Energy expenditure

• US 9,529,966 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2013
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Inventors: Weast, Aaron B., Goodwin, Aaron K., Mullin, James M., Schmitt, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, TOAN M
• Application Number:
  US13/744,103
• Publication Number:
  US 20130191034A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,440 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4866 Evaluating metabolism A61B5/083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 Pedometers
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/00 Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/003 Repetitive work cycles; Sequence of movements
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 5/00 ICT specially adapted for modelling or simulations in systems biology, e.g. gene-regulatory networks, protein interaction networks or metabolic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/40 relating to mechanical, radiation or invasive therapies, e.g. surgery, laser therapy, dialysis or acupuncture
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Aspects relate to calculating energy expenditure values from an apparatus configured to be worn on an appendage of a user. Steps counts may be quantified, such as by detecting arm swings peaks and bounce peaks in motion data. A search range of acceleration frequencies related to an expected activity may be established. Frequencies of acceleration data within a search range may be analyzed to identify one or more peaks, such as a bounce peak and an arm swing peak. Novel systems and methods may determine whether to utilize the arm swing data, bounce data, and/or other data or portions of data to quantify steps. The number of peaks (and types of peaks) may be used to choose a step frequency and step magnitude. At least a portion of the motion data may be classified into an activity category based upon the quantification of steps.

Claims

1. A unitary apparatus comprising:

a unitary housing configured to be worn on an appendage of a user, comprising;

a processor;

a sensor configured to capture motion data of the user;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor perform at least;

capturing motion data of the user with the sensor while being worn on an appendage of the user;

quantifying steps taken by the user based upon the motion data, comprising;

dividing the motion data into a first portion in a first buffer and a second portion in a second buffer, wherein the second portion in the second buffer is older data than the first portion in the first buffer;

selecting the first portion or the second portion as selected motion data, wherein the first portion is selected if it is above a motion data threshold, and wherein the second portion is selected if it is above the motion data threshold and the first portion is below the motion data threshold;

detecting arm swings peaks and bounce peaks in the selected motion data;

determining whether to utilize the arm swing peaks or the bounce peaks in the selected motion data to quantify the steps; and

estimating a quantity of steps taken by the user during a time period based on at least one of the utilized arm swing peaks or bounce peaks in the data;

classifying the selected motion data into an activity category based upon the quantification of steps during the time period, and

at the processor of the unitary apparatus, calculating an energy expenditure value.

2. The unitary apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus comprises further instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

receiving a metabolic equivalence value corresponding to the classified data from the computer-readable medium on the unitary apparatus, wherein the metabolic equivalence value is utilized in the calculation of the energy expenditure value.

3. The unitary apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus comprises further instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

determining that at least a portion of the motion data cannot be categorized into an activity category, and in response, conducting an energy expenditure determination that assigns a metabolic equivalence value to the uncategorized data.

4. The unitary apparatus of claim 3, wherein the calculation of the energy expenditure data comprises combining energy expenditure values of classified activities and energy expenditure values of unclassified activities.

5. The unitary apparatus of claim 1, the apparatus further comprising:

a display configured to be observable by the user while being worn by the user,

wherein the time period is a first time period; and

the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus further comprises instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least;

combining the energy expenditure value for the first time period with an energy expenditure value from a second time period to determine an accumulated energy expenditure value; and

displaying the accumulated energy expenditure value on the display of the unitary apparatus.

6. The unitary apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises an accelerometer, and the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus comprises further instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

determining accelerometer magnitude vectors from the accelerometer for a time frame;

calculating an average value from magnitude vectors for the time frame; and

determining whether the magnitude vectors for the time frame meet an acceleration threshold and be used to quantify steps for at least the time frame.

7. The unitary apparatus of claim 6, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus comprises further instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

determining that the magnitude vectors for the time frame did not meet an acceleration threshold and therefore are not used to quantify steps for at least the time frame; and

utilizing the data that did not meet the acceleration threshold in a calculation of an energy expenditure value.

8. The unitary apparatus of claim 7, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus comprises further instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

determining that at least a portion of the data meets the acceleration threshold and in response, placing acceleration data within an analysis buffer;

calculating a mean acceleration value of the analysis buffer to create a search range of acceleration frequencies related to an expected activity;

analyzing frequencies of the acceleration data within the search range to identify at least one bounce peak and one arm swing peak; and

determining whether to utilize at least one of the bounce peak and the arm swing peak to quantify steps.

9. The unitary apparatus of claim 8, wherein the expected activity is selected from the group consisting of:

walking, jogging, running, and combinations thereof.

10. The unitary apparatus of claim 8, wherein the search range comprises an arm swing range and a bounce range, and wherein the analyzing frequencies within the acceleration data comprises:

identifying a first frequency peak as an arm swing peak if the first frequency peak is within the arm swing range and meets an arm swing peak threshold; and

identifying a second frequency peak as a bounce peak if the second frequency peak is within the bounce range and meets a bounce peak threshold.

11. The unitary apparatus of claim 10, wherein the determining whether to utilize the bounce peak or the arm swing peak to quantify steps comprises:

quantifying a number of arm swing peaks and bounce peaks; and

utilizing the quantification of arm swing peaks and bounce peaks in a calculation to choose a step frequency and step magnitude.

12. The unitary apparatus of claim 11, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus comprises further instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

based upon the chosen frequency and step magnitude, quantifying a number of steps taken by the user during a respective time frame; and

based upon the number of steps taken, classifying the user'"'"'s motion into an activity for the respective time frame.

13. The unitary apparatus of claim 12, wherein the time period is a first time period, and the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus comprises further instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

based on the classified activity, assigning an energy expenditure value for the first time period;

combining the energy expenditure value for the first time period with an energy expenditure value from a second time period to calculate an accumulated energy expenditure value; and

displaying the accumulated energy expenditure value on the display of the unitary apparatus.

14. The unitary apparatus of claim 13, wherein the energy expenditure value from the second time period comprises data that is not classified into an activity.

15. The unitary apparatus of claim 13, the non-transitory computer-readable medium of the unitary apparatus comprises further instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

receiving a user input from a user input device located on the user input device, and in response, displaying the energy expenditure value on the display.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a processor perform at least:

capturing motion data of a user with an accelerometer sensor and a GPS sensor worn on an appendage of the user;

quantifying steps taken by the user, comprising;

detecting arm swing instances and bounce instances in the motion data from the accelerometer sensor and the GPS sensor worn on the appendage;

determining whether to utilize the arm swing instances or the bounce instances in the motion data to quantify the steps; and

using only motion data collected from the accelerometer sensor and the GPS sensor worn on the appendage, estimating a quantity of steps taken by the user during a time period based on at least one of the utilized arm swing instances or bounce instances in the data;

classifying the data into an activity category based upon the quantification of steps during the time period, and

using a processor to calculate an energy expenditure value.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the calculated energy expenditure value is a first energy expenditure value and the computer-readable medium further comprising instructions that when executed by the processor, perform at least:

combining the energy expenditure value for a first time period with an energy expenditure value from a second time period to determine an accumulated energy expenditure value; and

displaying the accumulated energy expenditure value on a display of a device configured to be worn by the user during collection of the motion data.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the only captured motion data of the user is from one or more sensors that are located on the device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein all of the information required to calculate the energy expenditure value is either (a) located on the device before collection of the motion data or (b) derived from the motion data without information external to the device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the sensor comprises an accelerometer.