Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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METHOD FOR PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA
Field of the Invention. The invention relates
generally to a personal data that is programmable
5 for downloading to a personal computer for storage
and further processing of the data and, more
particularly, but not by way of limitation, it
relates to a data gathering wrist watch that is
capable of transmitting stored data for download to
10 a personal computer via audio transmission.
Description of the Prior Art. The prior art
includes a number of timepieces or wrist watches
that have additional capabilities of data processing
and storage, and such timepieces may include a
15 plurality of ancillary timing functions that are
monitored by the timepiece. A personal computer may
be utilized to receive sensor data from a selected
source for the purpose of further processing and/or
storage of the selected data. Applicant is unaware
20 of any prior use of a timepiece to monitor physical
activity for subsequent download via audio tone to a
personal computer wherein the physical activity may
be further processes, stored and/or printed out.
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The present invention relates to a source
mechanism carried on a person's body that is
programmed to store certain parameters of the
5 person's physical characteristics, parameters and
work product when under stress, isolation or other
inconvenience over a predetermined time period;
thereafter, the program source can be actuated to
transmit audibly the stored parameter data for
to reception by audio input hardware in association
with a personal computer that is programmed to
analyze, evaluate, store, print out and the like,
all of the performance or other related data
gathered during the predetermined time period.
15 Therefore, it is an object of the present
invention to provide a timepiece for recording
various of the bearer's performance parameters for
subsequent download and processing in a personal
computer.
20 It is also an object of the present invention
to provide a timepiece to be worn by such as a
researcher through his various activities to provide
reliable recording of work data for subsequent
download and analysis.
25 It is yet further an object of the invention to
provide a wrist borne timepiece that is capable of
monitoring and storing athletic information such as
a runner's date and time of workout, lap times,
finish times, hear rate data, selected ECG data,
30 etc.
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Finally, it is an object of the present
invention to provide a programmable timepiece
including piezoelectric tone generator that is
actuatable to download all data parameters for a
5 predetermined time period in audible code
transmission.
Other objects and advantages of the invention
will be evident from the following detailed
description when read in conjunction with the
l0 accompanying drawings that illustrate the invention.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is an idealized drawing of a timepiece
in download proximity to a personal computer having
audible input capability;
5 Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of a
digital timepiece having requisite program, storage
and transmission elements;
Figure 3 is a flow diagram of the data process
at the source or timepiece; and
Figure 4 is a flow diagram of the data process
at the personal computer.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION ~F THE INVENT nu
Figure 1 illustrates the basic scheme wherein a
portable source such as a timepiece l0, for example
a multiple data digital wrist watch, stores selected
5 data for subsequent readout. One form of readout
would be the audible "beeps" producing audio energy
12 that is subject to pickup by a microphone 14 for
input to a standard type of personal computer 16.
The timepiece 10 may be any type of digital
l0 instrument that is controlled by a microprocessor
and that contains a piezoelectric element for
producing beep tone for signal transmission
purposes. The personal computer 16, e.g., an IBM,
Apple or any of many other PC computers, is equipped
15 with the hardware package 18 connected via cable 20
to the microphone 14. The computer 16 is then
capable of capturing audio energy as well as being
able to reproduce sound such as music, voice or tone
through external speakers. The audio hardware with
20 audio port is sometimes built-in to the original PC
equipment 16; however, it often is added in the form
of a sound card or board that is compatible with the
particular computer. Computer 16 may also be
equipped with the output display 22.
