Cardiovascular miles

The present application is a continuation-in-part of and claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 61/012,410 filed on Dec. 7, 2007 and U.S. Patent Application No. 61/033,355 filed on Mar. 3, 2008, which applications are incorporated by reference and made a part hereof.

Athletes or otherwise active or fitness-oriented people often track their athletic performance against personal goals, benchmarks, or the athletic performance of one or more other athletes or other active similarly situated people. However, it may be challenging to compare athletic performance, for example between two athletes, if their athletic performance differs in the form of exercise (e.g., if one athlete runs while the other resistance trains, bikes, rows, or the like). For example, a runner may track performance based on distance run such as the number of miles run. Another person may prefer to exercise on a cardio-type machine such as an elliptical machine. The “distance” covered while exercising on an elliptical machine, however, does not correspond to the number of miles run by a runner, e.g. a mile on the elliptical machine is not the same as a mile run. Thus, while certain athletic performance monitoring systems provide certain advantageous features, they nevertheless have certain limitations. The present invention is provided to address certain problems and provide features not heretofore available.

The summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

According to one aspect of the invention, a system and method are provided for converting various athletic performance metrics/types to a standard unit of measurement. In one exemplary embodiment, certain exercise performed, for example, on cardio-related machines or weight machines is converted to the equivalent of a distance run such as the number of miles run.

According to another aspect of the invention, various athletic performance metrics/types may be converted to a unit of measurement useable to acquire rewards or items. In one example, the unit of measurement may be activity credits that may be used as currency in an athletic monitoring system to acquire various items. Such items may include apparel, personal devices (e.g., music players), gift cards and the like.

According to another aspect, challenges, goals and competitions may be created based on a common unit regardless of the unit(s) in which an activity associated with the challenge, goal or competition is typically measured. When athletic performance data is received, the data may be converted to the common unit using a conversion factor. Thus, different devices or activities may be used to achieve the goal, challenge or competition. For example, a competition may be specified in miles run. If a participant chooses to lift weights for the competition, the number of repetitions may be converted to a number of miles run to determine whether the participant finished the competition.

According to yet another aspect, a conversion factor used to convert a first unit of athletic activity to a second unit may be determined based on the type of activity performed. Additionally or alternatively, the conversion factor may be personalized based on attributes of an individual. For example, weight, height, gender and age may contribute to a number of calories burned or amount of physical exertion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Certain embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limited in the accompanying figures in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a system of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a node of an embodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates a system in which multiple types of athletic activities may be tracked using a common unit according to one or more aspects described herein.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method for measuring athletic activity in terms of a common unit according to one or more aspects described herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a user interface that may be provided as part of athletic equipment according to various implementations of the invention;

FIGS. 6-9 illustrate example user devices that may be used to interface with athletic equipment and to store and transmit various data according to one or more aspects described herein.

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