US 7,602,301 · Granted 2009-10-13
The Patent That Turned Your Body Into Data
Imagine tiny sensors attached to your body that track every move you make during sports or exercise—where your arms go, how you twist, how fast you move. This patent covers the whole system: the sensors, how they talk wirelessly to your phone or computer, and the software that analyzes your movements to tell you if you're doing it right or wrong.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers an integrated system for measuring body position and motion using sensors, transmitting that data wirelessly to a local or remote device, and then using software to analyze and display the results—whether as video playback, statistics, or comparisons to other users. What's protected here is the combination of hardware sensors, wireless transmission, and the analytical software that interprets movement data in real time or after the fact.
Why it matters
This patent straddles the line between consumer fitness tracking and professional coaching and rehabilitation. By locking down the method of capturing movement data and feeding it back to a user for performance evaluation, it created a template for how motion-analysis systems could be built and commercialized. The patent's breadth—covering sports, rehabilitation, and military/law enforcement uses—suggests the inventors saw potential across multiple high-value markets where precision feedback on body mechanics directly impacts outcomes.
Real-world use
When a baseball coach uses a motion-capture system to show a pitcher exactly how their arm angle changed between pitches, or when a physical therapist tracks a patient's knee recovery with wearable sensors that sync to a tablet, they're using the mechanics this patent protects.
Original USPTO abstract
Apparatus, systems, and methods are provided for measuring and analyzing movements of a body and for communicating information related to such body movements over a network. In certain embodiments, a system gathers biometric and biomechanical data relating to positions, orientations, and movements of various body parts of a user performed during sports activities, physical rehabilitation, or military or law enforcement activities. The biometric and biomechanical data can be communicated to a local and/or remote interface, which uses digital performance assessment tools to provide a performance evaluation to the user. The performance evaluation may include a graphical representation (e.g., a video), statistical information, and/or a comparison to another user and/or instructor. In some embodiments, the biometric and biomechanical data is communicated wirelessly to one or more devices including a processor, display, and/or data storage medium for further analysis, archiving, and data mining. In some embodiments, the device includes a cellular telephone.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 7,602,301
- Filing date
- 2006-11-17
- Grant date
- 2009-10-13
- Assignee
- Applied Technology Holdings, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- STIRLING HAROLD DAN, SHEARS JAY ALLAN, CUSEY LEE NORMAN
- CPC class
- A61B5/11
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