Fitness activity related messaging

• US 10,721,191 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2018
• Issued: 07/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Choudhary, Nichiketa, Roberts, Timothy, Knight, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Le H
• Application Number:
  US16/160,805
• Publication Number:
  US 20190190862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• 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 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 5/02405 Determining heart rate variability
• 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 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/22 Ergometry; Measuring muscular strength or the force of a muscular blow exercising apparatus A63B21/00 ; measuring of work or force in general G01L
• 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 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6838 Clamps or clips
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0062 Monitoring athletic performances, e.g. for determining the work of a user on an exercise apparatus, the completed jogging or cycling distance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 : Pedometers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/00 : Digital computers in general details G06F1/00 – G06F13/00; Data processing equipment in general
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 : using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 : Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 : Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 : Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 : Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 3/10 : using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/36 : using visible light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 6/00 : Tactile signalling systems, e.g. personal calling systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 : relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 : ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 : Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 : User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 : Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 : for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 : Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• 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: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 : User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for generating a message to a friend of a user is provided, comprising: processing activity data of a first user measured by an activity monitoring device to update a value of an activity metric for the first user; identifying a change in an inequality relationship between the value of the activity metric for the first user and a value of the activity metric for a second user; in response to identifying the change in the inequality relationship, prompting the first user to generate a message to the second user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, over a network by at least one server computer, first activity data of a first user measured by a first activity monitoring device;

the server computer configured to;

receive, over a network by the at least one server computer, second activity data of one or more additional users measured by respective additional activity monitoring devices;

define, based on the first and second activity data, and an input from the first user, at least one group event;

cause an invitation to join the at least one group event to be sent to the one or more additional users; and

generating, with the server computer, the at least one group event, wherein the group event defines one of a competitive race for the participating users, a common goal for each of the participating users, or a collective goal for the participating users.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the group event is or includes a challenge or a race.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the group event includes the participating users competing against one another to achieve a superior activity amount or activity-related outcome.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the group event includes missions in which the participating users each have individual goals that are pursued together in a group context.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the group event includes a group goal toward which the participating users collectively pursue a goal.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a competitive group based on the responses to the invitation.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining a value for at least one activity metric for a given user in the competitive group based on activity data captured by an activity monitoring device associated with the given user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one activity metric comprises one or more of a quantity of steps taken, a quantity of floors climbed, or a quantity of calories burned.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the group event is defined for an activity metric for each of the participating users for a period of time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the group event includes one or more of displaying data pertaining to the group event, generating messages for the group event and displaying the messages.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating customized messages to at least one user, the customization based on characteristics of the at least one user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein generating messages includes sending messages to one or more client devices associated with the at least one user.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein generating messages includes sending messages to one or more activity monitoring devices associated with the at least one user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein one or both of the common goal and the collective goal relates to at least one of:

weight, food intake, and sleep data for one or more of the participating users.

15. A system comprising at least one server computer configured to:

receive, over a network by at least one server computer, first activity data of a first user measured by a first activity monitoring device;

receive, over a network by the at least one server computer, second activity data of one or more additional users measured by respective additional activity monitoring devices;

define, based on the first and second activity data, and an input from the first user, at least one group event;

cause an invitation to join the at least one group event to be sent to the one or more additional users;

receive at least one or more responses from participating users, the participating users including the first user and each of the one or more additional users for which an indication of a positive response to the invitation is received; and

generate, with the server computer, the at least one group event, wherein the group event defines one of a competitive race for the participating users, a common goal for each of the participating users, or a collective goal for the participating users.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the group event is or includes a challenge or a race.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the server computer is further configured to generate a competitive group based on the responses to the invitation.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the server computer is further configured to determine a value for at least one activity metric for a given user in the competitive group based on activity data captured by an activity monitoring device associated with the given user.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the server computer is configured to generate the group by displaying data pertaining to the group event, generating messages for the group event and displaying the messages.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the server computer is further configured to generate messages to at least one user, the customization based on characteristics of the at least one user.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the server computer is configured to send messages to one or more client devices associated with the at least one user.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the server computer is configured to send messages to one or more activity monitoring devices associated with the at least one user.