Apple patents workout music matching

It seems that Apple may have plans for incorporating the iPod into your workout other than just the integration with Nike sneakers, as a newly released patent shows that the company has invented a method of adjusting the pace and style of music playback while you exercise. Incorporated into a model called the iPod Sport, perhaps, this technology would use an accelerometer to gauge the pace of a person's workout, and encourage them to "take it to the max" by either increasing the tempo of a particular song (though hopefully not to the point where all your tunes sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks) or automatically changing to a faster-paced track. This is all well and good, but how about throwing in some Bluetooth while you're at it, cause the wire dangling from that runner's head in the illustration has got to go.

[Via Unwired View]

[Christopher MacManus @ May 25th 2006 7:35PM]

You know what else has to go? That silly buldge in his pants..

[accelolololollerometer @ May 25th 2006 7:43PM]

Gee, why not tack on a pitot tube as well to play music that matches the weather.

[Ryan Valle @ May 25th 2006 7:45PM]

it seems like apple is part of the fight against obesity...lol

[Owned @ May 25th 2006 7:47PM]

Why is Christopher MacManus looking at the bulge. And is he using a real name too? ha ha!

[JK @ May 25th 2006 7:58PM]

You know, the iPod doesn't use tape for music storage. You don't have to change the pitch of the music to adjust the speed.

[anon @ May 25th 2006 8:18PM]

Check out this 2 year old video from Microsoft's research department (I assume), that showcases the BPM technology. They use a phone and have bluetooth. As much I like bluetooth, I really don't it in my iPod until I can get at least 24hrs of audio playback and at least 8hrs of video playback.

http://research.microsoft.com/%7Enuria/MPTrain/mpTrain%20v1_18%20w-attribution.wmv

[John M. @ May 25th 2006 8:18PM]

I hope you are kidding about the Bluetooth headphones. As a runner, I can't think of anything that I would want less...

Extremely lightweight in ear headphones, or heavy and hot over the ear headphones, hmmm, tough choice.

[iDZ @ May 25th 2006 8:18PM]

is this patent as old as that 3G iPod?

[vidGuy @ May 25th 2006 8:20PM]

And why, if the illustration is dated today, is the iPod of the 3rd generation variety?

[Chris Robinson @ May 25th 2006 8:24PM]

Another Patent for Apple Inc!

[Damage @ May 25th 2006 8:25PM]

Might be all that friction that makes the iPod 3G the suitable choice. OR the silly bulge.

Either way, I'm betting it's got to do with all that heat and friction related issues that makes the 3G the best choice for the job.

[Rickay @ May 25th 2006 8:26PM]

Hmm, I can't find this in my iPod 3G... :-P

[mike prevette @ May 25th 2006 8:30PM]

Patent was from 2004, but bacame public today, hence the dated illustration.

[iDZ @ May 25th 2006 8:33PM]

yeah, that bulge is soooooo 2004.

[bliss @ May 25th 2006 8:37PM]

I can already hear the sound of exploding iPods everywhere...

[Tim @ May 25th 2006 8:51PM]

What's up with the dude only listening to his iPod with one earbud? In fact the headphone(s) look like it's all mono...

[paolo @ May 25th 2006 9:13PM]

No one noticed the thing next to the headphone jack, on the other side of the hold button ?

[Reg @ May 25th 2006 9:14PM]

I hear Creative has a patent for lying on the couch with your head in your hands.

But they'll probably sue Apple anyway.

[Zac Grose @ May 25th 2006 9:49PM]

"No one noticed the thing next to the headphone jack, on the other side of the hold button ?"

Have you really never seen these, or iPod minis? That's the Remote port. It was used for... iPod remotes. Oh, and early FM transmiiters.

[jackola @ May 25th 2006 10:13PM]

I doubt they'd get rid of the cord. Think about it... without the cord, people would put the ipod in their pocket AND the signature white cord wouldn't be there. Then they'd get no free publicity.

[jesus @ May 25th 2006 10:56PM]

how will this work if you are on an exercise bike or some other indoor exercise machine and your ipod is stationary...

[J-Money @ May 25th 2006 10:59PM]

Um … so if Apple puts an Accelerometer into the iPod, I wonder how long it will take until somebody creates a Light Saber hack for it? Perfect for those fanboys who purchased the limited edition Star Wars iPod’s! ;)

Link: http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/04/more-on-that-star-wars-ipod/

[Torien @ May 25th 2006 11:11PM]

The intriguing question here is:

How come there is so much speculation about pitch/speed changes to do with excercise.

If they can get the damn ipod to do speed changes then the more logical application is a decent bit of Mp3 DJ kit

[Clint @ May 26th 2006 12:26AM]

I’m positive Apple would not alter the tempo of your music to match your pace. Rather, it would read the ID3 tags in the song that specify it’s Beats Per Minute (BPM) and then “Sport Shuffle” would select songs that match your heart rate or running pace. It's a great idea, and should sell well.

