U.S. patent application number 11/893038 was filed with the patent office on 2009-02-19 for method for creating and distributing personalized fitness instruction.
This patent application is currently assigned to FitForFive.Com, LLC. Invention is credited to Nana Mensah, Kyle Barrett Thomas.
Application Number | 20090047644 11/893038 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 40363254 |
Filed Date | 2009-02-19 |
United States Patent
Application |
20090047644 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Mensah; Nana ; et
al. |
February 19, 2009 |
Method for creating and distributing personalized fitness
instruction
Abstract
A multimedia system product for use in physical fitness training
including a method and system for producing customized physical
fitness programs through an internet-based environment. The user is
allowed to select the individual components of the exercise video
and manipulate motion capture data by using a graphics engine to
customize the "look and feel" of the customized workout through
available training avatars. The individual components eligible for
inclusion are included in a database containing a plurality of
audio and visual media files of personal trainers performing
exemplar exercises. The compiled instructional video is then
available for download and installation on a video-enabled personal
media player.
Inventors: |
Mensah; Nana; (Lexington,
KY) ; Thomas; Kyle Barrett; (Lexington, KY) |
Correspondence
Address: |
ELIZABETH A. DEENER
LANDRUM & SHOUSE, LLP, P.O. BOX 951
LEXINGTON
KY
40588-0951
US
|
Assignee: |
FitForFive.Com, LLC
Lexington
KY
|
Family ID: |
40363254 |
Appl. No.: |
11/893038 |
Filed: |
August 14, 2007 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
434/247 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G16H 20/30 20180101;
G09B 5/06 20130101; G16H 20/60 20180101 |
Class at
Publication: |
434/247 |
International
Class: |
A63B 69/00 20060101
A63B069/00 |
Claims
1. A multimedia personal-training system, comprising: (a) a user,
wherein the user has access to an internet equipped computer; (b) a
video enabled personal media player, wherein the personal media
player is capable of synchronization with the user's computer; (c)
an internet-based environment, wherein the internet-based
environment comprises a web-page, a guided user interface ("GUI"),
and a computer server; (d) an exercise database containing one or
more transition videos and exercise components, wherein the
transition videos and exercise components are stored in
computer-readable format; (e) a computer software means for
accessing the exercise database through the internet-based
environment; (f) personal-training instructional media specific to
the user; (g) a computer software means for storing the
personal-training instructional media in the internet-based
environment; (h) a computer software means for accessing the
personal-training instructional media in the internet-based
environment; (i) a means for transmitting the personal-training
instructional media to the user's computer and synchronizing with
the video-equipped personal media player.
2. The multimedia system of claim 1, wherein the transition videos
are indexed by factors including length and content;
3. The multimedia system of claim 1, wherein the exercise
components are further comprised of audio instruction components
and video components;
4. The multimedia system of claim 3, wherein the audio instruction
components are indexed to corresponding video components.
5. The multimedia system of claim 4, wherein the video components
further include personal trainers demonstrating a plurality of
physical exercises and movements.
6. A method of creating the video components of claim 5, comprising
of (a) a means for recording exercise demonstrations; (b) animation
and/or motion-capture methods; (c) computer generated imagery
rendering engines; and (d) a means for storing the video components
in a machine-readable format.
7. The multimedia system of claim 5, wherein the video components
are indexed by factors relevant to the user, including gender,
target muscle groups, required equipment, and exercise experience
level.
8. A method of generating personal-fitness instructional media,
comprising the steps: (a) processing a plurality of user-specific
information; (b) generating a first selection of one or more
exercise components, wherein the first selection of exercise
components is made by comparing the user-specific information,
including gender and exercise experience level, with the indexed
information in the exercise database; (c) generating a second
selection of one or more exercise components, wherein the second
selection of base audio-video components is made by the user from
the first selection of exercise components by means of a guided
user-interface ("GUI") through an internet-based environment; (d)
compiling a sequential series of exercises including the selected
exercise components; and (e) creating a finished media product,
wherein a user-specific avatar is integrated with the sequential
series of exercises whereby the user appears to be performing the
demonstrated exercises.
9. The method of generating personal-fitness instructional media of
claim 8, wherein the user-specific information includes: personal
body statistics, gender, exercise experience level, goals, target
muscle groups, available equipment, and length/intensity of
workout.
10. The method of generating personal-fitness instructional media
of claim 9, further comprising the storage of the user-specific
information in a computer readable format wherein the user-specific
information is accessible through the internet based
environment.
11. The method of generating personal-fitness instructional media
of claim 8, further comprising the automatic selection of verbal
instruction components according to the second selection of
exercise components.
