets using the wireless communication logic.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the wireless communication logic is processed using a Bluetooth low energy (BTLE) protocol, or a Bluetooth (BT) protocol, or a WiFi protocol, or a cellular protocol, or a combination of two or more thereof.

7. A method, comprising,

receiving, at a tracking device, a request to associate the tracking device with a user account of a website that processes an activity management application;

transferring data from the tracking device to the website in response to the request, the data including an identifier of the tracking device, the identifier being saved to the user account so that client devices accessing the user account have access to the identifier of the tracking device; and

advertising the identifier by the tracking device;

wherein a client device having obtained the identifier from the user account of the website can scan for the identifier and limit connections to tracking devices that have advertised the identifier, the method being executed by a processor.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising,

enabling connections with client devices that scanned for the tracking device and found the identifier;

and

automatically linking the tracking device to the client device, without requiring user input to initiate the linking.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the tracking device is linkable to a plurality of client devices having access to the user account.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifier is a serial number of the tracking device, or is part of the serial number, or is derived from the serial number.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifier for the tracking device is generated by,

accessing a serial number of the tracking device and identifying a subset of the serial number, the subset of the serial number used to define the identifier, or

producing a random code.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein client devices associated with the user account,

execute a client activity tracking application;

wherein the client activity tracking application has access to a relationship between the identifier and the tracking device;

wherein the scanning for the identifier is managed by the client activity tracking application, such that advertising devices that do not advertise the identifier are excluded from possible connection with the client devices.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein for the client device, upon opening a client activity application, executing the scanning for the identifier, the scanning occurring without requiring user input to link the tracking device to the client device, and the scanning acts to prevent connections with other the tracking devices that do not have the identifier.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein opening the client activity application includes logging into the client activity application using credentials for the user account, the logging in occurring at least once during a first or subsequent logging into the client activity application.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the advertising of the identifier is facilitated by transmitting an advertising packet using a wireless radio communication.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the wireless radio communication is facilitated by a Bluetooth low energy (BTLE) protocol, or a Bluetooth (BT) protocol, or a WiFi protocol, or a cellular protocol, or a combination thereof.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the identifier is transferred in an advertising packet formatted according to the BTLE protocol.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the identifier is a 16 bit data unit transferred in payload of the advertising packet.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising,

initiating a broadcast of the advertising packing by the tracking device when the tracking device is not linked to a client device.

20. An activity tracking device configured for capturing activity of a user, comprising,

a housing, the housing being part of a smartwatch with wireless communication logic;

a sensor disposed in the housing to capture motion data associated with the activity of the user;

memory for storing the captured motion data and an identifier of the activity tracking device; and

a processor for advertising data that includes the identifier of the activity tracking device, the advertising of the data being configured for detection by a device that scans for advertised data, the processor enabling connections of the activity tracking device with the device once the identifier is found by the device, the processor configured to determine that the identifier matches a copy of the identifier previously obtained by the device for the activity tracking device and being configured to establish a link between the activity tracking device and the device, the link automatically occurring after the device determines the match, wherein the copy of the identifier previously obtained by the device is associated to a user account.

21. The device of claim 20, wherein the housing has a wearable wrist attachable structure, or an attachable structure that can be carried or worn by the user, and the wearable wrist attachable structure is defined at least partially from a plastic material.

22. The device of claim 20, wherein the wireless communication logic is used for transferring data over a wireless connection.

23. The device of claim 20, wherein the processor executes firmware having program instructions to enable the scanning, connecting and linking.

24. An activity tracking device configured for capturing activity of a user, comprising,

a housing;

a sensor disposed in the housing to capture motion data associated with the activity of the user;

memory for storing the captured motion data and an identifier of the activity tracking device; and

a processor for receiving a request to associate the activity tracking device with a user account of a website that processes an activity management application, the processor being further configured to transfer data from the activity tracking device to the website in response to the request, the data including the identifier of the activity tracking device, the identifier being saved to the user account so that client devices accessing the user account have access to the identifier of the activity tracking device, the processor being further configured to advertise the identifier, wherein a client device having obtained the identifier from the user account of the website can scan for the identifier and limit connections to activity tracking devices that have advertised the identifier.