FITNESS DEVICE GAMING CONTROLLER
A fitness device gaming controller to be used to control an application running on a host device. The fitness device operates as a normal piece of exercise equipment, with the capability of turning a user's monitored exercise activity and manual controls into standard gaming inputs for use by a gaming device such as a console or computer. Additional devices may be connected to the fitness device, such as additional sensors or smart devices that can provide additional sensors and controls for incorporation into the gaming inputs.
1 . A fitness device gaming controller, comprising:
an exercise machine configured to:
receive user input from a manually operated control, or an observed hardware sensor value, or both;
create a dataset comprising at least a portion of the received user input;
transform the dataset to conform to an expected gaming controller input scheme; and
transmit the transformed dataset to a gaming device.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the exercise machine is a treadmill device.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the exercise machine is a stationary bicycle.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the exercise machine is an elliptical training device.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the gaming device is a gaming console.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the gaming device is a personal computing device.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the gaming device is a cloud-based gaming service.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the exercise machine further comprises a plurality of electronic connectors to accept external devices.
9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the exercise machine is further configured to receive additional input from a connected external device, and the dataset comprises at least a portion of the additional input.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the external device is a biometric sensor.
11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the external device is a personal computing device.
12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the personal computing device is a smartphone.
13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the personal computing device is a smartwatch.
14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the personal computing device is a computer built in to and integrated with the exercise machine.