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Exercise systems in local or global network

Exercise systems in local or global network description/claims

The present application relates to various patent applications which have been filed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the same Applicant such as, e.g., a U.S. Provisional Patent Application which is entitled “Local exercise systems with compact visual units,” was filed on Jul. 16, 2007, and bears the U.S. Ser. No. 60/959,464, a second U.S. Provisional Patent Application which is entitled “Local exercise systems with full-size visual units,” was filed on Jul. 16, 2007, and bears the U.S. Ser. No. 60/959,564, and a third U.S. Provisional Patent Application which is entitled “Global exercise systems and methods,” was filed on Aug. —, 2007, and bears the U.S. Ser. No. ______. All of the above applications will be referred to as the “co-pending applications” hereinafter and all of the applications and are to be incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

An exercise system includes at least two exercise modules and is arranged to allow multiple users performing exercises on, with or against the modules in different locations while performing at least one preset task defined in a context of a story, a scenery or a video (or computer) game each in turn preferably defined in a virtual environment. The exercise system generally generates the task of the story, scenery or game in images of the virtual environment and simulates the exercising users as simulated user in such images, while allowing the users to manipulate the simulated users for attaining a goal of the task based on features related with the exercises performed by the user or allowing the task to manipulate operations of the modules based on such features. The exercise system includes at least one output module including at least two visual units and audio units to provide the images and sounds for the task to each exercising user.

A recent trend in many civilized countries is that their population tend to get obese. With more nutritious foods available and less time for exercise, excess nutrients are converted into cholesterol and stored in fat cells. Since the obesity is related to a high blood cholesterol and various diseases, not only individuals but also governments focus on reducing obese population.

As a result, it is not uncommon to find people engaging in various exercises. Some people jog, whereas others choose to go to gyms and to exercise on, with or against various exercise equipment provided thereat. Such exercise or fitness equipment is generally intended to improve- and/or enhance a muscle tone of an user, to increase a muscle mass and volume of the user, to force or facilitate the user to reduce his or her weight, to increase physical stamina of the user, and the like.

Although conventional exercise or fitness equipment is effective in helping the user burn his or her excess energy, it typically requires its user to spend a fair amount of time therewith. For example, the user may waste a piece of cake causing a surge of hundreds of calories within a minute, but she or he has to run on a treadmill for at least an hour to burn those excess calories. In addition, the user has to engage in various aerobic and non-aerobic exercises for a prolonged period of time to improve or enhance the muscle tone and to increase the muscle mass and volume of the user, not to mention reducing his or her weight. Accordingly, patient and endurance are vital virtues for the users of such exercise or fitness equipment. In order to help the user exercise for a proper duration, the gyms offer a variety of amenities such as TV's and DVD players in order to alleviate the user from getting bored. Rather, other users choose to carry their radios or audio players and listen to music while performing exercise. Whatever they may resort to, prior art exercise or fitness equipment is, however, of little or at most a limited value in eliminating the boredom of the user during exercise.

