The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 41 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover a granted patent that's related to upcoming Apple Fitness+ Service. How Apple's engineers envisioned their patented invention and how Apple Marketing molded into a new monthly service may not always be symbiotic but one thing is very common, the focus on a "service provider" instructing a user on exercise programs and equipment.  

As individuals are devoting more and more time to non-physical activities, and as the rates of obesity and disease are on the rise, the need for greater amounts of physical exercise is a reality for many. It is often difficult for a person to educate himself with respect to proper exercise, as conflicting information is widespread. For those with the financial means and desire, a personal trainer or a health coach can be excellent resource for achieving fitness goals.

However, the costs associated with utilizing a personal trainer or health coach may be prohibitive for many people. Many individuals are turning to health and fitness devices to help track their health and fitness progress. Although health and fitness devices provide some feedback, these devices do not provide the level of customized support and advice that one would receive from a personal trainer, as such devices are often limited to processing particular types of data (e.g., feedback from onboard sensors, user input, etc.). Similarly, exercise machines such as stationary bikes, weight lifting machines, treadmill machines, elliptical machines, and the like, often provide exercise feedback to the user during an exercise session. However, such feedback is often transitory or underutilized in conventional health and fitness systems.

Apple's granted patent relates to a computer-implemented method for providing customized exercise-related recommendations may be provided. The method may comprise identifying, by a service provider processing device, user interactions with a particular exercise machine of a plurality of exercise machines, the user interactions associated with a user profile, each of the plurality of exercise machines comprising a computing device in communication with the server provider processing device.

The method may further comprise obtaining, by the service provider processing device, exercise information corresponding to a plurality of user profiles, the exercise information being obtained from the plurality of exercise machines.

The method may further comprise generating, by the service provider processing device, a classification model based on the exercise information corresponding to the plurality of user profiles.

The method may further comprise receiving, by the service provider processing device, exercise metrics associated with the user interactions with the particular exercise machine.

The method may further comprise determining, by the service provider processing device, an exercise category for the user profile based on the classification model and at least one of the exercise metrics and the user profile.

The method may further comprise identifying, by the service provider processing device, a plurality of exercise recommendations based on the exercise category.

The method may further comprise identifying, by the service provider processing device, a customized exercise recommendation from the plurality of exercise recommendations based on comparing the exercise metrics to expected progress data.

The method may further comprise providing, by the service provider processing device, the customized exercise recommendation to a user device associated with the user profile.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a simplified block diagram illustrating an example flow for providing a customized exercise-related recommendation; FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram illustrating an example flow for maintaining a machine-learning model utilized to provide customized exercise-related recommendations.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below is a simplified block diagram illustrating an example flow for providing a number of customized exercise-related recommendations, according to at least one embodiment; FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram illustrating an example system for implementing an exercise recommendation engine.

Apple's granted patent 10,814,170 titled "Techniques for providing customized exercise-related recommendations" is a very detailed patent and you could review it here. Apple's patent was originally filed in Q2 2017. 

The focus of Apple's patent claims, without a doubt, is "the service provider" which is presented 12 times in patent claim #1 alone. In the end, Apple's granted patent appears to be the foundation of the modern Apple Fitness+ service. We may very well find future patents expanding on today's foundation.

On a different note, for a fitness workout at an actual gym (not with an Apple service) being in sync with Apple Watch, Apple was granted a separate patent today for that under number 10,814,167 titled "Wearable computer with fitness machine connectivity for improved activity monitoring."

Apple Files for 'Burn Bar' Trademark

While we're on the topic of Apple Fitness+, we wanted to add that Apple filed for "Burn Bar" in both the U.S. and Hong Kong simultaneously.  The Burn Bar was first mentioned in Apple Fitness+ press release that stated the following in-part:

"When a workout is selected and started on iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV, the correct workout type will automatically start on Apple Watch. During the session, the metrics from Apple Watch are shown on the screen and come to life for moments of inspiration. For example, when the trainer says to check heart rate or begins a countdown timer, those numbers will animate on the screen. And for customers who like to push themselves with a little healthy competition, the optional Burn Bar shows how their current effort stacks up against anyone who has done the same workout previously."

In the U.S., Apple filed for the 'Burn Bar' in two separate filings (90272101 and 90272105).

Apple's '101 trademark filing was under International Class 009 with the following verbiage: "Downloadable computer software in the field of fitness and exercise; downloadable webcasts and podcasts featuring audio, video, and other downloadable multimedia broadcasts in the field of fitness and exercise; downloadable digital audio, video, and multimedia files and recordings featuring fitness and exercise."

Apple's '105 trademark filing was under International Class 041 with the following verbiage: "Fitness and exercise instruction and training; providing fitness and exercise classes; providing non-downloadable computer software for use in connection with fitness and exercise."

The trademark filings for Burn Bar in Hong Kong were under applications #305428161 and #305428170.  The trademark is just for text alone.