System and method of dispatching task commands of running in game

[0001] 1. Field of Invention

[0002] The invention relates to a fitness game system and the method thereof. In particular, the invention relates to a system that dispatches task commands of exploring a virtual map for the users to actually exercise their bodies and the method thereof.

[0003] 2. Related Art

[0004] In recent years, the rapid economic development elevates life standards. Modern people have more amusements. As exercises become popular, fitness centers have evolved into a symbol of life quality. Many people start to value exercises. In addition to using the fitness equipment provided by the fitness center, many users also buy fitness devices and exercise at home.

[0005] Most fitness devices are for indoor uses. For example, users simply jog on a treadmill by repeating same action, without any goal or motivation. Such a way of exercising bodies is very boring. The net result is that a lot of users eventually give up using the treadmill to exercise. Besides, most treadmills have the function of collecting exercising data of the user, such as the mileage. Such exercising data are often only for the user to record and understand his exercise conditions without further applications, such as increasing the user's exercising motivation.

[0006] In summary, the prior art always has the problems that the running mileage does not have further applications and it is difficult to increase the user's motivation to run on the treadmill. It is necessary to provide a solution.

[0007] In view of the foregoing, the invention discloses a system of dispatching task commands of running in a game and the method thereof.

[0008] The disclosed system includes a fitness user end and a fitness server end. Both the fitness user end and the fitness server end connect to a network. The fitness user end includes a transmitting module, a first receiving module, and an executing module. The transmitting module transmits user information, exercising mileage, and designated mileage with difficulty level. The first receiving module receives a task command of exploring a virtual map. The exercising module executes the designated mileage of the task command. The fitness server end includes a second receiving module, a statistics module, and a dispatching module. The second receiving module receives the user information, exercising mileage, and designated mileage transmitted from different fitness user ends. The statistics module accumulates the exercising mileage or designated mileage of the fitness user ends to obtain a total mileage. When the total mileage reaches a predetermined value, the dispatching module dispatches task commands of exploring a virtual map to the fitness user ends according to dispatching rules.

[0009] The disclosed method includes the steps of: connecting at least one fitness user end to a fitness server end via a network and transmitting user information and exercising mileage to the fitness server end; accumulating the exercising mileages of individual fitness user ends at the fitness server end to obtain a total mileage; when the total mileage reaches a predetermined value, dispatching task commands or exploring a virtual map to the fitness user ends according to dispatching rules by the fitness server end; executing the designated mileage with difficulty level at the fitness user end and transmitting the designated mileage to the fitness server end; accumulating the designated mileages to the total mileage at the fitness server end and re-dispatching the task commands of exploring the virtual map.

[0010] As described above, the invention differs from the prior art in that it uses the fitness server end to accumulate the mileages of individual fitness user ends to obtain the total mileage. When the total mileage reaches a predetermined value, the dispatching module dispatches task commands of exploring a virtual map to the fitness user ends according to dispatching rules. The fitness user ends actually run to execute the task commands. The users exercise together to achieve the goal of exploring the virtual map. During the game, different task commands are dispatched to the users to challenge them and increase the fun.

[0017] The present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same references relate to the same elements.

[0018] Please refer to FIG. 1, which shows the structure of the system of dispatching task commands of running in a game. The disclosed system 100 includes at least one fitness user end 110 and one fitness server end 120. Each of the fitness user ends 110 connects to the fitness server end 120 through a network connection. That is, each fitness user end 110 is a fitness device with Internet connection capability. They connect to the fitness server end 120 via the Internet. The fitness user end 110 is a fitness device for the user to explore a virtual map. It should be noted that the fitness user end 110 can be a treadmill. The fitness server end 120 can be a server of a virtual map exploration game. Through the network connection, the fitness user end 110 can explore the virtual map. Therefore, after the user connects the treadmill, which is regarded as the fitness user end 110, to the fitness server end 120 of the virtual map exploration game, the user actually run to play the game.

