US 6,571,193 · Granted 2003-05-27
Hitachi's Motion-Tracking Patent That Powers Sports Analytics
Imagine a system that watches someone move and figures out exactly what action they're doing—a jump shot, a sprint, a punch—by comparing their motion signature to a library of known movements. This patent describes the core technology for automatically recognizing human and animal movements using sensors and pattern-matching software.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a method for attaching measurement instruments to a moving object (like a person or animal), extracting characteristic features from the motion data those sensors produce, and then comparing those features against a database of previously recorded motion patterns to identify and output what action is being performed. What's protected here is the specific process of matching real-time motion data to reference motions through a correlation algorithm.
Why it matters
This patent laid groundwork for automated motion recognition systems that became foundational in sports analytics, fitness tracking, and biomechanics research. By creating a systematic way to identify complex human movements without manual observation, it enabled the development of coaching tools, injury prevention systems, and performance monitoring platforms that rely on fast, accurate action classification.
Real-world use
When a sports app or wearable device watches your jump and automatically classifies it as a spike, layup, or box jump, that classification engine traces back to motion-recognition patents like this one.
Original USPTO abstract
An object of the present invention is to provide a method, an apparatus and a system for automatically recognizing motions and actions of moving objects such as humans, animals and machines. Measuring instruments are attached to an object under observation to measure a status change entailing the object's motion or action and to issue a signal denoting the measurements. A characteristic quantity extraction unit extracts a characteristic quantity from the measurement signal received which represents the motion or action currently performed by the object under observation. A signal processing unit for motion/action recognition correlates the extracted characteristic quantity with reference data in a database containing previously acquired characteristic quantities of motions and actions. The motion or action represented by the characteristic quantity with the highest degree of correlation is recognized and output.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,571,193
- Filing date
- 2000-10-16
- Grant date
- 2003-05-27
- Assignee
- Hitachi, Ltd.
- Inventor(s)
- UNUMA MUNETOSHI, NONAKA SHIRO, OHO SHIGERU
- CPC class
- A61B5/1123
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