Note to Apple..Microsoft beat you this time..

By David Ciccone, posted Wednesday, May. 24th, 2006
Reader Comments: 7

Now that we have seen the new Nike+iPod Sport Kit what do Windows Mobile enthusiasts have to say? Heck use a 2 year old smartphone and a bunch of ECG sensors, accelerometers and a Bluetooth Transmitter and you have the same product. But dont worry, looks like Microsoft Research already did it! Now if they just painted it white and had a partnership with Nike!

MPTrain is a mobile phone based system that takes advantage of the influence of music in exercise performance, enabling users to easily achieve their exercise goals. MPTrain is designed as a mobile and personal system (hardware and software) that users wear while exercising (walking, running, jogging, etc.) MPTrain's software allows the user to enter a desired exercise pattern (in terms of desired heart-rate over time) and assists the user in achieving his/her exercising goals by: (1)constantly monitoring the user's physiology (heart-rate and pace); and (2) selecting and playing music with specific features that will encourage the user to speed up, slow down or keep the pace to be on track with his/her exercise goals.

MPTrain is a Personal Trainer on your mobile phone that automatically selects the right songs to play to keep you on track with your exercise goals

Fig 1. MPTrain's Hardware

Fig. 2 MPTrain's Data Flow

Checkout the videos too

Well, the reason people care is because Apple is once again touting theirs as being the first, even going so far as to try and patent "having music selected by heart rate" - something discussed publically by Microsoft two years prior.

So Apple can stop patting themselves on the back for such staggering brilliance. But Apple has never been one to come up with new ideas, just rip them off, and UNLIKE Microsoft, not pay for them.

Posted by bradh, Wednesday, May. 31st, 2006

That is so cool. This system uses your phone to buy and download songs to match your pulserate. I wonder what happens if you are using the system when you read your phone bill?

Posted by Myles, Thursday, May. 25th, 2006

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, did it make a sound?

ie. ok, so this product was invented. Practically no one has ever heard of it, or uses it. The iPod wasn't the first mp3 player, but it was the first elegant mp3 player. This partnership is the first elegant iteration of an mp3 player and personal fitness trainer.

If this project had a two year head start, and couldn't come close to the buzz the nike+ipod project has, then why should anyone care about it?

Posted by mdudek, Thursday, May. 25th, 2006

A working prototype is great, but doesn't mean a thing in the grand scheme. Apple had a working prototype for a game console that played DVDs... in 1996. I wouldn't say Apple beat Sony and their Playstation. Most people also think that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

The difference is that nobody knows about prototypes. It's the one that makes it to market first that counts. Real artists ship.

Posted by macserv, Thursday, May. 25th, 2006

I think its fantastic. I currently use Polar systems heart monitor for my running

Posted by David Ciccone, Wednesday, May. 24th, 2006

Both systems are really cool and I am sure there will be more coming up.

The coolest thing about the MPTrain project (http://research.microsoft.com/~nuria/MPTrain/MPTrain.htm) is that it helps the user achieve a predefined exercise goal through the music. It actually uses in real-time the user's heart-rate and acceleration to automatically select the 'right' music to play. No other system today provides that kind of feedback to the user. It also uses Bluetooth, which means it could potentially send the data to any Bluetooth enabled device out there. They are also quite open about it, with a paper describing the algorithms, etc...

Posted by , Wednesday, May. 24th, 2006

o well so much for apple+nike's plan on world domination

Posted by No2003SE, Wednesday, May. 24th, 2006

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