In 2010 Apple was granted a patent relating to the Nike + iPod system, a system that debuted in 2006. The Nike + iPod Sports Kit was a device which measured and recorded the distance and pace of a walk or run. The system was eventually phased out sometime in 2014. Now Google has filed a patent for an advanced footwear system with clusters of sensors and machine learning.

On April 20, 2023, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Google that relates to smart footwear. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for identifying user movements as one or more upper-body exercises using instrumented footwear device(s) and machine-learned exercise identification model(s).

Google notes in their patent background that exercise enthusiasts commonly desire automatic detection and identification of exercise movements. Identification of upper-body exercises, such as a bench-press or a barbell curl, typically requires a user to wear specific instrumented devices on the upper body of the user. As an example, a user may be required to wear armbands, gloves, or another other upper-body instrumented device to capture data sufficient to identify an upper-body exercise.

However, wearing instrumented upper-body devices has generally been found to frustrate users. Additionally, wearing instrumented upper-body devices can interfere with the performance of certain upper-body exercises. As a result, users typically forego the utilization of instrumented upper-body devices and accordingly lack devices capable of automatically identifying upper-body exercises.

In brief, Google's patent covers a  computing system configured to perform operations that identify user movement(s) as upper-body exercise(s). The operations can include obtaining sensor data generated by one or more sensors of a footwear device worn by a user, the one or more sensors positioned in one or more positions of the footwear device, the sensor data associated with one or more movements performed by the user. The sensor data can be input into a machine-learned exercise identification model. Exercise identification data can be received as an output of the machine-learned exercise identification model. The exercise identification data can identify the one or more movements performed by the user as one or more upper-body exercises performed by the user, the exercise identification data comprising one or more exercise characteristics associated with each upper-body exercise of the one or more upper-body exercises performed by the user.

Google's patent FIG. 1A below depicts a graphical diagram of an example smart footwear device; FIG. 1C depicts a block diagram of example computing system that is included in a footwear device; FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an example inference scheme for a machine-learned exercise identification model 202.

More specifically, Google notes that their patent FIG. 1A above depicts a graphical diagram of an example footwear device #10 that could be a shoe or a  a boot, ski boot, an insertable sole and/or insole, a sock and more.

The footwear device can include one or more sensors (e.g., sensors and/or sensor clusters #12-22) that generate sensor data that describes one or more movements performed by a user. The one or more sensors can include pressure sensor(s), accelerometer(s) (e.g., 3-axis accelerometer, etc.), gyroscope(s) (e.g., 3-axis gyroscope, etc.), inertial measurement unit(s) (e.g., a 9-axis inertial measurement unit), force-sensitive resistor(s), and/or any other sensor configured to capture sensor data associated with user movement.

In some implementations, the pressure sensor(s) can include a barometer and a rubber layer (e.g., rubber layer #24). The barometer can be positioned below and/or inside the rubber layer. As an example, the footwear device may include a rubber layer (e.g., a rubber sole, a bio-compatible silicone insole, etc.) with one or more pressure sensors covered by the rubber layer.

Google's patent FIG. 2 below depicts a block diagram of an example inference scheme for a machine-learned exercise identification model #202; FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of an example training scheme for a machine-learned exercise identification model.

For more detail, review Google's patent application 17794899 that was published in Europe on April 20, 2023.