[0019] Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a detailed block diagram of the disclosed system. Each fitness user end 110 includes a transmission module 111, a first receiving module 112, and an executing module 113. The transmission module 111 transmits user information, exercising mileage, and designated mileage with difficulty level. The user information includes a user account and a task command record. Examples of the user account include “john2563” and “mary3418.” The task command record stores the task command that have been executed by the user. Examples of the task command record include “not finishing climbing task 35 (difficulty level 3—designated mileage 0.5 km)” and “finished resistance task 26 (difficulty level 5—designated mileage 0.1 km)”. The exercising mileage referred herein is the distance that the user on the fitness user end 110 has finished with actually run, such as “1.3 km.” The designated mileage with difficulty level referred herein is the mileage designated by the task command in the virtual map exploration game. The task command and the designated mileage with difficulty level are not further described here. The explicit implementation will be described later. Therefore, the transmission module 111 transmits the user information, exercising mileage, and designated mileage with difficulty level to the fitness server end 120 through the network connection.

[0020] The first receiving module 112 receives the task command of the virtual map exploration game. The executing module 113 executes the designated mileage with difficulty level of the task command. Further details of the first receiving module 112 and the executing module 113 of the fitness user end 110 will be explained later.

[0021] The fitness server end 120 includes a second receiving module 121, a statistics module 122, and a dispatching module 123. The second receiving module 121 receives the user information, exercising mileage and the designated mileage with difficulty level sent from individual fitness user ends 110. That is, when each fitness user end 110 transmits its user information, exercising mileage, and designated mileage with difficulty level to the fitness server end 120, the second receiving module 121 of the fitness server end 120 receives them.

[0022] The statistics module 122 accumulates the exercising mileage or designated mileage of the fitness user ends 110 to obtain the total mileage. When the second receiving module 121 receives the exercising mileage of the fitness user ends 110, the statistics module 122 accumulates the received exercising mileage to obtain the total mileage. Besides, when the second receiving module 121 receives the designated mileage of individual fitness user end, the statistics module 122 accumulates them to the total mileage, obtaining an updated total mileage.

[0023] For example, suppose the fitness user end 110 “A” transmits an exercising mileage “1.8 km” and the fitness user end 110 “B” transmits an exercising mileage “2.2 km.” The statistics module 122 of the fitness server end 120 adds the exercising mileage “1.8 km” and the exercising mileage “2.2 km” up to obtain the total mileage “4 km.” If the fitness user end 110 “A” transmits the designated mileage “0.2 km” and the fitness user end 110 “B” transmits the designated mileage “0.3 km,” then the statistic module 122 of the fitness server end 120 adds the designated mileage “0.2 km” and the designated mileage “0.3 km” up to obtain the total mileage “4 km.” Thus, the updated total mileage is “4.5 km.”

[0024] When the total mileage reaches a predetermined value, the dispatching module 123 dispatches task commands of the virtual map exploration map to the fitness user end 110 according to dispatching rules. It is worth emphasizing that the task commands referred herein are the task commands that the users have to complete during the game or exploring the virtual map. The task command can be a climbing task of some slope in the map or a resistance task on some different road in the map. The task command includes the designated mileage with difficulty level. For example, the task command is “climbing task: difficulty level 3—designated mileage 0.5 km” or “resistance task: difficulty level 5—designated mileage 0.2 km.” The predetermined value is set by the system in advance. Each predetermined value is for a task command in the virtual map exploration game. The predetermined value can be a definite value such as “4 km” or a range such as “2˜4 km.” If the predetermine value is a definite value, the system can preset any possible value for the task commands in the game. For example, the predetermined value “4 km” corresponds to the task command “climbing task 4: difficulty level 2—designated mileage 1 km” and the predetermined value “20 km” corresponds to the task command “resistance task 20: difficulty level 4—designated mileage 0.3 km.” These are examples when the predetermined value is a definite value. The invention is not limited to these examples. Other embodiments should be included in the invention.