12. The method of generating personal-fitness instructional media
of claim 11, further comprising the integration of the verbal
instructions with the selected exercise components.
13. The method of generating personal-fitness instructional media
of claim 14, further comprising the selection of transition videos
based on the desired length/intensity of workout and the cumulative
length of the selected exercise components whereby the transition
videos are selected to provide time for rest or repetition of the
selected exercises by the user.
14. The method of generating personal-fitness instructional media
of claim 8, further comprising creating the user-specific training
avatar based on user-specific information, including a plurality of
body statistics, whereby a multi-dimensional computer image of the
user is generated.
15. The method of generating personal-fitness instructional media
of claim 8, wherein the finished media product is in a
computer-readable format, including MPEG-4 format.
16. A method for integrating audio files stored on user's computer
with finished media product, comprising: (a) a means for randomly
selecting audio files from the user's media library, wherein the
audio files include .mp3, .wma, and .aac files; (b) a means for
importing selected audio files into the finished media product when
downloaded on the user's computer; and (c) a means for coordinating
the volume of the added audio files with the audio components of
the finished media product.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present field of the invention relates to the field of
exercise instruction through media content. More particularly it
relates to a system and method for creating truly individualized
instructional media for teaching physical skills and movement.
[0003] 2. Background Discussion
[0004] Although it has long been held that exercise and physical
fitness improves quality of life and potentially extends longevity,
the health and fitness industry has changed dramatically in recent
years. The perception of physical exercise as an activity has also
changed as the population has aged and become more health-focused.
From the sole domain of body-builders, physical fitness has reached
the mainstream. Exercise has evolved from a luxury item of the
wealthy to a necessity for the everyman. The variety of exercises
available to the population is growing too, moving beyond
basketball, squash and free-weights to varietal yoga, pilates, and
spinning, to name a few. Thus, gym memberships and at home exercise
equipment are ever increasing in popularity and sales.
[0005] Traditional physical training, whether in a brick-and-mortar
gymnasium or at home required instruction. For safety and proper
results, an exercise must be executed according to a prescribed
form. To execute proper form in exercise, one would need to receive
instruction from a personal trainer. Although personal training is
the most popular health club program, such instruction is not
always the most desirable option, whether for convenience, cost, or
modesty. Video and DVD recordings of personal trainers for use at
home provide convenience and privacy for exercise, but only provide
an exemplar of the proper form. Additionally, the user is unable to
transport this visualization of the exercise to the gym with the
user. This often creates inappropriate comparisons of the user to
the trainer model resulting in the user improperly performing the
exercise. As stated, this leads to imperfect results or
injuries.
[0006] There are a great many fitness, exercise, or workout videos
available to consumers in the market--many produced by celebrities
or the celebrity personal trainers. Prepared and pre-packaged
exercise programs available on DVD or video are intended for use at
home and are not portable. They do not allow the user to travel
with the instructions--whether to his or her home gym or when at a
hotel fitness center. Nor do such products allow the user to
customize his or her workout to meet personal goals, target
specific body areas, or accommodate limitations.
[0007] There are existing methods and systems to provide video
demonstration training for sports techniques, for example, O'Leary
et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,967; Mann, U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,295;
Powers, U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,770; Brady-Koontz, U.S. Pat. No.
6,468,086. Methods and systems exist to allow a user to interact,
directly and through the internet, with electronic exercise
equipment, for example, Waters, US App. 20060229163; Fernandez, et
al, U.S. Pat. No. 7,022,048. These methods, like the traditional
video exercise tape, are necessarily stationary and do not allow
the user portability and choice in exercise surroundings. There are
also existing methods for distributing exercise videos which may be
played on personal media players, for example, Demas, U.S. Pat. No.
7,056,267; Bartels, US App. 2005020950. And, recently, methods for
computers or third-parties to create an exercise program for a
user, based on rudimentary information from the user, for example,
Wesemann et al, U.S. application Ser. No. 11/383,921; Wesemann et
al, U.S. Application 60/682,361; Gray et al, U.S. Application
60/709,626. These methods and systems satisfy some of the desire
for portability. However, they create only "best fitting" workouts,
but do not produce workouts fully-tailored to the individual user
as they do not allow the user complete control over the creation of
their exercise program, including the selection of specific
exercises and their order of repetition.
[0008] The solution to these problems is to generate an exercise
instruction program that is fully selected by the user and
generated with the same physical characteristics as the user, but
having superior movement patterns. Additionally, this instruction
program can be downloaded onto a personal media player for
portability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] Embodiments of this invention are internet-based systems and
programs for creating user-specific multimedia physical
instruction.
