Eyewear having human activity monitoring device

• US 7,987,070 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2008
• Issued: 07/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Kahn, Philippe, Kinsolving, Arthur, Christensen, Mark Andrew, Lee, Brian Y., Vogel, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Nghiem, Michael P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Toan M
• Application Number:
  US12/108,486
• Publication Number:
  US 20090234614A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: 702/160, 702/1, 702/33, 702/41, 702/81, 702 84- 85, 702/92, 702 94- 99, 702/127, 702130-131, 702/133, 702/136, 702138-142, 702149-154, 702/158, 702182-183, 702188-189, 351/41, 351/83, 351/111, 351/158, 340/384.1, 340/540, 340/573.1, 340669-670, 340/686.1, 340/815.4, 340/815.58, 34087001-87002, 34087004-87005, 73 137- 138, 73 175- 177, 73/17.9, 734/88, 734/90, 734/92, 734/95, 73510-511, 735/140.1, 735/30
• US Class Current: 702/160
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• 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 5/486 Bio-feedback A61B5/375 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 11/10 Electronic devices other than hearing aids
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 5/001 specially adapted for particular purposes, not otherwise provided for or not fully classifiable according to technical characteristics, e.g. therapeutic glasses

Abstract

A method for monitoring human activity using an inertial sensor includes obtaining acceleration measurement data from an inertial sensor disposed in eyewear. The acceleration measurement data is processed to determine a user activity statistic. The user activity statistic includes at least one of a current user activity, periodic human motion count, total distance traveled, vertical distance traveled, current speed and average speed.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring user activity using an inertial sensor, comprising:

obtaining, by a processor, acceleration measurement data from an inertial sensor disposed in eyewear; and

processing the acceleration measurement data by the processor to determine an identification of a current user activity from a plurality of user activities that are determinable by the processor based on the acceleration measurement data, the processing comprising;

comparing the acceleration measurement data to a plurality of motion criteria sets, each of the motion criteria sets distinguishing a distinct activity of the plurality of user activities;

determining that the acceleration measurement data satisfies motion criteria in a particular motion criteria set based on the comparison; and

identifying a particular user activity associated with the particular motion criteria set as the current user activity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity;

formatting the user activity statistic to a generic format readable by a plurality of devices; and

transmitting the formatted user activity statistic.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity;

monitoring a metric from an additional sensor; and

correlating the metric to the user activity statistic.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

using the correlation of the metric to the user activity statistic to increase accuracy of the user activity statistic.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity; and

providing user feedback based the user activity statistic, the user feedback including at least one of aural, visual and tactile feedback.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user feedback includes at least one of an indication to speed up performance of the user activity and an indication to slow down the performance of the user activity.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the visual feedback includes a display on a lens of the eyewear, the display being viewable to a user wearing the eyewear.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input to display a requested user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity, the user input being received by at least one of a control mounted on the eyewear, a speech command, an external remote control wirelessly connected to the eyewear, and a motion command interface; and

displaying the requested user activity statistic.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the eyewear is disposed on a user'"'"'s face, is otherwise disposed on the user, or is not disposed on the user.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

activating a first set of functions if the eyewear is disposed on the user'"'"'s face; and

activating a second set of functions if the eyewear is disposed elsewhere on the user.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the eyewear is disposed on a user'"'"'s face such that the eyewear is approximately aligned with an axis of symmetry of the user, the method further comprising:

identifying first accelerations caused by motions from a right half of the user'"'"'s body; and

identifying second accelerations caused by motions from a left half of the user'"'"'s body.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

identifying first steps taken by a left foot of the user;

identifying second steps taken by a right foot of the user; and

comparing acceleration measurements of the first steps to acceleration measurements of the second steps.

13. A non-transitory machine-accessible medium including instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

obtaining acceleration measurement data from an inertial sensor disposed in eyewear; and

processing the acceleration measurement data to determine an identification of a current user activity from a plurality of determinable user activities, the processing comprising;

comparing the acceleration measurement data to a plurality of motion criteria sets, each of the motion criteria sets distinguishing a distinct activity of the plurality of user activities;

determining that the acceleration measurement data satisfies motion criteria in a particular motion criteria set that distinguishes a particular user activity based on the comparison; and

identifying the particular user activity associated with the particular motion criteria set as the current user activity.

14. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, the method further comprising:

determining a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity;

formatting the user activity statistic to a generic format readable by a plurality of devices; and

transmitting the formatted user activity statistic.

15. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further comprising:

determining a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity;

monitoring a metric from an additional sensor; and

correlating the metric to the user activity statistic.

16. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, the method further comprising:

determining a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity; and

providing user feedback based the user activity statistic, the user feedback including at least one of aural, visual and tactile feedback.

17. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 16, wherein the visual feedback includes a display on a lens of the eyewear, the display being viewable to a user wearing the eyewear.

18. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 13, the method further comprising:

receiving user input to display a requested user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity, the user input being received by at least one of a control mounted on the eyewear, a speech command, an external remote control wirelessly connected to the eyewear, and a motion command interface; and

displaying the requested user activity statistic.

19. An inertial sensor based device, comprising:

eyewear;

an inertial sensor disposed in the eyewear to monitor accelerations; and

a processor disposed in the eyewear and coupled to the inertial sensor to receive acceleration measurement data from the inertial sensor, and to process the acceleration measurement data to determine a current user activity from among a plurality of device determinable user activities, the processing comprising;

comparing the acceleration measurement data to first motion criteria that distinguishes a first user activity and second motion criteria that distinguishes a second user activity; and

identifying the first user activity as the current user activity based on the comparison.

20. The inertial sensor based device of claim 19, further comprising:

the processor to determine a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity; and

a transmitter to transmit the user activity statistic, wherein the user activity statistic is formatted to a generic format readable by a plurality of devices prior to transmission.

21. The inertial sensor based device of claim 19, further comprising:

the processor to determine a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity; and

a memory to store at least one of the acceleration measurement data and the user activity statistic.

22. The inertial sensor based device of claim 19, further comprising:

a feedback element to provide at least one of aural, visual and tactile feedback.

23. The inertial sensor based device of claim 22, wherein the feedback element is a display on a lens of the eyewear, the display being viewable to a user wearing the eyewear.

24. The inertial sensor based device of claim 19, further comprising:

the processor to determine a user activity statistic associated with the identified user activity; and

an additional sensor to provide a metric to correlate to the user activity statistic.

25. The inertial sensor based device of claim 19, further comprising:

an input to receive user input, the input including least one of a control mounted on the eyewear, a speech command module, and a motion command interface module.

26. The inertial sensor based device of claim 19, further comprising:

a remote control wirelessly connected to the inertial sensor based device.