[Jimbolaya @ May 26th 2006 1:15AM]

Doesn't the iPod/Nike thing already have the option to automatically play a song of your choice if your heart rate/speed drops below a designated number?

Damn you Christopher MacManus for making me look at the bulge.

I tried running with my 3G strapped to my arm, kinda limits my runs to 20 minutes before the music buffers out. Now I just prefer to hear nothing.

[Brett @ May 26th 2006 1:15AM]

For the love of God, please have bluetooth in the next iPods. That's all we want, really. I can figure out what songs I want to exercise to all by myself. What I'm tired of is untangling my earphones and continually trying ones that won't fall out of my ears during prolonged exercise.

[Greg @ May 26th 2006 1:31AM]

I cannot fathom why anybody would want headphones that you have to recharge...bluetooth would be cool for transferring files or maybe car integration, but for headphones, no way. It's just extremely impractical.

[Chaz @ May 26th 2006 4:04AM]

thats so old. the fraunhofer institute (who invented mp3) has been working on stuff like this for years:

http://www.fraunhofer.de/fhg/archiv/presseinfos/pflege.zv.fhg.de/english/press/pi/pi2003/06/rn_t2.html

[Amy Hikari @ May 26th 2006 7:07AM]

Is that an iPod down his pants or is he just happy to see us? ;)

[captainjaroslav @ May 26th 2006 9:47AM]

#23, are you saying more people DJ than exercise?

#27, you're posting to engadget at 1:20AM, I don't think you need to worry.

[Jim @ May 26th 2006 11:03AM]

#27, the patent they didn't tell you about was the Nike(TM)+iPod penile chip, which is routinely implanted at birth (there's a discount somewhere if you get a circumcision). This should explain why this running man is so happy to see us (notice there's no mention of anything in his shoes).

[Adrian @ May 26th 2006 4:05PM]

One commenter said: I’m positive Apple would not alter the tempo of your music to match your pace. Rather, it would read the ID3 tags in the song that specify it’s Beats Per Minute (BPM) and then “Sport Shuffle” would select songs that match your heart rate or running pace. It's a great idea, and should sell well.

Well actually the patent specifically talks about speeding up or slowing down the music. IPods can already do this, I believe, with audiobooks without shifting the pitch.

The patent also talks about what you were saying--selecting songs based on the tempo, though I'd really doubt it would be with do that with ID3 tags--those could be wrong because they're set by a person. It's easy enough to run a beat-finding algorithm and measure the the time between beats to find a song's tempo.

[GSI @ May 26th 2006 10:25PM]

well what if you are running fast and a fast song is playing, and then you slow down for some reason and it switches, and then several seconds later it switches back when you run faster.

What would be REALLY cool is to have it play at speed X as you run at speed X for a few minutes, then play at speed X+1, so you are pushed to run at speed X+1 (to keep up.) Then, it would go X+2, so you would, etc.

Yeah that would be cool/

[Mike @ May 27th 2006 12:46AM]

well Im a runner, and this is the reasons I dont own an Ipod. I need as little bulk as possible when I run. Ipods where just to big. I pod minis where still to big. I pod nanos seem to have the right weight, but still to big.

I run with a samsung YP-TZ or whatever its called. Its the smallest mp3 player I could find with a coulour screen for easy navigation. I just clip it on my belt and im off.

As for this new changing the music idea, Well lots of my songs dont have proper id3 tags, and Im too lazy to add them in and everything. Also, I dont like pripriotary software. The day apple ditches itunes and allows me to drag and drop my mp3 files to the player through windows explorer, is the day Ill take apple into consideration for a DAP player.

[greg @ Jun 7th 2006 5:33PM]

this is actually my masters thesis here at UCI. i published a paper on it in february of 2006, and i have a working prototype.

check out my paper on it:

on my site: http://turing.ace.uci.edu/~gelliott/papers/Greg_Elliott_PersonalSoundtrack.pdf

on ACM
http://portal.acm.org/affiliated/citation.cfm?id=1125451.1125599&coll=GUIDE&dl=acm&type=series&idx=1125451&part=Proceedings&WantType=Proceedings&title=Conference%20on%20Human%20Factors%20in%20Computing%20Systems

[greg @ Jun 7th 2006 5:34PM]

oh, my paper was presented at CHI 2006.

[Roy Kamen @ Jun 9th 2006 8:10PM]

you can get workout mp3s right now from MARINA's Audio Workout Center. We have workouts from 60 BPM for body sculpting, stretch & relaxation up to 150 BPM for walking and aerobics. We have them with and without instruction and over 200 workout songs arranged by BPM.

www,marinaonline.com