Patent ID: 8473242

Claim:
A method comprising: authorizing an observer of an event to access and monitor route data associated with the event and real time performance data associated with a plurality of participants in the event; enabling the observer to select one or more participants of the event for which the observer is authorized; obtaining at a local device associated with the observer real time performance data associated with the one or more selected participants; obtaining at the local device the route data comprising a race route associated with the event; generating a graphical map interface on a user display of the local device based at least in part on the route data; displaying one or more performance metrics on the user display based on the real time performance data; determining a position of the one or more selected participants from the real time performance data and displaying the positions in association with the generated graphical map interface; enabling the observer to generate an inquiry as to the elapsed time or incremental time of arrival for the one or more selected participants with respect to an arbitrary real time position of the observer at an intermediate point along the race route; comparing the real time performance data for each of the one or more selected participants to the route data and predicting the elapsed time or incremental time of arrival at the real time position of the observer for each of the selected participants with respect to said inquiry; and displaying the predicted elapsed time or incremental time of arrival at the real time position of the observer for each of the selected participants on the user display of the local device.