Techniques for low power monitoring of sports game play

• US 9,993,723 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2014
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Anderson, Glen J., Sia, Jr., Jose K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hylinski, Steven J
• Application Number:
  US14/497,024
• Publication Number:
  US 20160089599A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,356 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0209 adapted for power saving
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6801 specially adapted to be attached to or worn on the body surface
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6887 mounted on external non-worn devices, e.g. non-medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6895 Sport equipment
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/54 Transponders, e.g. RFID
• 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: A63F 13/21 characterised by their sensors, purposes or types
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 9/24 Electric games; Games using electronic circuits not otherwise provided for video games A63F13/00; computerized gaming systems G07F17/32
• 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: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0261 managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Various embodiments are directed to techniques for reducing electric power employed by devices of a game play monitoring system that collects data during game play in a sport. An apparatus may include an interaction detection component to monitor an interaction sensor of a playing piece to detect an interaction with a body, generate playing piece data recording an aspect of the interaction and determine whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within a close proximity to the body; and a communications component to use electric power from a power source to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to a player device carried by the body via shorter range wireless communications or to an access point device via longer range wireless communications based on the determination, the shorter range wireless communications to consume electric power of the power source at a lesser rate. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus to monitor interactions comprising:

an interaction detection component configured to monitor an interaction sensor incorporated into a playing piece to detect an interaction of the playing piece with a portion of a body, to generate playing piece data recording an aspect of the interaction and to determine whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within a close proximity to the body;

a communications component configured to use electric power from a power source to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to a player device carried on the body via shorter range wireless communications or to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to an access point (AP) device via longer range wireless communications based on the determination, the shorter range wireless communications configured to consume electric power of the power source at a lesser rate than the longer range wireless communications; and

a location correlation component to condition transmission of the playing piece data via the longer range wireless communications on whether a last known location of the playing piece within a playing area is correlated to a poor level of quality of the longer range wireless communications.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the interaction detection component to determine whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within the close proximity based on at least one of an amount of force applied to the playing piece or an amount of time the playing piece remains in an uninterrupted motion following an application of force to the playing piece.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:

a proximity signal emitter to emit a signal to enable the player device to detect the proximity of the playing piece to the body; and

an emission control component to selectively provide electric power from the power source to the proximity signal emitter based on the determination.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, the proximity signal emitter comprising an acoustic driver to emit a sound with an amplitude selected to be detectable by the player device while the playing piece is within the close proximity to the body.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising at least one magnet carried by an external surface portion of the playing piece to emit a magnetic field detectable by the player device while the playing piece is within the close proximity to the body.

5. A system to monitor interactions comprising:

a power source;

an interaction detection component configured to monitor an interaction sensor incorporated into a playing piece to detect an interaction of the playing piece with a portion of a body, to generate playing piece data recording an aspect of the interaction and to determine whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within a close proximity to the body;

a communications component configured to use electric power from a power source to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to a player device carried on the body via shorter range wireless communications or to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to an access point (AP) device via longer range wireless communications based on the determination, the shorter range wireless communications configured to consume electric power of the power source at a lesser rate than the longer range wireless communications;

an antenna and an interface coupled to the antenna configured to transmit the playing piece data via the shorter range wireless communications and via the longer range wireless communications; and

a location correlation component to condition transmission of the playing piece data via the longer range communications on whether a last known location of the playing piece within a playing area is correlated to a poor level of quality of the longer range wireless communications.

7. A computer-implemented method for monitoring interactions comprising:

monitoring an interaction sensor incorporated into a playing piece to detect an interaction of the playing piece with a portion of a body;

generating playing piece data recording an aspect of the interaction;

determining whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within a close proximity to the body;

using electric power from a power source to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to a player device carried on the body via shorter range wireless communications or to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to an access point (AP) device via longer range wireless communications based on the determination, the shorter range wireless communications to consume electric power of the power source at a lesser rate than the longer range wireless communications; and

