The USPTO has officially revealed one of Apple’s great Issued Patents which covers extreme sports. Apple is apparently working on an activity monitoring system that uses speed and loft sensors amongst others to monitor ski, snowboard and mountain bike jumps. For example, a typical snowboarding person might regularly exclaim after a jump that they “caught” some “big sky,” “big air” or “phat air” without ever quantitatively knowing how much time really elapsed in the air. Apple’s invention is to provide an apparatus and method for determining the “air” time of participants in sporting activities. The system is also shown to work with a monitoring watch, very much like a Polar style device. As in the case of Apple working with Nike, Apple may now be working with leaders in other sporting arenas. Whether Apple will modify the iPod in any way or simply debut a series of new devices like a smart-watch is unknown at this time. But for now, it’s clear that Apple has their eyes on advancing deeper into the sporting market. Extreme Sport enthusiasts – get ready!

Activity Monitoring System: Note Speed and Loft Sensors and Device GUI

System Used on Skiing Down a Mogul Course

Snowboarding Systems used with Watch Transmission System

Mountain Bike Application

Switch and Capacitance-Based Loft Sensors under Ski Boots

Apple’s patent reveals that the inventors are from Massachusetts and Boulder Colorado. That could suggest that Apple may have gone outside their inner circle to gain this technology and/or patent. For more information, see this patent.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or Issued Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application and/or Issued Patent should be read in its entirety for further details.

Written and researched by Jack “Neo” Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor. E-mail Jack.