25 The timepiece 10, as shown in Figure 2,
includes an internal microprocessor 24 that provides
the basic clock count for the timepiece. The
microprocessor 24 may also control a program storage
26 operating in conjunction with internal random
30 access memory, and a piezoelectric element 28 is
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capable of producing selected tone output. Thus,
the piezo element 28 is utilized to provide the
"beep" tone such as that produced for alarms and
such by most digital wrist watches. It can also be
5 used under control of a program stored in storage 26
and operating through microprocessor 24 to transmit
stored data for pickup by the microphone 14 and
further processing, storage, comparison and the like
within the personal computer 16.
l0 A watch program resident in program storage 26
controls the operation of the timepiece 10. This
software typically allows the user access to the
features and functions of the timepiece 10 as they
are controlled by the watch program and include such
15 as setting the time, setting alarms, starting a stop
watch, and maintaining a record of various data
gathering, athletic or running activities of the
athlete or user. The timepiece 10 is particularly
useful to runners and aerobicists since the various
20 timing functions of timepiece 10 enable storage of
such as date and time of workout, lap time, finish
times, and progressive heart rate data, ECG
specifics, etc. as the workout proceeds. The user
can gather such information and then play it back
25 via the audible beep transmission through microphone
14 (Figure 1) for further processing and/or final
recording and display at personal computer 16. This
enable various results of the user to be compared
over a longer period of time to derive progress
30 evaluation and the like.
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The present invention employs the general
process of transmitting data from a wrist watch
using the piezoelectric element 28, and receiving
that data with a personal computer 16 that is
5 equipped with necessary audio hardware 18 and
microphone 14. A watch program is storage 26
enables the user to initiate audio data
transmission, as will be further described, while
the program also determines the data to be
10 transmitted in accordance with the built-in
functions that the process is being made to serve.
The watch program controls the piezo element 28 and
encodes data elements (databits) into the sounds
produced by the piezo element 28. Many standard
15 methods of encoding are currently used in data
communications of this nature, but two primary
examples of such methods are DFSK (dual frequency
shift keying) modulation and CW (continuous
waveform) modulation. These are well known methods:
20 in DESK, a high frequency tone can indicate a "1"
databit while a low frequency tone indicates a "0"
databit; and, in CW modulation, a tone of any fixed
frequency indicated a "1" databit while silence
indicates the "0" databits. The databits, whether
25 encoded "0" or "1", are all of the same duration.
The data transmission begins with a uniform
initiation sequence. This is a sequence of databits
in a predetermined pattern. An example of an
acceptable pattern would be "1010". Actual data may
30 then be transmitted immediately after the initiation
sequence. The actual data follows the same rules as
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_g_
the initialization sequence databits as far as
duration and modulation schemes are concerned.
There are no conditions placed on the actual
content, format, or protocol of the data that is
5 being transmitted as the watch program is
constrained to send the data in the same audio
format and protocol as the personal computer program
functions to receive the data.
The PC program allows the user to place the
10 personal computer 16 into a datacom receive mode
wherein the microphone 14 is capturing the sound 12
emanating from the time piece 10. The PC program
allows the user to terminate the receive mode after
the watch has finished transmitting. The PC program
15 can then analyze the captured audio file and
demodulate the audio sample for conversion to binary
data. This is done based on a selected modulation
scheme. From the pre-established initiation
sequence, a determination can be made of (1) the
20 duration of each data bit (i.e., number of samples)
and (2) the specific frequency (or silence) used to
indicate a "1" numeral or a "0" numeral data bit.
The PC program can interpret the converted data
according to the pre-established format and protocol
25 to which the watch has been designed, and this means
that both the watch and the personal computer are
programmed to agree on the data format.
Figure 3 illustrates the functional flow
diagram for the timepiece 10 portion of the
30 transmission system. The word "source" is used to
identify the timepiece 10 or comparable element, and
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the broad reference is selected because in some
cases the transmitter element may be a totally
hybrid microprocessor-driven electronic assembly
that is carried by the user and capable of a very
5 large number of timing and physical assessments for
storage and transmission. Thus, it should be
understood that a "source" is the equivalent of the
Figure 2 illustration of the microprocessor-driven
digital timepiece.
l0 Referring to Figure 3, a first flow step 30
indicates the process of data gathering by the
source and, as previously stated, the source stores
gathered data for further downloading. Such data
may include various forms of user data relating to a
15 particular field job or athletic workout and
resulting physical effects. The data is stored in
the source at flow stage 32 and, according to the
type of program sequencing, such data may be stored
in program storage 26 or in the microprocessor 24
20 internal storage (see Figure 2). When the current
task or workout is terminated, data creation ceases
and the stored data in the source is ready for
download at a designated location that includes
audible pickup equipment 14-18 and personal computer
25 16 (Figure 1).
