Patent Application
20190340301
The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present disclosure. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art nor material to the presently described or claimed inventions, nor that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
The present invention relates generally to the field of sports tracking systems and more specifically relates to a system for tracking skill development of athletes.
Conventional athletic training methods and techniques may include weight lifting, jump training, sprint training, agility training, and the like. Each training regimen often requires extensive training supervision by a coach or trainer. As such, much of the efficiency and individualistic training focus is lost or even avoided. Limited personnel, unskilled personnel, and cost and time restraints make effective off-season training ineffective. Training regimens are generally segregated and conducted without looking at the effects to, or an integration with, other training regimens.
Further, without the proper implementation and timing for the individual training tasks, athletes are often unable to properly focus the workouts in a manner that serves to maximize the individual's needs against the goals of the specific regimen (i.e., timing, strength, jumping, etc.) or the aggregate regimen schedule. Currently, when athletes are being evaluated, coaches are taking handwritten notes on cards regarding the athlete's times and scores. These cards can become lost, jersey numbers can be mixed up, and handwriting can be undecipherable. At the end of an event, scores need to be added up, input into a spreadsheet, and sent out to colleges. Thus, a suitable solution is desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,914,419 to Chris Demetrios relates to a physical activity manager. The described physical activity manager includes a system that facilitates activity management and tracking with respect to an individual. The innovation employs the notion of establishing a strategy to compress activity information into an identifying indicia (e.g., two-dimensional barcode) that can be processed (e.g., scanned) by a wide array of devices (e.g., mobile phone, personal data assistant). The innovation discloses a system that facilitates the ability to plan, monitor and log activity of an individual. The planning phase enables a user or third party (e.g., health-care professional) to proactively define an exercise or activity regimen for a user. The monitoring phase enables real-time fitness and/or activity tracking of an individual. Finally, the logging phase enables a user to log the information into a fitness log that can be subsequently used in health or fitness-related assessment.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known sports tracking systems art, the present disclosure provides a novel athlete skill tracking system. The general purpose of the present disclosure, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a system for effectively tracking skill development of athletes.
A system is disclosed herein. The system includes a server which may include a server-processor and a server-memory. The server-memory may include a server-database including a plurality of user-records, and each of the user-records including a plurality of user information-files. Further included may be a barcode-device configured to be worn on a body-part of the user and include identification-indicia specific to the user. A barcode-scanning means may be provided and configured to scan the identification-indicia on the barcode-device. In addition to this, a software-application may be provided and downloadable to an electronic-device, and a communication-network may communicably couple the server, the barcode-scanning means and the electronic-device.
A method of using the system is also disclosed herein. The method of using system may comprise the steps of: a providing the system as above; downloading the software-application to the electronic-device; creating at least one user-profile and a coach-profile on the software-application; scanning the identification-indicia on the barcode-device with the barcode-scanning means; viewing an associated user-record from the plurality of user-records; and recording performance-information on the software-application; wherein the system for tracking performance of a user provides means for tracking performance of at least one athlete.
For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. The features of the invention which are believed to be novel are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings and detailed description.
The figures which accompany the written portion of this specification illustrate embodiments and methods of use for the present disclosure, an athlete skill tracking system, constructed and operative according to the teachings of the present disclosure.
The various embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements.
As discussed above, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to sports tracking systems and more particularly to an athlete skill tracking system as used to improve the means for tracking skill development of athletes.
Generally disclosed is a method (means) to automatically track skill progress for any sport or fitness activity to assist coaches in evaluating athletes. Provided may be a system that includes a mobile application, computer software, a bar code bracelet, and a handheld scanner. For example, this may enable coaches to automatically capture timed skills, such as the 20-yard shuttle, while also allowing users to manually enter measured skills, such as vertical jumps.
It may afford athletes the ability to track their own development and assists coaches in their recruitment and scouting efforts. Further, the system may provide an accurate timing device and eliminate the need to decipher handwritten notes. The present invention allows coaches and athletes to send an individual's stats to a college quickly and in real time. In addition, the system may provide scores automatically at the end of an event. To use the system, the bar code bracelet worn by the athletes may be scanned and attached to the record of that individual athlete that is downloaded into a cloud-based database based on barcodes and ID numbers.
Manual information for an athlete may also be entered if needed. The coaches on the field may use the mobile application on their phone or the self-scanner. The software/app may include a stopwatch that may allow for accurate timing of timed skills once the athlete's bracelet is scanned and their identity is confirmed. Measured skills may be entered manually into the database using the app or desktop software. The database may be accessed by coaches who log in and view the athlete and their progress. All of the data from the app and scanner may be uploaded into the athlete's record automatically and instantly. The exact specifications may vary.
Referring now more specifically to the drawings by numerals of reference, there is shown in
Referring now to
The barcode-scanning means 130 may be configured to scan the identification-indicia 121 on the barcode-device 120. In the preferred embodiment, the barcode-scanning means 130 may include a means to translate the optical representation of data 122 into electrical-data 132. The means may be a light-source, a lens, and a light-sensor. Further, the barcode-scanning means 130 may include decoder circuity configured to analyze image data provided by the sensor upon scanning of the optical representation of data 122. The barcode-scanning means 130 may then be configured to send the electrical-data 132 to the server via the communication-network 150.
Referring now to
The at least one of the performance-tracking means 141 may be configured to generate performance-information 142 as a tangible result. Further, the software-application 140 may include means to manually enter performance-information 142 via a user-interface on the electronic-device 5. For example, the user may manually enter the runtime, statistics, etc. The software-application 140 may then be configured to send the performance-information 142 to the server 110 (or cloud) for storage in the associated user-record on the server-database 113. In this embodiment, the plurality of user information-files 115 may include the performance-information 142.
Referring now to
It should be noted that the steps described in the method of use can be carried out in many different orders according to user preference. The use of “step of” should not be interpreted as “step for”, in the claims herein and is not intended to invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). It should also be noted that, under appropriate circumstances, considering such issues as design preference, user preferences, marketing preferences, cost, structural requirements, available materials, technological advances, etc., other methods for system 100 (e.g., different step orders within above-mentioned list, elimination or addition of certain steps, including or excluding certain maintenance steps, etc.), are taught herein.
The embodiments of the invention described herein are exemplary and numerous modifications, variations and rearrangements can be readily envisioned to achieve substantially equivalent results, all of which are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention. Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application.
