Universal Gym Membership System with Usage-Based Fee Calculation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gym membership systems limit users to a single network of gyms with uniform facilities and hours, offering little flexibility in exercise options and locations.
Innovation Solution
A membership system (Any Gym Fitness) allows users to access multiple unaffiliated gyms, calculating a fee based on the percentage of time spent at each gym, providing a unique code for verification and payment distribution among selected gyms, enabling flexibility in equipment, hours, classes, and trainers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users join a traditional gym membership network, then they gain access to consistent facilities and services, but they lose flexibility in choosing different exercise locations and types
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal membership system where a single membership card or digital credential can be used across multiple independent gyms that participate in the network. This allows users to access different exercise locations and types without needing separate memberships, directly addressing the flexibility issue while maintaining system manageability through centralized registration and tracking
2Adaptability or versatility
If users access multiple unaffiliated gyms, then they gain diverse exercise options, but the fee calculation and payment distribution becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a centralized management system that acts as an intermediary between users and multiple gyms. This system automatically tracks usage at each gym, calculates fees based on predetermined formulas or gym-specific rates, and handles payment distribution to participating gyms. This intermediary layer simplifies the complexity by centralizing the calculation and distribution processes that would otherwise be manually managed
3Reliability
If gym membership networks maintain uniform facilities and hours, then they ensure consistent service quality, but they reduce variety in exercise options and operating flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the gym network into independent participating gyms that each maintain their own facilities, hours, and service characteristics. Rather than forcing uniformity across the entire network, each gym operates autonomously while contributing to the shared membership system. This segmentation allows users to access diverse exercise options and operating schedules across different locations while the centralized system ensures reliable membership verification and billing
Data Source
AI summary
Implementations of a membership system for allowing users to access multiple unaffiliated gyms and paying the participating gyms are provided. In some implementations, for a plurality of users, selections of a plurality of gyms are received from each user. For each user, a fee for a time-period to be paid by the user based on the gyms selected is calculated and the fee is received from the user. A unique code is assigned to each user. When a user visits a gym that the user selected, the unique code of the user and an identification of the gym visited is received and stored. For each user and each gym selected by the user, a payment to each gym selected by the user is calculated and paid based on the percentage of time the user visited the gym during the time period.