Patent Application
20120084654
The present invention relates to the field of media content and more particularly relates to systems and methods for modifying media content in an individualized manner during playback of said media content.
People today have interests that can vary widely from one person to the next. Some people are interested in learning, others are interested in travel, and still others enjoy exercising. These types of activities can bring satisfaction to our lives. As a result, people often strive to improve in areas or activities they are familiar with as well as try new activities. One of the best ways to achieve good results in a given activity is to seek advice or suggestions from someone that is an expert in the relevant subject.
While there are many different subjects with experts, such as cooking, travel, general educational topics, etc., perhaps one of the most common subjects for which people seek those with expertise is physical fitness, including training, diet and exercise. The physical fitness industry is a multi-million dollar a year industry in the United States alone as people from all walks of life seek expertise to help with weight loss, physical conditioning and training for events. For the purposes of this Application, the field of exercise and fitness shall be used as a primary example of topic in the preferred embodiment of the invention. It is to be understood that the invention is adaptable to many different fields and topics and this specification should not be read so as to limit the invention to the field of exercise and fitness.
The experience and expertise of a subject matter expert can help us in a variety of ways. Subject matter experts, for example, often have the ability of being able to identify a preferred course of conduct or a preferred course of study. One of the attractions of personal trainers, and of fitness dubs in general, is their ability to motivate their users and to achieve better results than the individual can alone.
Unfortunately, seeking and obtaining the service of a subject matter expert can often prove difficult and expensive. For example, one wanting to achieve a fitness goal would probably seek a trainer, who is a subject matter expert for exercise or fitness. There are several reasons, however, that may prevent one from seeking the assistance of a personal training. For example, the cost of personal trainers, the current demand for personal trainers, scheduling conflicts, travel issues, and the like are examples of reasons why a particular user may not be able to find and benefit from the experience and expertise of a personal trainer. As a result, many individuals are left without the support and instruction needed to achieve desired fitness goals.
One attempt to fill this void can be found, for example, in DVDs, videocassettes, and the like. For example, people that want to exercise in their own homes can easily secure the necessary exercise equipment and can exercise to a workout DVD. Even though the DVD may have content that may have been prepared by a subject matter expert; it is difficult if not impossible to alter the content of the DVD. In other words, the DVD is typically mass produced and is not individualized for a particular user.
A DVD is often unable to dynamically adapt to the changing circumstances of a user. Thus, the needs of a particular user may be only partially satisfied, especially when the user advances past what the DVD has to offer. In other words, a DVD does not target specific individuals or the needs of specific individuals, but is typically targeted at a wide audience. The ability to bring the expertise of a subject matter expert in a dynamic way is lacking in existing technology and there is therefore a need to create instructions and personalized content in a portable medium to allow an individual to take a personalized media content with them in any location and for any subject.
Previous applications describe systems and methods for creating individualized media content from a media knowledge base. Individual selected media clips are stitched together to form a cohesive single media presentation. Clips may be selected by individual choice or by inputting data (“attributes”) into a program, which then matches stored media clips to inputted data and selects the clips on the user's behalf. While subject matter used in the parent applications may be any subject matter that tends itself to personal education, such as cooking, arts, languages, music, etc., the primary example has been exercise and physical fitness as this particular subject is of particular interest to a large number of people and the subject matter lends itself well to the technology.
The compiled media presentation had features similar to a DVD, that is to say that a user could fast-forward, repeat, or skip various component clips through the use of known marking, or “bookmarking” technologies. However, the presentation was static within itself. Once a presentation was created, it could not be changed. While a person might be able to skip some feature of the presentation, other aspects of the presentation, such as exercise intensity and duration, could not be altered. This lack of alteration limits the customization potential of the finished presentation and prevents modification. In the case of exercise, events that may cause a desire for modification could include the fact that a user may be “off” on a particular day, or may decide spontaneously to increase the intensity of a workout.
The present invention is a collection of systems and methods that create, not only media presentations that are tailored to a given user, but also are customizable during use to account for unforeseen circumstances and desires.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of customized media presentations, this invention provides a customized adaptable media presentation. As such, the present invention's general purpose is to provide a new and improved media presentation that is seamlessly adaptable by a user.
To accomplish these objectives, the media presentations comprise separate instruction and accompaniment audio and/or video layers overlaid on a performance template. The template is generated from user input and is the base of instruction. The instruction and accompaniment layers in the form of media clips are variable within the template and allow a user to override the selected template, not only by allowing the user to skip or replay selected media clips, but also by overriding and replacing media clips in order to change individualized features, such as intensity, pace, type of music or any other such feature that the programmer desires to be customizable. The best mode is seen of particular use in exercise routines, but the method and resultant media presentation may be utilized in any situation where a media presentation may be used instructionally or recreationally.
The more important features of the invention have thus been outlined in order that the more detailed description that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may better be appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter and will form the subject matter of the claims that follow.
Many objects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being made to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
With reference now to the drawings, the preferred embodiment of the individualized adaptable media content is herein described. It should be noted that the articles “a”, “an”, and “the”, as used in this specification, include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. The method is depicted in a preferred embodiment of an exercise program with an audio accompaniment (“music”) track, however it is readily adapted to other instructional and recreational settings as well as being adapted by the use of different types of media clips and the depicted embodiment should not be seen as limiting.
