ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE MONITORING SYSTEM UTILIZING HEART RATE INFORMATION

• US 20110275940A1
• Filed: 12/09/2010
• Published: 11/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Inventors: Hailey, Michael Benjamin, Capozzi, Matt, Crankson, Kwamina, Nims, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 9,895,096 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/483
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/222 combined with detection or measurement of physiological parameters, e.g. heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0065 Evaluating the fitness, e.g. fitness level or fitness index
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/00 Measuring of physical parameters relating to sporting activity
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2230/06 heartbeat rate only
• 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

Abstract

Athletic activity may be monitored using heart rate in addition to or instead of other types of metrics. Accordingly, multiple different activity types may be compared based on heart rate information. Additionally, the heart rate information may be visualized by displaying the heart rate data over time or relative to pace or distance. Additionally, the system may allow a user to analyze his or her heart rate performance by identifying one or more portions of the athletic activity in which a user exhibited a specified range of heart rates. Athletic activity sessions may further be tagged with various indicators including weather, terrain, difficulty and intensity. According to one or more aspects, data for different types of activity metrics may be polled and/or transmitted to a system at different rates or based on different schedules. Moreover, users may specify whether sensed data may be uploaded, recorded and/or visualized prior to or during an activity session.

Claims

1. An athletic performance monitoring system comprising:

a data collection module comprising a processor and memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory further storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the module to;

detect the presence of one or more athletic activity sensors,

poll the one or more athletic activity sensors for athletic performance data, and

receive the athletic performance data;

a first sensor configured to measure a first type of athletic activity parameter; and

a second sensor configured to measure a second type of athletic activity parameter different from the first type, wherein the second type of athletic activity parameter includes a heart rate of a user performing an athletic activity,

wherein the data collection module is configured to collect heart rate information through the second sensor for a plurality of activity types, and

wherein the data collection module is configured to collect the first type of athletic activity parameter for only a subset of the plurality of activity types.

2. The athletic performance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the first type of athletic activity parameter includes a speed of the user performing the athletic activity.

3. The athletic performance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the data collection module is configured to receive the athletic performance data wirelessly from the one or more athletic activity sensors.

4. The athletic performance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the data collection module is further configured to:

automatically detect the second sensor; and

attempt to detect the first sensor while providing the user with an option to initiate athletic activity monitoring prior to detecting the first sensor.

5. The athletic performance monitoring system of claim 4, wherein the data collection module is further configured to display an indicator identifying sensors that have been detected by the data collection module.

6. A method comprising:

generating, by a computing device, a graph for an athletic activity comprising at least one of;

heart rate information and pace information;

receiving a first selection of a first heart rate range;

determining, by the computing device, a first portion of the graph corresponding to the selected first heart rate range; and

visually identifying the first portion of the graph differently from at least one other portion of the graph not corresponding to the selected first heart rate range.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a second selection of a second heart rate range;

determining a second portion of the graph corresponding to the selected second heart rate range, the second portion being different from the first portion; and

visually identifying the second portion of the graph in a manner different from the first portion of the graph.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining a percentage of the activity spent in the first heart rate range; and

displaying the percentage.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

providing a heart rate range control including an upper limit control element and a lower limit control element;

detecting a change in a position of at least one of the upper limit control element and the lower limit control element; and

in response, determining a portion of the graph corresponding to a new heart rate range specified by the upper limit control element and the lower limit control element in real-time.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying the heart rate range control as an axis of the graph.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising displaying at least one marker in the graph, wherein the marker is indicative of at least one of:

a highest heart rate and a lowest heart rate.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one of the highest heart rate and the lowest heart rate is determined based on an average heart rate of a previous predetermined amount of time and a subsequent predetermined amount of time.

13. A method comprising:

receiving, at an athletic activity monitoring site, data for a plurality of athletic activity workouts, the data including heart rate information of an individual performing the workouts; and

generating a graph based on the received data, wherein the graph includes a line representing an average heart rate of the individual during each of the plurality of workouts and wherein the graph includes a region representing a range of heart rates exhibited by the individual during each of the plurality of workouts.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the line is generated by interpolating between workouts and wherein the graph includes a first marker identifying a workout in which the individual exhibited the highest average heart rate among the plurality of workouts and a second marker identifying a workout in which the individual exhibited the lowest average heart rate among the plurality of workouts.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving user-specified instructions on a manner in which the received data is to be processed, wherein the manner in which the received data is to be processed includes one or more of:

stored in the site and visualization.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the graph is not generated if the manner in which the received data is to be processed does not include visualization.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

memory operatively coupled to the processor and storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the apparatus to;

generate a graph for an athletic activity comprising at least one of;

heart rate information and pace information;

receive a first selection of a first heart rate range;

determine a first portion of the graph corresponding to the selected first heart rate range; and

visually identify the first portion of the graph differently from at least one other portion of the graph not corresponding to the selected first heart rate range.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to:

determine a heart rate intensity of the athletic activity; and

tag the athletic activity with an indicator of the heart rate intensity.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to:

determine an individual'"'"'s subjective assessment of a difficulty of the athletic activity; and

tag the athletic activity with another indicator specifying the individual'"'"'s subjective assessment of the difficulty of the athletic activity.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the graph includes only heart rate data of an individual performing the athletic activity and time.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein generating the graph includes:

receiving data from a heart rate sensor for a first type of athletic activity;

receiving data from the heart rate sensor for a second type of athletic activity; and

wherein generating the graph includes;

graphing the data from the heart rate sensor for the first type of athletic activity and the data from the heart rate sensor for the second type of athletic activity in the same graph.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to:

provide a heart rate range control including an upper limit control element and a lower limit control element;

detect a change in a position of at least one of the upper limit control element and the lower limit control element; and

in response, determine a portion of the graph corresponding to a new heart rate range specified by the upper limit control element and the lower limit control element in real-time.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein generating the graph includes:

displaying an average heart rate for each of a plurality of workouts in the graph; and

generating and displaying a trendline for the plurality of workouts using the average heart rate of each of the plurality of workouts.