Patent Application
20080287262
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electric treadmill, and more particularly to an innovative treadmill with an auto-control system.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
The electric treadmill, one of the most commonly used fitness equipment, now becomes a preferred option for fitness exercise in the gymnasiums, health clubs or even general family homes.
To meet diverse user requirements, the electric treadmill has evolved from a simple structure to a multi-functional structure, with the tailor-made functions such as speed control, climbing and timing. In addition, a recently developed electric treadmill has the capacity to calculate and display calories used, a sign of energy consumption during movement.
Despite existing control functions mentioned above, the typical electric treadmill cannot attract strong attention of the users and satisfy their varying demands owing to the limitation of its simple pattern.
Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement in the art to provide an improved structure that can significantly improve efficacy.
To this end, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate design and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products.
After the value of calorific capacity setting unit is set, a speed control unit and slope control unit allow for automatic matching of an operational value according to the set-value of the control system. When either the speed control unit or slope control unit is activated with a varying value, the other one will be automatically adjusted. With this innovation, the user could set a predefined value for energy consumption through the calorific capacity setting unit, while the control system enables automatic matching of the speed and slope, so that the user achieves the preset energy consumption within a preset period of time. Moreover, if either speed or slope is manually adjusted during operation, the other option will be automatically adjusted to maintain the preset value of energy consumption, thus improving the function and applicability of the electric treadmill to meet diversified user requirements.
Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.
The features and the advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood upon a thoughtful deliberation of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The speed control unit 11 and slope control unit 12 allow for automatic matching of operational value according to the set-value of the control system 10, after the value of calorific capacity setting unit 13 is set.
When either the speed control unit 11 or slope control unit 12 is activated with a varying value, the other one (i.e. slope control unit 12 or speed control unit 11) will be automatically adjusted.
Referring to
The value of said calorific capacity setting unit 13 may be a set value of the control system 10 or a value manually set by the user.
Additionally, the interrelationship between said speed control unit 11 and the slope control unit 12 could be computed logically by the following formula:
Human weight×9.81×seconds×degree of slope=watt (energy consumption)
The “9.81” is a fixed value obtained from the gravity acceleration rule of Newton's Law. As for the degree of slope, the gradient of the electric treadmill is divided into preset degrees and then converted into mean angle for every degree. However, the degree of slope for the slope control unit 12 is actually converted into easily identifiable value, such as: grade 1, 2, 3. Moreover, “watt” could be converted into easily identifiable calories using the embedded procedure of control system 10.
