GB2517406A

GB2517406A - Activity level device

Info

Publication number: GB2517406A
Application number: GB1311875.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Justin Philip Pisani; Matthew Wright
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2013-07-02
Filing date: 2013-07-02
Publication date: 2015-02-25
Also published as: GB201311875D0

Abstract

An activity system comprises an activity sensor, a wired or wireless connection and a viewing means to display the activity recorded using a time segmented circular format (figure 5). Each time segment may be broken into one or more steps representing the level of activity in that time segment (13, 14, 15). An activity target level or an average activity level may be shown on the circular format. A user preferably carries the activity sensor on their person during activities of normal daily living.

Description

Intellectual Property Office Application No. GBI3I 1875.7 RTM Date:11 November 2014 The following terms are registered trade marks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document: Nike Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.ipo.govuk

ACTIVITY LEVEL DEVICE

Description

The benefits of physical activity in the promotion of human well-being are a well understood in both sporting and healthcare science fields. As well as benefit to the human cardiovascular system, activity may also relate to the energy consumption of the individual which may be helpful in the management of body weight.

Several personal devices have been developed to allow a user to measure their degree of activity (eg: Nike Inc., USA Fuel Band-i-) and to display the results. Typically these devices measure accelerative forces on the body and use a formula to covert this movement into an activity level. This level can then be approximated to energy consumption using a measure such as calorific expenditure (kCAL), or Metabolic Equivalents (METs). Activity targets are then derived from the same measures and used to show the user how their current activity relates to their chosen target. A drawback of such devices is that in presenting this information to users, it assumes the users have understanding of these measures.

Furthermore these measures are often presented as scientific charts, line or column graphs which is a technique only familiar to certain users. In addition it may be difficult for users to relate this data to activities of daily living and hence determine favourable behaviour.

The leads to these devices have limited appeal to the population.

Accordingly, this invention provides a new measurement system which does not require the user to have such a prior knowledge of energy expenditure terms and allows the user to visualise activity over a time period without the need to use formal graphical methods.

Preferred [mbodiment The invention is now described with the following Figures:-Figure 1-shows the element comprising the activity sensor system.

Figure 2-shows the means the measurement system displays the data.

Figure 3-shows how a target and average activity level is shown on the measurement system.

Figure 4-shows how a time above the target activity level is shown.

Figure 5-shows how the measurement system display may be annotated.

The preferred embodiment is shown in Fig 1. An activity sensor [1] is used which the user carries on their person during activities of normal daily living. Those skilled in the art will know several methods exist to measure activity as a result of accelerative forces on the body and such devices are commonplace. The activity level can be transferred to a smart phone [2] which may process and present the data via an application contained on the device. Additionally it may also forward the data via a wireless data connection [4] to a computer server which can process the data and make it available for remote viewing [5].

Alternatively the user may periodically transfer the data via wired connection [3] to the same viewing application [4].

Referring to Fig2, the viewing application can present the data in terms a circular image, divided in segments representing a division of time [6] [7]. The division used may be some convenient multiple such as one or more hours.

Within each segment [7], a further subdivision may be made to represent sub-divisions of the segment. Each column is broken into a number of levels [8]. The inner level [9] represents minimal activity and the outer level [8] represents high activity. The number of levels may vary depending on user preferences or the amount of data to be shown. Those familiar in the art, will be aware several methods exist to convert accelerative forces measured on the body to activity levels in order to derive the steps in the column. As time progresses successive columns will be populated with the activity level measure at that time The level of activity may have thresholds which could be used to represent low (eg: stationary) activity, moderate (eg: walking or light office work) and high (eg: vigorous exercise). This may be represented by colour coding the steps in the column.

The levels of activity and thresholds may be customised within the viewing application to improve accuracy to the user activity. This customisation may include for example, the type and location of the sensordevice, theytype of activitythe usertypically undertakes, the profile of the user, or the users self-assessment.

Referring to Fig 3, over successive steps the display can compute a mean level of activity and represent it as a ring [11] within the display. This may be shown as a best fit circle or irregular circle again depending on preference. Furthermore an additional ring can be defined on the display by the user as a mean target [10], allowing the user to easily compare the two.

Referring to Figure 4, additionally the time spent above the target may be written as a time at the centre of the display [12].

Referring to Figure 5, to further aid user understanding the major steps in the display may be annotated at the periphery with symbols representing the activity undertaken in that period [13, 14, and 15] and these may be automatically suggested by the application, or selected by the user.

Claims

Claims We claim 1. An activity system comprising -An activity sensor.-A wired or wireless connection.-A viewing means to display the activity recorded using a time segmented circular format.
2. A system as defined in Claim 1, where each time segment is broken into one or more steps representing the level of activity in that time segment.
3. A system as defined in Claim 2, where the levels may be colour coded.
4. A system as defined in Claim 1, where an activity target level is shown on the circular format.
S. A system as defined in Claim 1, where an average activity level is shown on the circular format.
6. A system as defined in Claim 1, where a time display shows the amount of time spent over a target activity level.
7. A system as defined in Claim 1, where an average activity level is shown on the circular format.
8. A system as defined in Claim 1, where a segment may be annotated by the activity type undertaken either by the user or by an automated algorithm.