An example graphical user interface is shown in
Once data is obtained, the application constructs the media program, shown in
The graphical interface then allows the user to start the program 22 and make alterations thereto. Continuing the outline to sheet 2, in the depicted graphical interface 24, the entire program is depicted as a series of bars with each clip represented by a bar. Individual bars may be selected 26 to advance or reverse progress in the program. Likewise, individual bars may be adjusted 28 to increase or decrease intensity. In both cases, the action triggers an audio response in the instruction layer. In the event the program is advanced or reversed 26, the program merely jumps to that point in the program. In the event intensity is changed 28, the accompaniment layer is over-ridden and a new accompaniment track is selected and played. If the accompaniment track is music, a different song may be selected or the same song may be used but played at a higher or lower tempo. Likewise, the application adjusts the instruction layer to fit the new selection. The end result is a seamless transition to the new level. After the program has played, a final screen 30 is shown, detailing statistics from the session. These statistics may then be stores in a user profile, with inputted user data, for future use 40, 42.
The user may also utilize personal musical choices for the accompaniment layer 32. A simple button on the graphical user interface 34 may be used to communicate the override and open a selection screen 36 where the user can select the user's own stored music 38. It should be noted that, currently, personal music selections would not be adjusted to match intensity alteration as described above, but could be done in the future and still be under the purview of the present invention.
An example expert system and method utilized to construct media clips is depicted in
The inputs typically provided are the user attributes 310. As previously stated, some of the user attributes are static (i.e., date of birth, age, medical history, etc.). Some of the user attributes are variable (age, weight, etc.). Some of the user attributes can also include the user's history. For example, a user may input the results of a previous workout routine, which may have an impact on the next workout routine generated by the expert system.
In this example, the user attributes 310 are provided to the expert system and/or have been previously entered. Using these attributes 310, the expert system queries the knowledge base to select methods 302 that match the user attributes 310. The result of the query is a subset of methods or a subset of data that may apply to the user or that may be included in the individualized media content.
Once the methods have been selected, the expert system executes rules 304 of the selected methods. The rules, in one embodiment, perform a distilling process on the selected methods. In one example, the rules are used to place specific methods (or IDs in one example, where each ID corresponds to a media clip) into a template or skeleton structure. The rules are the logic used to choose the specific methods from the subset of methods that match the user attributes.
For example, the expert system may return several methods for a particular part of the template. The rules may review the history of the user to identify methods that have already been performed such that methods are not repeated until all have been selected at least once. The rules may examine the methods for information provided by a subject matter expert to identify those methods that may be more relevant than other methods. The rules can perform ordering of the selected methods and associated media clips, filtering of the selected methods and associated media clips, and the like.
The resulting sequence of methods is then used to populate a workout table 306, which is one embodiment of a template. In one embodiment, the workout table 306 is populated with identifiers that each correspond to a media clip. Next, the individualized media content is generated 308 by mixing all of the media dips that are identified in the workout table to generate the individualized media content, which is the workout routine in this case. In some instances, the media content is mixed with background music and/or video to generate individualized media that can be delivered to the user. In one embodiment, the individualized media content is an mp3 file. The generation of the media content may be server and/or client based.
In another embodiment, a template can be populated with media clips that are determined as follows. The pre-workout 402 is populated by querying a trainer record, which includes a pre-workout media clip. The warm-up 404 is populated by querying a warm table (used for both warm-up and warm-down in one example) using a primary goal obtained from the user goal table.
The exercise 406 portion of the template 400 is populated by querying the attributes of the method table (and associated link tables), matching the attributes of the methods against the attributes of the user table to identify or obtain a list of appropriate exercises. Next, the trainer data is used to select the number and order of exercises from the identified methods. Applying the trainer data is an example of rules that are applied to selected methods. For each exercise, the appropriate media clip is obtained and inserted into the template or workout table.
The set 408 is obtained by querying a set table in the knowledge base using cadence and reps from the current exercise in order to obtain the appropriate counting media clip, which is then included in the set 408. The warm-down 410 is obtained by again querying the warm table using the primary goal obtained from the user goal table. Finally, the post-workout 412 is obtained by querying the trainer tables, which contain the post-workout media clip. Once the template or workout table is populated, it can be mixed and delivered to the user.
Further,
With reference to
These media clips can be organized as discussed above, to include a pre-workout introduction warm-up, exercise, introduction, sets, warm down, and post workout conclusion. The workout clip can use the trainer-designed and user-matched workout templates and activities discussed above to select the individual media clips that match the user's goals and profile attributes. Other embodiments of the workout clip 500 can include fewer or more media clips. Alternatively, some of the clips or segments can be combined.
Referring to
As indicated in
The cadence clips can include more detailed instructions tailored to any aspect of individualized media content. The cadence clips can include instructions that are tailored to the type of exercise, goals, user attributes, trainer, etc. Example 2 (706) illustrated in
Generally, the expert system organizes and arranges a list of media clips according to the information for each dip to create a complete workout clip, such as the clips illustrated in
The list of clips generated contains a list of identifying information for each clip necessary to produce the final workout clip (e.g., see
A workout clip may be stored on the user's computer, accessible by the user, and associated with a specific media organization program such as Apple, Inc.'s ITUNES, or other similar software, for download of music files to a personal media device such as an IPOD (also by Apple, Inc.), mp3 player, or other electronic device. A workout clip may then be played and utilized by the user to guide or assist with a workout. It should be appreciated that individualized video clips and combined video and audio clips of any format can also be assembled using the teachings set forth herein.
Although
Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, numerous modifications and variations can be made and still the result will come within the scope of the invention. No limitation with respect to the specific embodiments disclosed herein is intended or should be inferred.
This application claims priority as a non-provisional perfection of prior filed U.S. Provisional Application 61/388,559, filed Sep. 30, 2010 and incorporates the same by reference in its entirety herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61388559 | Sep 2010 | US |