[0010] Among the characteristics of this invention are the
provision of a system that teaches a physical training or exercise
movement by providing a model having the same physical
characteristics as the particular user. This is done by use of an
avatar created by a computer generated model based on user inputs
which is then merged with the instructional data so that the
avatar--performs the desired exercise.
[0011] The physical training program or instruction is generated
directly by the user from a database of exercises. This database of
exercises is created using motion capture technology to create the
entry files of male and female personal trainers performing
exemplars of the specified exercise. Audio instruction files
created by personal trainers for the respective demonstrations are
also stored in the database, and are keyed to the appropriate
demonstration files. This database will be available to the user
based on indication of gender and experience level, and will be
listed by exercise characteristics, such as muscle groups targeted
and whether equipment will be used. The user will create a
fully-customized workout routine exercise-by-exercise, rather than
by indicating fitness progress and goals and having a third-party
compile their routine. The user's exercise experience can be
configured further by indicating desired fitness goals, allowing
the user to work different muscle groups in different ways.
[0012] Once satisfied with the customized workout routine, the user
can compile the routine. The user specified instruction or workout
routine will be merged using computer software with the previously
created avatar. The user-specific training videos are then made
available to the user, including for download from the system
server onto a personal computer. Once installed on the personal
computer, the user-specific training video may be further
customized by integrating audio media files from the user's local
media library into the training video using an audio mixing module.
The audio mixing module incorporates an audio normalizing feature
which functions to automatically lower the volume of the
incorporated audio files when audio fitness instruction files are
played. The instructional video is then ready for synchronization
or installation on the video-enabled personal media player of the
user's choice.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] The exemplification set out herein illustrate the preferred
embodiment of the invention, but is neither intended nor should be
construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
[0014] FIG. 1. Shows a block diagram representation of the method
and process for creating a personalized fitness instructional
video.
[0015] FIG. 2. Shows a block diagram representation of a method for
the interaction between the User and the method gateway of the
guided-user-interface ("GUI") in the internet based
environment.
[0016] FIG. 3. Shows a block diagram representation of a method for
selecting the appropriate sub-exercise database from Exercise
Database (18) based on User Data Inputs (7) and the applied filters
of the Database Selection Software (6).
[0017] FIG. 4. Shows a block diagram representation of a method for
creating Exercise Database (18) through the use of motion capture
technology, video recording systems, and animation software to
record male and female personal trainers demonstrating exemplars of
desired physical fitness movements.
[0018] FIG. 5. Shows a block diagram representation of a method for
creating an individualized user Avatar (10) based on the User Data
Inputs (7) and animation software (28).
[0019] FIG. 6. Shows a block diagram representation of a method for
mixing the Compiled Media File (13) with audio media files residing
on the user's Personal Computer (2) before installing on the
Personal Media Player (1).
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0020] This invention is a fully customizable video fitness
instruction system which is designed for distribution via the
internet and viewing over a video-enabled personal media player. It
is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the
figures have been simplified to illustrate elements that are
relevant for a clear understanding of the present invention, while
elimination, for purposes of clarity, elements found in a typical
fitness system or internet-based program; those of ordinary skill
will recognize other elements which are necessary and/or desirable
for the implementation of the present invention.
[0021] The embodiments of the invention described herein relate to
methods, systems and/or computer program products for creating and
providing video workout or exercise instruction that is customized
by and for the user. More particularly, embodiments of the disclose
a fully-customized personal training video delivered to the end
user via the internet. Final media output is determined by the user
from start to finish. The embodiments relate a web-based
application existing in a Linux/UNIX or similar environment wherein
unique personal training videos arejoined "on-the-fly" based on
user inputs.
[0022] The embodiments may be further defined as a web-based
solution that enables the manipulation of motion capture data by
using a rendering engine to allow the user to customize the "look
and feel" of a customized workout through available training
avatars.
[0023] Referring generally to FIG. 1, these personal training
videos are not generated "intelligently" by the system based on
user inputs including, but not limited to, indicated fitness goals
and available equipment. Rather, a database of exercises will be
available to the user for selection based on indication of gender
and experience level. This database is generated in a
motion-capture/animation studio or similar location.
[0024] Referring to FIG. 4, Personal Trainers (20 & 21) are
recorded, using motion capture technology (23), demonstrating the
desired exercises and/or movements. As movements are specific and
may differ based on gender, male and female personal trainers are
recorded (20 & 21). Using a rendering engine or other software
as necessary, computer files may be made from these recordings of
male and female personal trainers performing individual exercises.