As at flow stage 34, the user positions the
source for audible transmission adjacent microphone
14 at the playback station so that the coded beeps
(audio energy 12) emanate from the source or
30 timepiece 10 into the microphone 14. Download
transmission is initiated at flow stage 36 by giving
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a command to the timepiece or source to commence the
download function. This command may be given by the
user pressing buttons on the source, or by the
personal computer 16 sending instructions to the
5 source via a PC-to-source communication channel
(optional). Such command may include instructions
on the specific data to be downloaded, or it may
simply request that all stored data be downloaded.
Logic circuitry in the source, e.g.,
10 microprocessor 24 controlled by program storage 26,
accomplishes the transmission of data as a series of
"beeps" in predetermined code formation emanating
from timepiece 10 or other source. As at flow stage
38 the data to be downloaded is determined and this
15 may be based on either the command received at
initiation, or the internal logic that allows the
source code to determine the string of data bytes
that it will transmit. In flow stage 40, the
uniform initiation sequence is transmitted and this
20 sequence is a recognizable pattern of zeros and ones
that is predetermined. The sequence is anticipated
by the PC program as an indication of the start of
data transmission as each bit of the sequence is
encoded as a tone or silence, and the source
25 piezoelectric element is controlled to represent
each bit in turn. Each bit is represented by a
given state of the piezoelectric element for an
equal duration of time. That is, the source sends a
sequence of "1010" as four ten millisecond
30 intervals: that is, tone on, off, on, off.
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A protocol sequence may then be transmitted
next as at flow stage 42. Depending on the protocol
previously agreed upon by the source user and the PC
program, the watch or source may next transmit bytes
5 of data that indicate the meaning of the data to be
sent, i.e., how many bytes of data to expect or
other pertinent facts about the transmission. For
example, with no break in the timing from the
transmission of previous initiation sequence bits,
l0 the source may transmit a special byte to indicate
that the transmission will consist of 27 data bytes
plus one checksum byte. Thereafter, stored data is
transmitted via flow stage 44 as stored data is
transmitted bit-by-bit as audible tones by means of
15 the piezoelectric element 38. Each bit of the
actual data is encoded as a tone or silence, and the
source piezo element 28 is controlled to represent
each by a given piezoelectric state for an equal and
established duration of time. Thus, with no break
20 in the timing from transmission of previous bits,
the source transmits each bit of 27 data bytes with
the most significant bit first (MSB). Optionally, a
closing sequence may be transmitted as at stage 46
to allow verification of transmitted data. With no
25 break in the timing from transmission of previous
bits, the source may transmit each bit of the
checksum byte thereby to provide verification. Flow
stage 48 ends transmission whereupon all data has
been audible transmitted and the source or timepiece
30 is allowed to fall back into normal operating state.
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Referring now to Figure 4, the personal
computer 16 is programmed for response to the
source. At flow stage 50, the personal computer is
first initialized to prepare for capture of
transmitted audio energy from the source. The user
may execute a program on the PC which controls the
audio hardware 18 (Figure 1) and necessary setup
commands are executed in preparation for receiving
the audio waveforms. The sampling rate, input
channel allocation and gain settings are all
established. Flow stage 52 sees commencement of the
audio capture operation as the user employs a mouse
or keyboard to issue a command to the program that
is running on the PC to begin audio capture
operation. The PC program is set up to instruct the
audio hardware 18 to initiate a continuous audio
capture mode and this continuous mode will remain in
effect until the user instructs the program to
terminate the mode, or until the program terminates
under control of its resident logic.
