Patent Application
20130065680
Recently, a number of exercise and fitness computer and video games emerged. Wii Fit and related games uses Nintendo Wii video gaming system and Wii Balance board peripheral. The exemplary games include Electronics Arts Sports Active 2, The biggest loser challenge, Active Life Explorer, Just Dance 2, Wii Fit Plus, Walk It out, Zumba Fitness, NFL training camp, etc. A number of games uses Microsoft Kinect peripheral for XBOX 360 video gaming system. Microsoft Kinect uses a video camera to track player pose and enable interaction with the player. Examples of game titles for Microsoft Kinect include Your Shape Fitness Evolved, Zumba Fitness, The biggest loser challenge Ultimate, Electronics Arts Sports Active, etc. A growing number of video games relies on smartphones and tablets as a video gaming system. Examples include Walk n′ Play, Wellness Workout, Runkeeper Pro, etc. Some game, such as YourSelf fitness use home computer as a video gaming system.
The video games mentioned above direct user through various aerobic and strength training exercises and incorporate the exercises into various fun activities.
Strength training and aerobic exercises are two distinct kind of exercises with distinct training machines and techniques. Aerobic training involves long-term repetitive use of non-specific large muscle groups aiming at targeting cardiac and pulmonary systems. In contrast, strength training (strengthening) involves generation of a contraction of a specific muscle(s) for a number of repetitions and sets to quickly exhaust the muscle(s) aiming at increasing strength of the muscle(s).
Efficient strengthening requires manipulation of resistance and exercise regime. Some of the exercise, such as pull ups, push ups, squats, etc use just body weight to provide resistance force. However, most of efficient exercise regimes require use of resistance devices, such as dumbbells, resistance bands, isometric exercise devices, strength training machines, and so on.
Existing exercise video games provide a lot of capabilities to enable aerobics exercises. Most of the games enable strength training where body mass is used as resistance. Some of the games encourages uses of a limited number of resistance devices (free weights, resistance bands). However, those games are not aware of the level of resistance provided nor can control it, that prevents from engaging in an efficient strength training exercise regime.
None of the existing games on the market provides balance between exercise and entertaining activities. User may become focused on entertaining activity or specific exercise at the expense of balanced and efficient exercise regime.
Various types of exercise equipment have been developed for muscle building and toning, whether ultimately used as a sport or for physical therapy.
One of the more common types of exercise equipment is the weight type device which uses weights to provide the necessary resistance. As is well known, these weight type devices have several disadvantages. They are cumbersome to move since they are generally associated with a frame and bench assembly and the weights need to be moved when the equipment is moved. In addition, these devices may cause injury to an inexperienced user since the weights may be dropped suddenly. Further, when weights are lifted an inertia of movement is created which tends to provide unevenness in the operating resistance during the exercising process.
An issue with those machines is that the velocity at which the weight is moved is controlled by the user. Many, if not most, users will move the weight at a velocity which is too fast for optimum muscle development. Another problem is that the weight which is lowered is the same as the weight which is lifted, even though the muscles are capable of controlled lowering of a larger weight than they can lift. This controlled lowering of a weight, or negative resistance, is the most beneficial exercise for developing strength.
It is also desirable to perform a number of repetitions of each exercise, such as eight to twelve, so as to fatigue the muscle(s) being exercised. Because the capability of the muscles to perform the exercise decreases with each repetition, a weight which is less than the maximum which can be lifted is usually selected for the exercise. A preferred form is to have the weight for each repetition to be the maximum for that repetition; i.e. the weight should change with each repetition.
The therapeutic exercise is the prescription of bodily movement to correct an impairment, improve musculoskeletal function, or maintain a state of well-being. It may vary from highly selected activities restricted to specific muscles or parts of the body, to general and vigorous activities that can return a convalescing patient to the peak of physical condition.
Therapeutic exercise seeks to accomplish the following goals
There is considerable effort to couple exercise devices with various video gaming systems. The shining example of commercial success in this direction is Nintendo's WII fit, which uses balance board and a simple remote controller to drive interactive games and virtual personal training. The success of WII fit is based on the facts that (a) is is a gadget (small, non-expensive) (b) it is easy to use (c) it is coupled with highly interactive and entertaining gaming activity. However, WII Fit does not provide resistance. The resistance exercises are limited to the situations when user's own weight, power cable, or dumbbells are providing resistance. The resistance cannot be controlled by video gaming system
Although they are not yet reached the commercial mainstream, there are a lot of designs of aerobic exercise equipment that provide for connection with video gaming system. The parameters of aerobic exercise equipment (e.g., brake force for a bike or belt speed for a treadmill) are relatively easy to adjust by an electronic control. On other hand, the information on progress of the exercise, e.g. distance or calories burned, is easy to compute and feed to a video gaming system.
