US 7,251,454 · Granted 2007-07-31
The Wireless Coach in Your Pocket: Silicon Lab's Real-Time Performance Tracker
Imagine a tiny wireless sensor clipped to your shoe that talks to a device in your pocket, calculating your speed and distance as you run—then telling you your stats through a speaker while playing your workout playlist. That's what this patent locks down: the system that makes real-time athletic feedback actually work wirelessly.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a wireless system that receives motion data from a sensor (like one tracking your running cadence or arm swings), processes that data to calculate athletic metrics such as average speed or total distance, and delivers those metrics back to you through audio output—all happening in real time over a local wireless connection. What's protected here is the specific combination of wireless receiver, performance calculation engine, and audio feedback delivery working together as one system.
Why it matters
This patent sits at the intersection of consumer fitness and wireless technology, capturing the core idea of wearable athletic coaching before smartphones made it mainstream. By protecting the wireless link between motion sensor and performance calculator, it established early intellectual property around the architecture that would later power fitness trackers and smartwatch ecosystems. The patent gave Silicon Laboratories a foothold in a category that would eventually become central to health and sports technology.
Real-world use
Every time a runner checks their pace mid-jog through a wireless fitness tracker's audio announcement, or a cyclist gets real-time speed feedback through their device, they're using technology descended from this patent's core architecture.
Original USPTO abstract
An athletic performance monitoring system and method are disclosed that assist a user in monitoring an athletic endeavor. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a local area wireless transceiver capable of receiving a signal from a motion sensor. A performance engine may be communicatively coupled to the local area wireless transceiver. In operation, the performance engine may utilize the signal from the motion sensor to generate a performance metric like average speed or distance traveled. The system may also include an output mechanism such as an audio device capable of presenting the performance metric to a user in an audible message while also being capable of playing an audio representation of music to the user.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 7,251,454
- Filing date
- 2006-06-07
- Grant date
- 2007-07-31
- Assignee
- Silicon Laboratories, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- WHITE RUSSELL W.
- CPC class
- A63B24/0021
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