Notifications Regarding Interesting or Unusual Activity Detected from an Activity Monitoring Device

• US 20140337451A1
• Filed: 07/28/2014
• Published: 11/13/2014
• 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, Clark, Chris
• Granted Patent: US 9,288,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• 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

A method is provided, including: processing requests from a plurality of users to join a group event, the group event defined for an activity metric for each of the plurality of users for a period of time; analyzing the activity metrics of the plurality of users to determine a ranking of the plurality of users based on their activity metrics, and to identify a change in relationship between activity metrics of two or more of the plurality of users; generating a message, wherein generating the message includes, identifying, based on the identified change in relationship, one or more user accounts of select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message, selecting a message template based on the identified change in relationship, and populating the message template to generate a message describing the change in relationship; sending the message to the one or more user accounts.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

processing requests from a plurality of users to join a group event, the group event defined for an activity metric for each of the plurality of users for a period of time;

processing activity data associated with each of the plurality of users during the period of time to determine and track the activity metric for each of the plurality of users, the activity data for a given user being determined from motion data detected by an activity monitoring device associated with the given user;

analyzing the activity metrics of the plurality of users to determine a ranking of the plurality of users based on their activity metrics, and to identify a change in relationship between activity metrics of two or more of the plurality of users;

generating a message, wherein generating the message includes,

identifying, based on the identified change in relationship, one or more user accounts of select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message,

selecting a message template based on the identified change in relationship, and populating the message template to generate a message describing the change in relationship;

sending the message to the one or more user accounts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user accounts are for all of the plurality of users or for the two or more of the plurality of users for whom the change in relationship is identified.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein when the identified change in relationship affects a position in the ranking that is equal to or higher than a threshold position, then the select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message are defined by all of the plurality of users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message are defined by the two or more of the plurality of users for whom the change in relationship is identified.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in relationship is defined by a passing event wherein an activity metric of a first one of the users surpasses an activity metric of a second one of the users.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the change in relationship is further defined by a difference between the activity metrics of the first one and second one of the users that exceeds a predefined amount.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the change in relationship is defined by a difference between the activity metrics of the first one and second one of the users that is less than a predefined amount.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the group event defines a competitive race.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the group event defines a common goal for each of the plurality of users.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the group event defines a collective goal for the plurality of users.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the message is defined by one or more of a push notification, a private message, or an e-mail.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the message template is based on the identified one or more user accounts of select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message are defined by one, or two, or some, or all of the plurality of users, that are selected based on characteristics of the change in the relationship between activity metrics of two or more of the plurality of users.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein populating the message template is defined by insertion of custom text that is based on activity metrics of the two or more users for whom the change in relationship is identified.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the message as part of a message feed defined for the group event.

16. A method, comprising:

receiving activity data, the activity data being determined from motion data detected by an activity tracking device, the activity tracking device being associated with a user account;

analyzing first activity data to determine characteristic activity levels for a first period of time of at least one day;

analyzing second activity data to determine characteristic activity levels for a second period of time of a second day, the second period of time occurring during a similar time frame as the first period of time;

identifying a deviation in the characteristic activity levels of the second period of time relative to the first period of time; and

in response to detecting the deviation in the characteristic activity levels, generating and sending a message to the user account that includes a description of the deviation in the characteristic activity levels.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the similar time frame is defined by one or more of a same day of the week, a similar time of day, a similar amount of time.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein generating the message includes selecting a message template for the deviation in the characteristic activity levels, and populating the message template.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting the message template is based on one or more of the time frame or a magnitude of the deviation.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein sending the message to the user account effects display of the message on one or more of the activity tracking device or a mobile device that is associated to the user account.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein sending the message is defined by one or more of a push notification, a private message, or an e-mail.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

further in response to the detecting the deviation in the characteristic activity levels, generating and sending a second message to a second user account that includes a description of the deviation in the characteristic activity levels, the second user account being identified as a member of a social graph of the user account.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein identifying the deviation is defined by detection of a difference, between the characteristic activity levels for the first period of time and the characteristic activity levels for the second period of time, that exceeds a predefined amount.

24. The method of claim 16,

wherein the characteristic activity levels for the first period of time define a mean activity level for the first period of time;

and

wherein the deviation is defined by the characteristic activity levels for the second period of time exceeding the mean activity level for the first period of time by a predefined amount.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the predefined amount is defined by one of the following:

a predefined activity level amount, a predefined fraction of the mean activity level, a predefined number of standard deviations of the mean activity level.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the deviation is defined by a statistically significant difference between the characteristic activity levels for the first period of time and the characteristic activity levels for the second period of time.

27. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions embodied thereon, the program instructions including:

program instructions for processing requests from a plurality of users to join a group event, the group event defined for an activity metric for each of the plurality of users for a period of time;

program instructions for processing activity data associated with each of the plurality of users during the period of time to determine and track the activity metric for each of the plurality of users, the activity data for a given user being determined from motion data detected by an activity monitoring device associated with the given user;

program instructions for analyzing the activity metrics of the plurality of users to determine a ranking of the plurality of users based on their activity metrics, and to identify a change in relationship between activity metrics of two or more of the plurality of users;

program instructions for generating a message, wherein generating the message includes,

identifying, based on the identified change in relationship, one or more user accounts of select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message,

selecting a message template based on the identified change in relationship, and populating the message template to generate a message describing the change in relationship;

program instructions for sending the message to the one or more user accounts.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the one or more user accounts are for all of the plurality of users or for the two or more of the plurality of users for whom the change in relationship is identified.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein when the identified change in relationship affects a position in the ranking that is equal to or higher than a threshold position, then the select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message are defined by all of the plurality of users.

30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the select ones of the plurality of users to receive the message are defined by the two or more of the plurality of users for whom the change in relationship is identified.