[0025] It should be noted that the dispatching rules are predetermined by the system. A task command can be dispatched to one of the fitness user end 110 randomly or according to a specific order. If the dispatching rule is random dispatching, then the dispatching module 123 randomly dispatches a task command to one of the fitness user end 110 connected with the fitness server end 120. If the dispatching rule is orderly dispatching, then the dispatching module 123 follows a task command dispatching record of the fitness server end 120 to some fitness user end 110 who does not receive any task command. The task command record can be included in the user information.

[0026] When the total mileage obtained by the statistics module 122 reaches the predetermined value, the dispatching module 123 dispatches the task commands in the virtual map exploration game to the fitness user ends 110 according to the dispatching rules. Following the above example, suppose the statistics module 122 obtains the total mileage “4 km.” Since the predetermined value “4 km” corresponds to the task command of the virtual map exploration game “climbing task 4: difficulty level 2—designated mileage 1 km,” the dispatching module 123 randomly dispatches the task command “climbing task 4: difficulty level 2—designated mileage 1 km” to one of the fitness user ends 110.

[0027] After the dispatching module 123 of the fitness server end 120 dispatches the task command in the virtual map exploration game to the fitness user end 110, the first receiving module 112 of the fitness user end 110 receives the corresponding task command. Afterwards, the executing module 113 executes the designated mileage with difficulty level of the task command. When the user on the fitness user end 110 wants to complete the task command, the executing module 113 adjusts the difficulty level of the treadmill on the fitness user end 110 according to the difficulty level of the task command. The user then actually runs to complete the designated mileage with difficulty level in the task command. Afterwards, the transmission module 111 sends the designated mileage with difficulty level to the fitness server end 120.

[0028] Following the above example, suppose the dispatching module 123 of the fitness server end 120 dispatches the task command “climbing task 4: difficulty level 2—designated mileage 1 km” to a fitness user end 110. The first receiving module 112 of the fitness user end 110 receives the task command “climbing task 4: difficulty level 2—designated mileage 1 km” of the virtual map exploration game. The executing module 113 of the fitness user end 110 executes the designated 1 km of difficulty level 2 in the task command “climbing task 4: difficulty level 2—designated mileage 1 km”. That is, the user on the fitness user end 110 uses the treadmill to run 1 km at the difficulty level 2 to achieve the task. Once the task is achieved, the transmitting module 111 of the fitness user end 110 transmits the designated mileage “1 km” of the difficulty level 2.

[0029] Once the transmitting module 111 of the fitness user end 110 transmits the designated mileage, the second receiving module 121 of the fitness server end 120 receives the designated mileage of the difficulty level. Afterwards, the statistics module 122 of the fitness server end 120 accumulates the designated mileage to the total mileage to obtain an updated total mileage. The dispatching module 123 of the fitness server end 120 then re-dispatch task commands according to the updated total mileage.

[0030] It should be noted that the fitness server end 120 records the fitness user ends 110. A fitness user end 110 has to connect to the fitness server end 120 in order to play the virtual map exploration game. The fitness user end 110 can disconnect from the fitness server end 120 after receiving the assigned task command and re-connect to the fitness server end 120 later for completing the task command. This is not restricted by the invention. Other embodiments should be included in the invention too.

[0031] The invention dispatches task commands in a game for users to run. By accumulating the mileage of individual users to a total mileage and dispatching new task commands to the users when the total mileage reaches a predetermined value, the users on the fitness user ends have more motivations to run than in the prior art.

[0032] The following paragraphs describe the disclosed method and use an explicit embodiment to explain the invention. A skilled person can readily make modifications without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[0033] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the disclosed method of dispatching task commands of running in a game. FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the disclosed system of dispatching task commands of running in a game. FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic views of an embodiment of the invention. Please refer to FIGS. 3 to 6 in the following description.