Various fitness or exercise equipment has been suggested to alleviate such problems, where examples of such equipment have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,322,490 and 5,425,691 to M. A. van der Hoeven entitled “Stepping and sliding exerciser,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,013,007 to G. M. Root and F. Hoom entitled “Athlete's GPS-based performance monitor,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,297 to E. Pollak and S. Vaquerizo entitled “Distributed interactive simulation exercise manager system and method,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,159,131 to L. Pfeffer entitled “Fitness triage system and method,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,789 B2 to T. Harada and K. Shimizu which is entitled “Pedometer with game mode,” U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,312,363 B1 and 6,626,799 B2 both issued to S. R. Watterson et al. entitled “System and methods for providing an improved exercise device with motivational programming,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,891 B1 to R. Fedrigon et al. which is entitled “Interactive exercise pad system,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,111 B1 to J. H. Sklar et al. entitled “Interactive workstation for creating customized, watch and do physical exercise programs,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,468,086 B1 to S. Brady-Koontz which is entitled “Method of display of video images of exercises,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,952 B2 issued to M. C. Wu entitled “Turning control device for a virtual stationary bike,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,590,536 B1 to C. A. Walton which is entitled “Body motion detecting system with correction for tilt of accelerometers and remote measurement of body position,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,138 B1 issued to L. D. Virine and T. G. Simpson entitled “System and method for providing demographically targeted information,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,078 B2 to L. Pfeffer entitled “Fitness triage system and nutrition gets personal,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,635,013 B2 to L. Pfeffer entitled “Fitness triage system and exercise gets personal,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,385 B1 to M. J. Bravomalo entitled “System and method for weight-loss goal visualization and planning and business method for use therefor,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,656,091 B1 to K. G. Abelbeck et al. entitled “Exercise device control and billing system,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,613,000 B1 to D. J. Reinkensmeyer et al. which is entitled “Method and apparatus for mass-delivered movement rehabilitation,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,671,736 B2 to L. D. Virine and T. G. Simpson which is entitled “System and method for providing demographically targeted information,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,991 B2 issued to S. M. O'Malley entitled “Guided instructional cardiovascular exercise with accompaniment,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,536 B1 to S. M. Cuskaden and A. G. Evans entitled “Exercising using public communication network,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,537 B1 to P. L. Hickman entitled “Method and apparatus for remote interactive exercise and health equipment,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,786,848 B2 issued to A. Yamashita entitled “Exercise assisting method and apparatus implementing such method,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,796,927 B2 issued to M. Toyama entitled “Exercise assistance controlling method and exercise assisting apparatus,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,069 B2 to S. H. Park which is entitled “Method and system for automatically evaluating physical health state using a game,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,898,411 B2 to S. G. Ziv-el et al. entitled “Method and system for online teaching using web pages,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,918,860 B1 to N. H. Nusbaum entitled “Exercise bicycle virtual reality apparatus,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,921,351 B1 to P. L. Hickman and M. L. Gough entitled “Method and apparatus for remote interactive exercise and health equipment,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,997,853 B1 to S. M. Cuskaden and A. G. Evans entitled “Exercising using a public communication network,” U.S. Pat. No. 7,022,048 B1 to John Fernandez and Juan Fernandez entitled “Video fitness machine,” U.S. Pat. No. 7,074,162 B2 to P. Kuo entitled “Exercise device,” U.S. Pat. No. 7,307,241 B1 to P. Kuo entitled “Exercise device,” U.S. Pat. No. 7,335,134 B1 to R. LaVelle, entitled “Exercise and game controller apparatus and method,” U.S. Pat. No. 7,347,779 B2 to R. James-Herbert entitled “Computer game controller,” and the like. However, all of such equipment disclosed in the above patents either alone or in any combination have not completely solved the above problem.

Therefore, there is a need for an exercise system capable of allowing the users to engage in exercises in geographically different locations without getting bored. To this end, there is a need for an exercise system providing images of a task of a story, a scenery or a video (or computer) game in a preset viewpoint such that the users may engage in the task while performing exercises on, with or against multiple exercise modules also disposed in different locations. There is a need for an exercise system for providing the images of the task of the story, scenery or game on multiple visual units each disposed in a single or multiple view angles of the exercising users. There is a need for the exercise system including multiple exercise modules which are disposed in geographically different locations and communicate with each other either directly, indirectly through another module of the system or through an external provider. There is a need for the exercise system capable of providing auditory features of the task synchronized with such images of the task. There also is a need for the exercise system capable of manipulating at least one feature of the task of the story, scenery or game based upon at least one another feature of the exercise or, alternatively, manipulating at least one feature of at least one operation of the exercise system based upon at least one feature of the task.