conditioning transmission of the playing piece data via the longer range wireless communications on whether a last known location of the playing piece within a playing area is correlated to a poor level of quality of the longer range wireless communications.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, comprising determining whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within the close proximity based on at least one of an amount of force applied to the playing piece or an amount of time the playing piece remains in an uninterrupted motion following an application of force to the playing piece.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, comprising:

comparing the amount of force applied to a threshold of force applied; and

comparing the amount of time to a threshold of time to determine whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within the close proximity.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, the last known location comprising a location of the player device within the playing area at a time when the playing piece is within the close proximity to the body, the method comprising wirelessly receiving an indication from the player device of the last known location and of a level of quality of longer range wireless communications correlated to the last known location via the shorter range wireless communications.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, the body comprising a body of a player of a game, and the close proximity to the body consisting of one of a distance of up to one meter from the body, a distance from the body of up to a limit of reach by a hand of the body, and a distance from the body of up to a limit of reach by a foot of the body.

12. At least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor component, cause the processor component to:

monitor an interaction sensor incorporated into a playing piece to detect an interaction of the playing piece with a portion of a body;

generate playing piece data recording an aspect of the interaction;

determine whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within a close proximity to the body;

use electric power from a power source to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to a player device carried by the body via shorter range wireless communications or to wirelessly transmit the playing piece data to an access point (AP) device via longer range wireless communications based on the determination, the shorter range wireless communications to consume electric power of the power source at a lesser rate than the longer range wireless communications; and

condition transmission of the playing piece data via the longer range wireless communications on whether a last known location of the playing piece within a playing area is correlated to a poor level of quality of the longer range wireless communications.

13. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, the processor component caused to determine whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within the close proximity based on at least one of an amount of force applied to the playing piece or an amount of time the playing piece remains in an uninterrupted motion following an application of force to the playing piece.

14. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, the processor component caused to:

compare the amount of force applied to a threshold of force applied; and

compare the amount of time to a threshold of time to determine whether the interaction maintains the playing piece within the close proximity.

15. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, the processor component caused to use electric power from the power source to emit a signal to enable the player device to detect the proximity of the playing piece to the body based on the determination, the signal comprising a sound with an amplitude selected to be detectable by the player device while the playing piece is within the close proximity to the body.

16. At least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor component, cause the processor component to:

monitor a proximity sensor incorporated into a player device to detect a proximity of a playing piece to a portion of a body that carries the player device;

determine whether the playing piece is within a close proximity to the body;

monitor an interaction sensor incorporated into the player device to detect an interaction of the body with the playing piece;

generate at least a portion of a player data recording an aspect of the interaction;

use electric power from a power source of the player device to wirelessly transmit the player data and playing piece data to an access point (AP) device via longer range wireless communications based on the determination and based on detection of the interaction, the playing piece data received from the playing piece via shorter range wireless communications, the shorter range wireless communications to consume electric power of the power source at a lesser rate than the longer range wireless communications;

receive radio frequency signals emitted by at least the AP device to engage in the longer range wireless communications;

analyze the radio frequency signals received by an interface from multiple AP devices to determine a current location of the player device within a playing area, the multiple AP devices comprising the AP device; and

transmit an indication of the current location to the playing piece via the shorter range wireless communications.

17. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, the processor component caused to generate another portion of the player data recording an indication of when the playing piece is in close proximity to the body.

18. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, detecting proximity of the playing piece to the body comprising at least one of detecting a sound emitted by the playing piece, detecting a magnetic field emitted by the playing piece, or detecting a radio frequency emitted by the playing piece to engage in the shorter range wireless communications with the player device.

19. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, the processor component caused to analyze relative strengths of the radio frequency signals received from the multiple AP devices to determine the current location using at least one of an indication of relative positions of the multiple AP devices received from the AP device via the longer range wireless communications or an indication of relative strengths of transmission of signals of the multiple AP devices received from the AP device via the longer range wireless communications.

20. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, the processor component caused to:

analyze a level of quality of the longer range wireless communications at the current location; and

transmit an indication of the level of quality at the current location to the playing piece via the shorter range wireless communications.

21. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, the processor component caused to use electric power from the power source to wirelessly receive the playing piece data from the playing device via the shorter range wireless communications based on the determination and based on detection of the interaction.