[0034] Please first refer to FIGS. 4 and 5. The disclosed system 400 of dispatching task commands of running in a game include treadmill A 411, treadmill B 412, treadmill C 413, and a virtual map exploration game server 420. The treadmill A 411, treadmill B 412, and treadmill C 413 are fitness devices with Internet connection capability. The treadmill A 411, treadmill B 412, and treadmill C 413A connect to the virtual map exploration game server 420 via network connections. Suppose the treadmill A 411 transmits the user information such as a user account 510 “Mary” and an exercising mileage 520 “2.3 km” to the virtual map exploration game server 420. The treadmill B 412 transmits the user account 510 “John” and the exercising mileage 520 “3.1 km” to the virtual map exploration game server 420. The treadmill C 413 transmits the user account 510 “Sun” and the exercising mileage 520 “6.2 km” to the virtual map exploration game server 420. (Step 301)

[0035] After receiving the exercising mileage 520 “2.3 km” from treadmill A 411, the exercising mileage 520 “3.1 km” from treadmill B 412, and the exercising mileage 520 “6.2 km” from treadmill C 413, the virtual map exploration game server 420 accumulates the exercising mileage 520 “2.3 km”, the exercising mileage 520 “3.1 km”, and the exercising mileage 520 “6.2 km” to obtain the total mileage “11.6 km”. (Step 302)

[0036] Please refer to FIG. 6. Different predetermined mileage values 610 are set to correspond to different task commands 620. For example, the predetermined value 610 “1.6 km” corresponds to the task command 620 “climbing task 1.6: difficulty level 2—designated mileage 1 km”. The predetermined value 610 “11.6 km” corresponds to the task command 620 “resistance task 11.6: difficulty level 5—designated mileage 0.1 km”. The predetermined value 610 “11.7 km” corresponds to the task command 620 “climbing task 11.7: difficulty level 3—designated mileage 0.5 km”, and so on. Therefore, when the total mileage “11.6 km” registered by the virtual map exploration game server 420 agrees with the predetermined value “11.6 km”, it dispatches the task command 620 “resistance task 11.6: difficulty level 5—designated mileage 0.1 km” to treadmill A 411 according to the random dispatching rule. (Step 303)

[0037] After the treadmill A 411 receives the task command 620 “resistance task 11.6: difficulty level 5—designated mileage 0.1 km”, the treadmill A 411 executes the task command 620 “resistance task 11.6: difficulty level 5—designated mileage 0.1 km”. The user of treadmill A 411 actually run on the treadmill at the difficulty level of 5 for the designated mileage “0.1 km”. The designated mileage “0.1 km” is then transmitted to the virtual map exploration game server 420. (Step 304)

[0038] After the virtual map exploration game server 420 receives the designated mileage “0.1 km”, it adds the designated mileage “0.1 km” to the current total mileage “11.6 km” and obtains the updated total mileage “11.7 km”. It then re-dispatches the corresponding task command 620 “climbing task 11.7: difficulty level 3—designated mileage 0.5 km” to treadmill B 412. (Step 305)

[0039] After receiving the task command 620 “climbing task 11.7: difficulty level 3—designated mileage 0.5 km”, treadmill B 412 executes the task command 620 “climbing task 11.7: difficulty level 3—designated mileage 0.5 km”. The user of treadmill B 412 actually run on the treadmill at the difficulty level of 3 for the designated mileage “0.5 km”. The designated mileage “0.5 km” is then transmitted to the virtual map exploration game server 420. (Step 304)

[0040] After the virtual map exploration game server 420 receives the designated mileage “0.5 km”, it adds the designated mileage “0.5 km” to the current total mileage “11.7 km” and obtains the updated total mileage “12.2 km”. It then re-dispatches the corresponding task command 620 in the virtual map exploration game. (Step 305)

[0041] In summary, the invention differs form the prior art in that there is a fitness server end that accumulates the mileages of individual fitness user ends to obtain a total mileage. When the total mileage reaches a predetermined value, the fitness server end dispatches task commands to the fitness user ends for the fitness user ends to run to accomplish the tasks. This solves the problem in the prior art that users do not have sufficient motivations to exercise by running. Moreover, users achieve some goal together in a virtual map exploration game. The task command dispatching in the game increases the fun of exercising.

[0042] Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims will cover all modifications that fall within the true scope of the invention.