US 6,921,351 · Granted 2005-07-26
The Patent That Connected Home Exercise Bikes to the Internet
Imagine an exercise bike that talks to a computer on the internet—it sends data about your workout and receives new instructions in return. This patent covers the system that lets a machine at your home take commands from a remote computer, updating how it works on the fly.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a method for controlling exercise equipment through a combination of a local computer attached to the machine and a remote computer connected via the internet. What's protected here is the ability to send exercise data from the machine to a remote system, receive updated instructions back, and have the local computer automatically reprogram itself based on those remote commands. Specifically, the patent locks down the use of a modifiable script stored in editable memory that can be overwritten by data sent from a distant server.
Why it matters
This patent was filed in 2001 and granted in 2005, capturing an early vision of connected fitness—the idea that exercise machines could be remotely controlled and monitored over the internet. At that time, most home gym equipment was mechanical and standalone. This patent protected the novel approach of treating exercise apparatus as networked devices that could be updated and customized from afar, a foundational concept for the modern connected fitness industry that emerged years later with platforms like Peloton.
Real-world use
When a connected stationary bike streams your heart rate to an app and receives new resistance settings from an online coaching platform, it's operating under the architectural principles this patent describes.
Original USPTO abstract
An exercise system includes a local system having an exercise apparatus and an associated local computer, where the local computer controls and monitors the operation and use, respectively, of the exercise apparatus. The system further includes a remote system having a remote computer, and a transmission medium preferably including the Internet that couples the local system to the remote system for data communication between the local system and the remote system. The remote system may receive local system data from the local system concerning the use of the exercise apparatus, and the local system may receive remote system data from the remote system concerning the operation of the exercise apparatus. The local computer preferably controls the operation of the exercise apparatus based upon a modifiable script stored in a read/write memory of the local computer, which can be updated by the remote system. A method for controlling an exercise apparatus includes running a modifiable script on a local computer to control the use and to monitor the operation of an exercise apparatus, and communicating with a remote system, preferably via the Internet, to provide the remote system with data concerning the use of the exercise apparatus. The script is stored in read/write memory of the local computer and remote system data received from the remote system may include at least a portion of a new script to be stored in the read/write memory of the local computer.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,921,351
- Filing date
- 2001-10-19
- Grant date
- 2005-07-26
- Assignee
- Cybergym, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- HICKMAN PAUL L., GOUGH MICHAEL L.
- CPC class
- H04Q9/00
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