Strength training is equipment is more difficult to couple with video gaming system. First of all, strength training normally require repetitions comprising of concentric and eccentric phases. For an efficient exercise, resistance shall be dependent on one or many of the following: position, repetition number, velocity.
U.S. Pat. No 7,278,958 to Morgan describes variable resistance strength training machine. The variation of resistance is achieved by mechanically adjusting able pulley system. The adjustment process is initiated by a human. The machine still requires weight stack and frame and does not coupled with a video gaming system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,567, Phillips, entitled “Exercise Bicycle Apparatus Particularly Adapted for Controlling Video Games,” issued Apr. 23, 1985. This patent shows an exercise bicycle that is used to control and fully operate a video game by use of electrical signals. These electrical signals are based on the motion of the handlebars as well as signals proportional to the speed at which the bicycle is being operated. This invention requires the use of an electrical generator and is limited to use with only exercise bicycles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,513 to Haydocy et al. teaches an exercise bike that controls video gaming system, providing game level rewards for achievement during exercise. It limited to aerobic exercise, requires a bulky exercise machine and does not provide for adjusting of exercise equipment parameters by video gaming system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,537 to Hickman shows an exercise equipment connected to a local computer, which is in turn connected to a remote system. The patent teaches control of equipment resistance (e.g., exercise bike brake) by a computer system, and provides means for virtual group exercise. The patent does not teach energy recuperation during strength trainings repetitions, nor provide means for reinforcing video game environment nor automated personal training during exercise
U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,437, Ruis et al, entitled “Robotic Exercise Machine and Method”, discloses a hydraulic driven and controlled apparatus which can be programmed to provide a number of different exercise paths for a user. These paths must be programmed for each new user by a trained technician. The device lacks the simplicity necessary for use in a health club or spa type environment. Moreover, two separately controlled, hydraulically driven links are required for its operation.
U.S. Pat No. 4,919,418 to Miller, entitled “Computerized drive mechanism for exercise, physical therapy and rehabilitation”, discloses a microcontroller based strength training machine that provide for both concentric and eccentric exercise. The control is limited to providing constant velocity during repetitions. The patent does not teach energy recuperation during concentric/eccentric repetitions, nor a connection with video gaming system. The device is bulky and can not be used as a gadget.
U.S. Pat No. 4,880,230 to Cook teaches a pre-electronic era pneumatic strength training gadget. Device allows to manually adjust resistance, separately for forward and backward movement. However, this invention does not provide for eccentric exercise, Nautilus style exercise, nor for a connection to video gaming system.
None of the prior art is concerned with provision of a resistance based strength training closely coupled with a video gaming system that provides a reinforcing video game or a coaching.
A video gaming system is an interactive entertainment computer or electronic device that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device (a television, monitor, etc.) to display a video game or directly on a portable device like smart phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). The term “video game console” is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to buy and use solely for playing video games from a personal computer, which has many other functions. In the invention, video gaming system is operated to run either entertainment (game), physical training or therapeutic software. video gaming system can be connected to the Internet. The software can be further configured to interact with peer systems or central server to exercise history, settings. In addition to operative connection with the exercise equipment. video gaming system can be coupled with general purpose (key board, mouse, monitor, joystick, camera, microphone) and specialized (position sensors, accelerometers, voltage sensors, heart rate monitors, blood pressure modules) peripheral devices. The exercise software can either reside on video gaming system system or on the server, in the later case the use experience will be provided by some thin client (e.g, browser or Java). video gaming system is distinguishable from specialized exercise computers; as video gaming system can normally be configured to run non only the exercise software, but other games or general purpose software (media player, Internet browser, office productivity suite, etc). For further clarity, WII, XBox, Playstation, Personal computer, netbook, smartphone are examples of video gaming system, while computer embedded into treadmill for entertainment or control is not a video gaming system. In some embodiments, the video gaming system comprises a thin device in a proximity to the exercise person and a cloud. For example, a smart phone or Chrome based notebook can actually perform minimum of the computations locally and the rest can be performed by the cloud. Such configurations fell within the scope of invention.
Pose tracking is a computer vision technique that allows to trace movement of body parts based on the input from video cameras. The review of various vision based pose tracking techniques can be found in the paper “A Survey of Computer Vision-Based Human Motion Capture” by Thomas B. Moeslund and Erik Granum, Computer Vision and Image Understanding Volume 104, Issues 2-3, November-December 2006, Pages 90-126, which is incorporated here by reference. Fiduciary marks are frequently used to increase the quality of pose tracking and reduce computational requirements. Pose tracking can also be achieved by attaching accelerometers to the body parts of interest and integrating their signals.