After transmission begins from the source, and
the download function has commenced; the audio
information captured by the audio hardware is
retained either in random access memory or as a file
on disk by the PC program as indicated at flow step
54. This data will then be available to the PC
program during the next step, that or conversion or
demodulation of the audio information to binary
data. Thus, if the audio hardware was in capture
mode for ten seconds, and it was sampling at a rate
of 5 Khz with a resolution of 8 bits (one byte) per
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sample, the program would have a resulting temporary
file size of 10 times 5000 bytes, or 50,000 bytes.
The flow stage 56 functions to end the audio
capture operation. After all data transmission has
5 been accomplished, the continuous audio mode is
terminated and the PC program resets the audio
hardware to an idle state. At flow stage 58, the PC
program logic analyzes the captured, digitized audio
file to identify the waveform representations of
10 specific bits, and to collect them into an exact re-
creation of the original data as it was stored in
the source or timepiece.
The PC program scans the digitized audio file
progressively from the beginning in flow stage 60
15 until it finds the waveform representation of the
designated initiation sequence. During the
development of the source programming, the exact
initiation sequence was specified and is therefore
recognizable by the PC program. By identifying the
20 sequence of bits, the PC program determines facts
required for the further analysis of the audio file.
The scan finds the starting point of the data which
is a specified time after the initiation sequence.
The scan then determines the number of samples that
25 are taken for a single bit representation. For
example, if the original initiation sequence was
~~lOlO~~, the program may identify it as 50 samples of
tone, followed by 50 samples of silence, 50 of tone,
and 50 of silence. This will then establish that
30 each data bit in the remainder of the file will also
be represented by 50 samples.
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Flow stage 62 then functions to analyze the
audio data and convert to original data. The PC
program scans the remainder of the audio file and,
using the decoding information extracted from the
initiation sequence, analyzes the information to
derive the stream of individual data bits ("1"s and
"0"s). The individual data bits are then converted
to bytes of data according to the sending protocol
that was used for the audible transmission. For
example, if bytes are transmitted MSB first and each
bit is 50 samples, a series of eight 50-sample
segments can reconstruct a byte of the original
transmitted data. If continuous waveform (CW)
encoding is used, each 50-sample segment is
evaluated to determine if a tone is present. If so,
the bit is then a 1, otherwise it is a "0". All
segments in the file may be evaluated in this manner
until all are converted to data bits and full bytes
of data are reconstructed.
At flow stage 64, an optional step compares the
retrieved data with an n-byte checksum or similar
mechanism that is sent after the last byte of actual
data. If the transmitted data does not verify
correct, this will be determined in flow stage 66
whereupon a negative response causes flow to revert
to the flow stage 50 for re-initialization of the
personal computer thereby to restart the entire
process from the beginning of download. If
verification is affirmative at decision stage 66,
flow is via the affirmative branch to flow stage 68
where the result of the download is stored as data
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in a file; or, incorporated into a data base or any
application software or data storage scheme.
In operation, the audio transmission system may
be employed variously for the purpose of gathering
5 data. A source or timepiece might be used by a
runner in training to gather performance data for
later transmission playback into a central computer
for analysis and recording. Alternatively, a data
source may be carried by other data collectors such
10 as a meter reader or a scientist gathering data at a
remote site. In any event, once the data gathering
is complete, it is only necessary to proceed to the
central computer location or home base to complete
the data downloading and evaluation steps.
15 The foregoing discloses a novel system for
recording physical activity data during the activity
so that the data can be later downloaded to a
central computer for the purpose of analysis,
graphic display, print out, and entry into permanent
20 records for future comparison. Certain readily
constructed data is especially valuable for a runner
in training because he is able to maintain continual
comparison of specific data accomplishments thereby
to establish improvement over a period of time. The
25 runner is able to record not only the speed-related
parameters such as distance times, limited lap
times, and beginning and ending speed rates, but
also such physical activity as pulse-heart rate and
other sensed physical condition data.
30 Changes may be made in the combination and
arrangement of elements as heretofore set forth in
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the specification and shown in the drawings; it
being understood that changes may be made in the
embodiments disclosed without departing from the
spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the
5 following claims.
