US 2,001,049,470 · Filed 2000-12-23
The Early Fitness Tracker That Logged Your Meals and Movements Together
This patent describes a wearable device that tracks two things at once: how active your body is throughout the day, and exactly when you eat. You press a button whenever you have food, and the device records the time, while a built-in activity monitor watches your movement. It's like having a personal coach who never forgets when you snacked.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a combined device that integrates three core components working together: a timer that tracks time, an activity monitor that measures body movement and outputs a signal about that activity, and a button (consumption notation control) that a user presses to record eating moments. What's protected is the specific combination of these elements communicating with an activity calculator and consumption calculator that stores both activity levels and the exact times of food intake. Someone making an unauthorized device that combines real-time activity tracking with timestamped meal logging in this integrated way would infringe.
Why it matters
This patent represents an early conceptual framework for what would eventually become the modern health-tracking ecosystem. Filed in 2000, it anticipated the convergence of fitness monitoring and dietary logging decades before smartwatches and calorie-counting apps became ubiquitous. The integration of activity data with meal timing addresses a real commercial problem: people who manage weight or athletic performance need both pieces of information linked together. This foundational approach influenced how fitness devices and health apps continue to combine movement and nutrition data today.
Real-world use
When you open a fitness app like MyFitnessPal or Apple Health and log a meal while it simultaneously tracks your steps and heart rate, you're seeing the conceptual architecture this patent protected decades earlier.
Original USPTO abstract
A diet and activity-monitoring device includes a timer which outputs a time-indicative signal. A body activity monitor monitors the body activity of a subject and outputs a signal indicative of the body activity. A consumption notation control is provided which the subject may operate to indicate when they consume food. An activity calculator receives the body activity signal and determines a body activity level for the subject. A consumption calculator communicates with the consumption notation control and receives the time-indicative signal. The consumption calculator determines and stores the times when the consumption location control is operated.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 2,001,049,470
- Filing date
- 2000-12-23
- Grant date
- Application — not yet granted
- Assignee
- Mault James R. / Edwin Pearce / David Gilmore / Roshi Givechi / Jeanne Ragan / Andrzej Skoskiewicz / Neil Grimmer
- Inventor(s)
- MAULT JAMES R., PEARCE EDWIN, GILMORE DAVID, GIVECHI ROSHI, RAGAN JEANNE, SKOSKIEWICZ ANDRZEJ, GRIMMER NEIL
- CPC class
- A61B5/02055
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