Virtual group exercise - users can either see their “virtual images”, or see each other by video link, or see each other progress. Users can either exercise simultaneously or independently. The exercise can be organized as a competition or tournament.
Strength training is the use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscles. The basic principles of strength training involve a manipulation of the number of repetitions (reps), sets, tempo, exercises and force to cause desired changes in strength, endurance, size or shape by overloading of a group of muscles. Typically, each rep contains a concentric and eccentric steps, where
Concentric-exercise where there is movement in the direction force is applied. (For example when a bar bell is lifted from the floor.)
Eccentric-exercise where there is movement in the direction opposite to the direction of the force applied. (For example when a bar bell is lowered to the floor.)
Isokinetic - exercise where the speed of exercise motion is held constant during a dynamic contraction, so that external resistive force varies in response to magnitude of muscular force.
Isometric - exercise where the speed of exercise motion is substantially zero.
Integrated electrical motor/alternator - an electric mechanical device whose rotor is coupled to a resistance cable. It is used as an electric drive and also as a recuperative brake. Brake energy is converted into electric energy and stored in a battery using an intelligent energy management. Thus, the energy can later be reused for creating of a torque assst or for providing a service driving functions to adjust the resistance cable position and length. The ultra-capacitor could be used instead of or as an addition to the battery. It is capable to deliver up to 10 times the power and longevity of batteries, requires no maintenance and operate reliably in extreme temperatures and vibrations.
Exercise professional: coach, experienced peer or friend, physiotherapist, kinesiologist, personal trainer, etc.
Adjustable resistance - resistance that can be easily adjusted between exercise sets.
Variable resistance - resistance that can be varied within individual rep, for example to emulate Nautilus style equipment or force isokinetic exercise.
An aspect of the invention is that a video gaming system facilitates strength training exercise and monitors it's progress and is aware of at least approximate resistance force magnitude during the exercise.
An aspect of the invention is that the awareness is achieved by communication of information with the exercise device. In some embodiments, the video gaming system controls or adjust the resistance by sending a signal, for example a digital wireless signal to the strength training machine. The signal may either specify a resistance setting, or a force curve, or be an applet with program or byte code programming the response. In some embodiments, the strength training machine sends a signal, for example a digital wireless signal, indicative of resistance settings or current resistance. In some embodiments, a two way communication is established. In other embodiments, the communication of information is enabled by sensing techniques, for example computer vision. In an embodiments, the software on video gaming system uses a signal from a coupled video camera to analyze the image or video signal, and applies segmentation and computer vision techniques to recognize the selected exercise object or it's settings or use.
In an embodiment, the exercise progress monitoring is achieved by receiving a signal, for example a digital wireless signal, from the exercise device. For example, the exercise device may have an accelerometer, and the information about velocity and integrated position is transmitted to the video gaming system.
In an embodiment, the exercise progress monitoring is achieved by using pose tracking techniques from a video signal using a video camera coupled with the video gaming system. The techniques for exercise progress monitoring could be combined.
In an embodiment, the data of exercise progress monitoring are used to coach user on exercise techniques. For example, the video gaming system can generate an audio or video signal advising user to improve posture, movement of range, and velocity.
An aspect of the invention is that the video gaming systems monitors the velocity during strength training exercise, and generates a signal aiming at achieving a proper velocity. In an embodiment, the signal is audio or video signal advising user to improve exercise technique. In another embodiment, the signal is digital signals send to the strength training machine to adjust resistance. Both techniques could be used in a consent.
An aspect of the invention is that the video gaming system advantageously aware of at least one physiological parameter, for example heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, oxygen level in the blood, sugar level , etc. In an embodiment, a conventional sensor is attached to the player body. Conventional sensor might be either in a separate enclosure, or be part of an exercise device or game controller. The sensor sends the information to video gaming system over a digital wireless connection. In other embodiments, a non-contact to measure a physiological parameter advantageously used. For example, the data from a visible light or infrared video camera coupled with a video gaming system could be analyzed to derive heart rate, breathing rate, and the dynamic of the oxygen level. The video gaming system is advantageously configured to use this information to adjust parameters of the current and/or future exercise to optimize workout effect and reduce the health risks. This is could be achieved by an audio or video indication to the user, or by adjustment of the resistance force by means of sending the signal to the strength training apparatus. The use of other computing devices that are not a video gaming system to use non-contact physiological parameter monitoring (for example, video camera based heart rate monitoring) to tune-up the exercise is an embodiment of this invention. Video camera can be an integral part of the video gaming system.