These files are stored in a fitness database (18) and are indexed
according various factors including the gender of the trainer and
the demonstrated exercise. The database is further subdivided
and/or indexed by additional characteristics, including target
muscle groups. Personal trainers also record audio instruction
relevant to the demonstrated exercises and/or movements. Audio
instruction is indexed to the corresponding video recording and
stored in the database. The database is accessed by the user
through the internet-based environment.
[0025] A dedicated web-page is maintained in the internet-based
environment through a PHP platform. The user interacts with this
web-page through a custom guided user-interface ("GUI"). The user
initially provides personalized information, including personal
statistics. Through this GUI, the user accesses software to create
a personalized three-dimensional avatar, or visual alias,
reflecting the user's previously entered personal statistics.
[0026] As shown by FIG. 3, after creating their user specific
avatars, the user will specify, through the GUI, filters to be
applied to the exercise fitness database (18) to narrow the
available exercise components. These filters include, but are not
limited to: the type of exercise or fitness instruction desired and
his or her fitness experience level. The fitness experience level
is designated to prevent injury to a user by a "beginner" user
attempting to create an exercise routine using an "expert"
exercise. Although an expert user will have access to all exercise
components in the database, a user with "moderate" experience will
be denied access to expert components and a beginner will be denied
access to expert and moderate exercises.
[0027] Based on user selections and user provided information (7),
computer software (6) accessed through the internet-based
environment makes an appropriate "first selection" (19) of files
from the fitness database of personal trainers demonstrating the
exercises most relevant to the user's indicated filters (15),
including but not limited to gender, experience level, and
available equipment. Instead of simply indicating fitness progress
and goals and having an exercise program prepared and/or provided
for the user, the user will have the opportunity to add exercises
one-by-one to a list, creating a fully-customized workout routine
muscle group-by-muscle group, exercise-by-exercise. The user's
exercise experience can be configured for a diverse range of
exercise goals, including desired fitness goals and targeting
different muscle groups in different ways. The user will then
review and select his or her desired exercises from the offered
selections (19). As the user begins his selection of exercises, the
offered selections will vary. As certain exercises should not be
performed within a series or within the same workout for safety or
results, the system will remove those exercises from the option
list. The user will be informed of what exercises are unavailable
and why.
[0028] When satisfied with their exercise selections, the user may
compile the selected files into a single media file (11). The
compilation is performed via computer software accessible through
the GUI and the internet-based environment. The computer software
compiles the individual exercise files based on relative and/or
absolute server paths, and encodes the produced media file as
necessary to preserve the quality of the final product video
(11).
[0029] The clips are then merged with transitional media material
(12) to extend the video to the length of the subscriber's desired
workout. FIG. 1. Specifically, the software inserts transitional
videos between sets of exercise rotations to provide rest or
transition time as required by the selected exercises or specified
by the user in his or her User Data (7). Audio instruction files,
created by personal trainers and stored in the database, are
identified for the selected demonstrations according to the
database index. These audio instruction files are incorporated into
the video by software accessible through the internet-based
environment.
[0030] As shown in FIG. 1, the compiled media file is automatically
integrated, via software accessed through the internet-based
environment, with the subscriber avatar resulting in a video media
file of the user's avatar performing the desired exercises. The
video is created in a high definition MPEG-4 media format, or
available equivalent or better, and is compressed for delivery. The
video will be optimized for the user's media player of choice. All
video content will be delivered in the highest definition
available.
[0031] Referring to FIG. 6, a mixing application (29) may be
downloaded by the user from the webpage to the user's personal
computer (2). This application includes computer software capable
to mix the downloaded video with audio media files residing on the
user's local hard disk. This will allow users to add audio files
previously purchased from third-party sources to the instructional
video, creating a personalized "soundtrack" for their fitness
instruction. The program automatically lowers the volume of the
added soundtrack when fitness instruction files are played, and
increases the volume of the added soundtrack when audio fitness
instruction ends. This mixing tool will be available for download
from our website from the user account interface, and customized
workouts may come imbedded within this tool for end-user
convenience. The multimedia file is then synchronized with the
user's portable multimedia device of choice (1).
[0032] The user's exercise experience will be supplemented through
the webpage. In addition to the ability to create additional
workouts, the user will be supported by company staff via the
webpage and affiliated services. Additionally, the webpage may host
public forums and blogs for the exchange of advice and
encouragement. The webpage may also provide complementary
information such as nutritional and dietary information. This
additional support will help ensure a healthy, motivated, and
complete fitness experience.
* * * * *