Athletic performance monitoring system utilizing heart rate information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9895096-B2
Application number	US-96413910-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2010
Priority date	Dec 9, 2009
Publication date	Feb 20, 2018
Grant date	Feb 20, 2018

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.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An athletic performance monitoring system comprising:
a data collection module comprising a processor and memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause the data collection 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, wherein the first type of athletic activity parameter includes one of: a speed of a user performing the athletic activity, a pace of the user performing the athletic activity, and a distance traveled by the user performing the athletic activity; 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 the user performing an athletic activity,
wherein, when the athletic performance monitoring system is used to detect athletic activity of the user:
the data collection module is configured to collect heart rate information through the second sensor for a plurality of activity types, and configured to provide the user with a plurality of heart beat credits that are configured to be earned and dedicated by the user to one or more interests of the user, and
the data collection module is configured to collect the first type of athletic activity parameter through the first sensor for only a subset of the plurality of activity types.

2. 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.

3. 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, wherein athletic activity monitoring includes detecting athletic activity using the second sensor.

4. The athletic performance monitoring system of claim 3 , wherein the data collection module is further configured to display an indicator identifying sensors that have been detected by the data collection module.

5. The athletic performance monitoring system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of heart beat credits has an expiration date that is extended upon the user performing an additional workout.

6. A method comprising:
generating, by a computing device, a graph for an athletic activity comprising heart rate information and pace information, wherein generating the graph is performed after completion of the athletic activity, and wherein the graph includes a first graphical representation of the heart rate information and a second graphical representation, different from the first graphical representation, of the pace information;
generating a heart rate profile of a user for a workout, from the completed athletic activity, wherein the user is alerted when the workout meets a predefined heart rate profile with specified portions of the workout falling within multiple heart rate ranges, and wherein the user is provided with a plurality of heart beat credits, the plurality of heart beat credits configured to be earned and dedicated by the user to one or more interests of the user;
generating, by the computing device, a heart rate range control including an upper limit control element and a lower limit control element;
receiving a first user selection of a first heart rate range after the graph has been generated, wherein receiving the first user selection of the first heart rate range includes:
receiving user input indicating 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 the first heart rate range, wherein the first heart rate range is a range of heart rates between a lower heart rate limit corresponding to the lower limit control element and an upper heart rate limit corresponding to the upper limit control element;

determining, by the computing device, a first portion of the graph corresponding to the selected first heart rate range in response to receiving the first user selection; 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 user 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 and simultaneously with visually identifying 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 displaying the heart rate range control as an axis of the graph.

10. 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.

11. The method of claim 10 , 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.

12. The method of claim 6 , further comprising: generating, by the computing device, a display indicating a number of heart beat credits dedicated to the one or more interests of the user.

13. 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 a completed athletic activity session, the graph comprising heart rate information and pace information, wherein the graph includes a first graphical representation of the heart rate information and a second graphical representation, different from the first graphical representation, of the pace information;
generate a heart rate profile of a user for a workout, from the completed athletic activity session, wherein the user is alerted when the workout meets a predefined heart rate profile with specified portions of the workout falling within multiple heart rate ranges, and wherein the user is provided with a plurality of heart beat credits that are configured to be earned and dedicated by the user to one or more interests of the user;
generate a heart rate range control including an upper limit control element and a lower limit control;
receive a first user selection of a first heart rate range after generating the graph, wherein receiving the first user selection of the first heart rate range includes:
receiving user input indicating 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 the first heart rate range, wherein the first heart rate range is a range of heart rates between a lower heart rate limit corresponding to the lower limit control element and an upper heart rate limit corresponding to the upper limit control element;

determine a first

Assignees

• Nims Jason
• Capozzi Matt
• Hailey Michael Benjamin
• Crankson Kwamina
• Nike Inc

Inventors

• Nims Jason
• Capozzi Matt
• Hailey Michael Benjamin
• Crankson Kwamina

Classifications

• A61B5/222 Primary

  combined with detection or measurement of physiological parameters, e.g. heart rate · CPC title

• A63B2220/00

  Measuring of physical parameters relating to sporting activity · CPC title

• A63B24/0062

  Monitoring athletic performances, e.g. for determining the work of a user on an exercise apparatus, the completed jogging or cycling distance · CPC title

• A63B2225/50

  Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry · CPC title

• A63B2230/06

  heartbeat rate only · CPC title