The present invention generally relates to an exercise system providing users who perform exercises on, with or against exercise modules of the system in different locations with a task which is defined as a story, scenery or video (or computer) game in a virtual environment. More particularly, the present invention relates to the exercise system for generating the task of the story, scenery or game in images of the virtual environment, simulating the users into simulated user in such images, and allowing the users to manipulate the simulated users for attaining a goal of the task based on features related with the exercises or, alternatively, allowing the task to manipulate operations of the exercise modules based upon such features. The system includes at least two visual units for providing such images for the task to each exercising user. The present invention also relates to various methods of and processes for providing such images of the task to the exercising users and allowing such user to manipulate the task or allowing the task to manipulate the exercise based on the feature.

The exercise systems of this invention may be provided in various embodiments. For example, the exercise system may be fabricated as an assembly of multiple exercise modules each disposed in different locations and providing at least one preset exercise, at least one output module for providing the virtual environment (i.e., images or optional sounds) of the task of a story, a scenery or a game to multiple users who perform the same or different exercises in different locations, at least one control module for manipulating operations of the output and exercise modules or the rest of the system, and the like. In another example, the system may be fabricated as an add-on assembly of the output and control modules operatively coupling to conventional exercise or fitness modules disposed in different locations and providing the virtual environment with the images or optional sounds to the users while manipulating the operations of the exercise modules. In another example, the exercise system may include such exercise and control modules, where the latter may operatively couple to a conventional audiovisual output device of the users and use visual capability of the device to display such images, where the device may be a portable or stationary image display device (e.g., a TV, a monitor, a palm device, a DVD player, a game console, or a communication device each including at least one display panel), a portable or stationary audio device (e.g., a CD player, a game console, a communication device, or any other sound-generating device, each including at least one speaker), and the like.

Therefore, a primary objective of the present invention is to provide an exercise system with multiple exercise modules disposed in different (or geographically separate) locations and on, with or against each of which each user simultaneously performs physical exercises while participating in a preset task of a story, a scenery or a video (or computer) game each provided in images (and optional sounds) of a virtual environment and each defining at least one preset goal. Thus, a related objective of this invention is to include in the system multiple compact or full-size visual units which may display the images for the task for each user and to allow the users to view such images on the visual units while simultaneously performing the same or different exercises. Another related objective of this invention is to generate the task of the story, scenery or game each incorporating therein at least one simulated user which simulates at least one feature of at least one of the exercising users. Another related objective of this invention is to provide the task of the story, scenery or game each defining visual or auditory feature at least one of which may be manipulated by various features of the users, exercises performed by the users, operations of the system, and the like. Another related objective of this invention is to provide the system which can manipulate at least one operation of the exercise modules based upon at least one feature of the task of the story, scenery or game. Another related objective of this invention is to enable the exercise system including at least two exercise modules to transfer at least one feature of the task, users, exercises or operations from one to another of such exercise modules via a local or global network in order to allow such users to participate in the task while simultaneously perform the same or different exercises.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide an exercise system on, against, and/or with which the users simultaneously perform physical exercises while simulating each of such users as at least one simulated user and then incorporating the simulated users into a preset task of a story, a scenery or a video (or computer) game generated in images of the virtual environment and defining at least one preset goal. Accordingly, a related objective of this invention is to generate the simulated users by simulating at least one feature of each user such that at least one feature of each simulated user in such images is related to the feature of each user. Another related objective of this invention is to allow such users to manipulate the simulated users based on at least one feature of such users, exercises, or operations of the system so that the users manipulate at least one feature of the task of the story, scenery or game into which the simulated users are included. Another related objective of this invention is to allow the task to manipulate the simulated users so that the system may manipulate at least one of its operations based on at least one feature of such simulated users, thereby requiring the users to perform the exercises at least one feature of which may be decided by at least one of the simulated users. Another related objective of this invention is to arrange the system to manipulate at least one feature of the task between at least two exercise modules so that at least two users may compete each other in the task while simultaneously performing the same or different exercises with, on, or against each of the exercise modules disposed in the same or different locations.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide an exercise system on, against, and/or with which multiple users simultaneously perform physical exercises while participating in a task of a story, a scenery or a video (or computer) game and proceeding therethrough so as to attain a preset goal of the task. Accordingly, a related objective of this invention is to provide the story, scenery or game for the task while relating at least one feature of the images for the task to at least one feature of the exercises, users, and/or operation of the exercise system so that the latter may manipulate the feature of the images. Another related objective of this invention is to simulate each of the users into at least one simulated user and include the simulated users as a part of the images while manipulating at least one feature of such simulated users based upon at least one feature of the exercises, users, and/or operations of the system. Another related objective of this invention is to arrange the system to manipulate at least one feature of the task between at least two exercise modules so that at least two users may compete each other in the task of the game while simultaneously performing the same or different exercises on, with or against each of the exercise modules.

