FITNESS MONITORING DEVICE WITH ALTIMETER

• US 20140278220A1
• Filed: 05/30/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Yuen, Shelten Gee Jao
• Granted Patent: US 9,599,632 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/150
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02427 Details of sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02433 for infrared radiation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• 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 5/4812 Detecting sleep stages or cycles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• 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: A63B 24/0003 Analysing the course of a movement or motion sequences during an exercise or trainings sequence, e.g. swing for golf or tennis
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 21/16 for measuring distance of clearance between spaced objects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 5/005 altimeters for aircraft G01C5/02, G01C5/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 5/06 by using barometric means
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 1/00 Photometry, e.g. photographic exposure meter spectrophotometry G01J3/00; specially adapted for radiation pyrometry G01J5/00 ; exposure meters built in cameras G03B17/06
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 9/008 using piezoelectric devices piezoelectric resonators G01L9/0022; surface acoustic waves G01L9/0025
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/00 Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/14 by making use of gyroscopes gyroscopes per se G01C19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/00 Arrangements or instruments for measuring magnetic variables
• 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: 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 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 : using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• 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

Abstract

Biometric monitoring devices, including various technologies that may be implemented in such devices, are discussed herein. Additionally, techniques for utilizing altimeters in biometric monitoring devices are provided. Such techniques may, in some implementations, involve recalibrating a biometric monitoring device altimeter based on location data; using altimeter data as an aid to gesture recognition; and/or using altimeter data to manage an airplane mode of a biometric monitoring device.

Claims

1. A wearable biometric tracking device, the wearable biometric tracking device comprising:

one or more biometric sensors;

a pressure sensor, the pressure sensor configured to detect ambient atmospheric air pressure around the wearable biometric tracking device and to output data representative of altitude, wherein the data representative of altitude is based, at least in part, on air pressure measured by the pressure sensor;

a location-determining device configured to determine location based on data received from one or more devices remote from the wearable biometric tracking device and to output corresponding location data; and

control logic, wherein the one or more biometric sensors, the pressure sensor, the location-determining device, and the control logic are communicatively connected and the control logic is configured to;

a) receive the location data from the location-determining device,

b) analyze the location data to determine a first location of the wearable biometric tracking device,

c) determine a first topographic altitude from historical topographic data, wherein the first topographic altitude is an altitude correlated with the first location,

d) receive the data representative of altitude from the pressure sensor,

e) analyze the data representative of altitude to determine if the pressure sensor should be recalibrated based on a first difference between the first topographic altitude and an altitude (i) calculated from the data representative of altitude and (ii) associated with the first location, and

f) recalibrate the pressure sensor based on the first difference when the control logic determines in (e) that the pressure sensor should be recalibrated.

2. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, wherein the pressure sensor is a barometric altimeter or a barometric pressure sensor.

3. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, wherein the location-determining device includes one or more systems selected from the group consisting of:

satellite-based global positioning systems, Wi-Fi-based positioning systems, cell-tower-location-based systems, near-field-communications tag look-up systems, radio-frequency identification tag look-up systems, camera-image-based look-up systems, and systems that are configured to interrogate a nearby, external paired device for location information.

4. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, wherein the control logic is further configured to, responsive to a determination in e) that the pressure sensor should be recalibrated, recalibrate the pressure sensor so as to produce corrected data representative of altitude based on the first difference.

5. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 4, wherein the control logic is further configured to at least repeat (a) through (e) one or more times.

6. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 5, wherein each repetition of (a) through (e) is separated from the immediately preceding performance of (a) through (e) by a set time interval.

7. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 6, wherein the set time interval is between 1 second to 24 hours.

8. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, wherein the historical topographic data is stored within the wearable biometric tracking device.

9. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, further comprising wireless communication circuitry communicatively coupled with the control logic, wherein the historical topographic data is obtained from a secondary source remote from the biometric tracking device via the wireless communication circuitry.

10. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, wherein the control logic is further configured to:

g) analyze the first location to determine an update time period; and

h) repeat at least (a) through (e) according to the update time period.

11. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 10, wherein (g) includes:

determining that the historical topographic data indicates a second location with a second topographic altitude,

determining that the first location and the second location are separated by an first distance,

determining that the second location is the closest location to the first location where the absolute difference between the first topographic altitude and the second topographic altitude is greater than a first topographic altitude difference threshold, and

determining the update time period based, at least in part, on the first distance.

12. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 10, wherein (g) includes determining that the first location is within a first threshold distance of a location of a building according to the historical topographic data.

13. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 12, wherein the control logic is further configured to:

cease performing at least (f) while the first location is within the first threshold distance of the location of the building.

14. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to:

detect when the wearable biometric tracking device has traveled to a second location at least a first distance away from the first location; and

repeat at least (a) through (e) responsive to the first distance exceeding a translation distance threshold.

15. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 14, wherein the translation distance threshold is a distance between 50 feet and 200 feet.

16. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores further program instructions for controlling the one or more processors to:

detect when the wearable biometric tracking device has traveled at least a first distance; and

repeat at least (a) through (e) responsive to the first distance exceeding a translation distance threshold.

17. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 14, wherein the translation distance threshold is a distance between 500 feet and 1000 feet.

18. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, wherein the control logic is further configured to:

i) analyze the data representative of altitude over a period time to determine when there is a change in altitude beyond a first threshold altitude change amount for the wearable biometric tracking device over the period of time and while the location data indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device has not traveled more than a first threshold distance away from the first location, and

i) perform at least (a) through (e) responsive to (i).

19. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 1, further comprising an image acquisition interface, wherein the control logic is further configured to:

g) obtain a first image associated with the data representative of altitude,

h) cause the first image to be analyzed to determine a first image-based altitude,

i) analyze the data representative of altitude to determine if the pressure sensor should be recalibrated based on a second difference between the first image-based altitude and the altitude (i) calculated from the data representative of altitude and (ii) associated with the first location, and

j) recalibrate the pressure sensor based on the second difference when the control logic determines in (i) that the pressure sensor should be recalibrated

20. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 19, wherein the control logic is further configured to perform (h) by:

causing the first image to be compared against a plurality of reference images, each reference image associated with an image-based altitude, and

receiving a determination that a first reference image with the first image-based altitude meets one or more matching criteria with respect to the first image.

21. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 19, wherein the control logic is further configured to perform (h) by:

performing optical-character-recognition on the first image,

extracting first text-based information from the first image, and

determining the first image-based altitude from the first text-based information.

22. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 21, wherein the control logic is further configured to determine the first image-based altitude from the first text-based information by extracting the first image-based altitude from the first text-based information.

23. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 21, wherein the control logic is further configured to determine the first image-based altitude from the first text-based information by:

causing the first text-based information to be compared against a plurality of textual records in a database, each textual record associated with a text-based altitude,

receiving a determination that a first textual record meets one or more matching criteria with respect to the first text-based information, and

using the text-based altitude for the first textual record as the first image-based altitude.

24. A wearable biometric tracking device, the wearable biometric tracking device comprising:

a pressure sensor configured to detect ambient atmospheric air pressure around the wearable biometric tracking device and to output data representative of altitude, wherein the data representative of altitude is based, at least in part, on air pressure measured by the pressure sensor data representative of altitude;

a motion sensor, the motion sensor configured to detect motion of the wearable biometric tracking device and to output corresponding motion data; and

control logic, wherein the pressure sensor, the motion sensor, and the control logic are communicatively connected and the control logic is configured to;

a) receive the data representative of altitude,

b) receive the motion data,

c) determine when the data representative of altitude and the motion data, in combination, correlate with a first arm movement profile of a plurality of arm movement profiles, and

d) store data associated with the first arm movement profile responsive to the determination in (c).

25-43. -43. (canceled)

44. A wearable biometric tracking device comprising:

a pressure sensor configured to detect altitude of the wearable biometric tracking device and to output corresponding data representative of altitude; and

a motion sensor, the motion sensor configured to detect motion of the wearable biometric tracking device and to output corresponding motion data; and

control logic, wherein the biometric monitoring device, the pressure sensor, and the control logic are communicatively connected and the control logic is configured to;

a) determine when the data representative of altitude indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device has not experienced an altitude rate-of-change exceeding a first altitude rate-of-change threshold during a first time period, and

b) place the wearable biometric tracking device into a lower power-consumption state during a second time period following the first time period responsive to, at least, determining in (a) that the data representative of altitude indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device has not experienced an altitude rate-of-change exceeding the first altitude rate-of-change threshold during the first time period.

45. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 44, wherein the control logic is further configured to:

c) determine when the motion data indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device experienced an impact event immediately prior to the first time period, and

d) perform b) by placing the wearable biometric tracking device into the lower power-consumption state responsive to determining in (c) that the motion data indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device experienced an impact event immediately prior to the first time period in addition to determining in (a) that the data representative of altitude indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device has not experienced an altitude rate-of-change exceeding the first altitude rate-of-change threshold during the first time period.

46. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 44, the control logic is further configured to:

c) determine when the data representative of altitude indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device experienced an altitude rate-of-change exceeding a second altitude rate-of-change threshold during the second time period, and

d) cause the wearable biometric tracking device to exit the lower power-consumption state responsive to determining in (c) that the data representative of altitude indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device experienced an altitude rate-of-change exceeding the second altitude rate-of-change threshold during the second time period.

47. The wearable biometric tracking device of claim 46, wherein the control logic is further configured to:

e) cause, responsive to determining in (c) that the data representative of altitude indicates that the wearable biometric tracking device experienced an altitude rate-of-change exceeding the second altitude rate-of-change threshold during the second time period, a display of the wearable biometric tracking device to transition to an on state from an off or standby state and to display a message.

48-75. -75. (canceled)