Another objective of the present invention is to participate multiple users exercising on, with or against multiple exercise modules of an exercise system simultaneously in a preset task of a story, a scenery or a video (or computer) game while manipulating at least one operation of the system based on the task. Therefore, a related objective of this invention is to provide the task while relating at least one feature of such images for the game with at least one feature of the operation of the system such that the former may manipulate at least one operation of the system. Another related objective of this invention is to simulate each user into at least one simulated user and then incorporate such as a part of the task while manipulating at least one feature of the operations of the system based upon at least one feature of the task. Another related objective of this invention is to arrange the exercise system to manipulate at least one feature of the task between at least two exercise modules so that at least two users compete each other in the task of the game while simultaneously performing the same or different exercises on, with or against each of the exercise modules.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide communication between multiple users exercising on, with or against multiple exercise modules while allowing such users to participate in a task of a story, scenery or video (or computer) game and to compete each other in images (or other features of a virtual environment) for the task. Accordingly, a related objective of this invention is to arrange the system to monitor at least one feature of one of the users, at least one feature of one of such exercises, at least one feature of at least one of the exercise modules, or at least one feature of the task through the local or global network. Another related objective of this invention is to monitor the features of the users, the features of the exercises, the features of operations of such exercise modules or the features of the task through the local or global network. Another related objective of this invention is to transfer the feature monitored in one location to another location without altering the monitored feature (i.e., a simple transfer). Another related objective of this invention is to transfer the feature monitored in one location to another while altering or converting the feature based on a preset relation (i.e., an equivalent conversion), where the relation is defined between at least one feature of the exercises and that of the task, between at least one feature of the exercises and the goal and/or stages of the task, between at least one feature of such users and that of the task, and/or between at least one feature of such users and the goal and/or stages of the task, and where the relation may be defined between at least one feature of the operation and at least one feature of the task, and/or between at least one feature of the operation and the goal and/or stages of the task.

In all of such objectives, the system may be arranged to provide the virtual environment which not only provides the images for the task but also generates the sounds therefor, thereby providing the visual feature as well as the optional auditory feature. The system may then manipulate at least one feature of the images or sounds for the task of the story, scenery or game at least partly based upon other features of the users, exercises, or operation of the exercise modules. In the alternative, the system may manipulate at least one feature of operations of the exercise modules at least partly based on the task, users, or performed exercises.

Various exercise systems of this invention may be constructed in various arrangements. For example, the exercise system may have at least two exercise modules on, with or against which the users simultaneously perform such same or different exercises. In another example, the system may include a single exercise module in one location and on, with or against which one user performs the exercise, and may then couple with an external exercise module in a different location and on, with or against which another user performs the exercise.

Various apparatus, method, and process aspects of such exercise systems and embodiments thereof are now enumerated. It is appreciated, however, that following system, method, and process aspects of the present invention may also be embodied in many other different modes and, therefore, should not be limited to such aspects and their embodiments which are to be set forth herein. Rather, various exemplary aspects and their embodiments set forth herein are provided so that this disclosure is thorough and complete, and fully conveys the scope of the present invention to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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