An aspect of the invention that the video gaming system advantageously configured to estimate the level of exhaustion of the user during the exercise, and advantageously uses this information to adjust parameters of the current and/or future exercise to optimize workout effect and reduce the health risks. This could be achieved by an audio or video indication to the user, or by adjustment of the resistance force by means of sending the signal to the strength training apparatus.
An aspect of the invention that the video gaming system is configured to use monitored parameters to prompt user to adjust exercise technique, such as velocity, range of motion, posture, or effort.
An aspect of this invention is that the video gaming system is advantageously configured to use information about progress and time spent during exercise to control a non-directly related activity, for example access to video games or movies, the ratings of movies or artifacts in video games, etc.
An aspect of this invention that the strength training apparatus is configured to pulsate (vibrate) resistance by changing it's magnitude (or even dropping it's to zero). The pose tracking and exercise monitoring information is advantageously used by the video gaming system to control the pulsation to optimize workout effect and reduce the health risks.
An aspect of the invention is a game controller that can provide variable or adjustable resistance during strength training exercise and therefore forms a strength training machine. The machine is coupled with off-the shelf video gaming system (video gaming system). It could be coupled by a Bluetooth, Zigbee, or TCP/IP over a WiFI wireless connection, or through a wired interface such as USB. video gaming system is off the shelf game console (such as Xbox 360 or WII), or personal computing device, such as desktop computer, notebook, netbook, smartphone, or smart book.
It is another aspect of this invention that the controller can provide variable resistance by utilizing a hydraulic apparatus, an electrical hoist, or an electrical linear actuator.
It is another aspect of this invention that video gaming system is configure to run software that supports user during exercise by providing a reinforcing video game experience and coaching the use.
It is another aspect of this invention that the said controller has a microcontroller, that manages the resistance provided to user and communicates with video gaming system. A microcontroller could be a tightly integrated device with wireless interfaces, ADCs and DACs, or on the alternative, a less integrated computing device that communicates through necessary peripherals through a bus. The microcontroller could be a high end application processor or basic 8-bit microcontroller dependent on the embodiment's needs. Microcontroller could be implemented in FPGA or ASIC.
It is aspect of this invention that microcontroller adjust the resistance based on one or more of the following: position, repetition number, type of exercise, user profile, velocity. Microcontroller could either compute the resistance independently, receive functional dependency from video gaming system, or just receive current force from video gaming system.
It is another aspect of this invention that the microcontroller transmits to video gaming system information on the user progress, such as force, velocity, position, number of repetitions, calories burned, or user's vital signs.
It is another aspect of this invention that the resistance is provided by electric motor configured to generate energy during concentric movement and to use energy during eccentric movement, and this energy is recuperated by storing in a super capacitor.
electric elements specified on the schematic are:
Serial to Bluetooth data link module D1701 provides connection of the Electronic Control Module (ECM) to a standard Bluetooth enabled host (playstation, laptop/desktop computer, PDA, mobile phone. ECM is controlled by firmware of the micro controller D2702. Communication portion of the irmware supports the communication link between ECM and a host. Serial data input RTS and serial data output TXD of module D1701 and microcontroller D2702 are used to serially connect them.
The firmware continuously monitors the output pulses of the incremental optical servo drive shaft encoder M1703.
Gear motor M2704 works as the ECM servo drive. Gear motor M2704 provides a driving torque or provides a resistive torque in active or passive dynamic mode functioning as a controlled brake to maintain the necessary exercise cord tension level. Switches S5705, S6706, S7707, S8708 are controlling the polarity of pulse width modulated signal (PWM) supplied to the motor 704. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control signals SC1709, SC2710, SC3711 are supplied through the power MOSFETs S2712, S3713, S4714 to the gear motor M2704. S2712 switch provides PWM of VDD2 amplitude to the gear motor 704. VDD is supplied from the main energy source : rechargeable battery V1715 through the DC-DC converter D4716 or from the alternative energy source: ultra-capacitor C1717. The ultra-capacitor C1717 charging/re-charging is controlled by the switch S4714. Charging current is limited by the resistor R3718. The ultra-capacitor C1717 provides a high current boosting energy source for the servo drive. In case of rechargeable battery 715 and capacitor 717 been fully charged, the S3713 switch provides connection of the motor 704 to the damping resistor R2719. VDD1720 level of the battery voltage is monitored by the microcontroller D2702. AN1 voltage signal 721 monitored by the microcontroller 702 represents the gear servo motor 704 current. AN3722 signal monitored by microcontroller 702 represents the charge voltage of the ultra-capacitor C1717. Signal AN2723 monitored by microcontroller 702 represents the dumping resistor current for the Motor M2704 which could be used for dynamic breaking when negative passive motor torque is used to maintain the level of resistance during the resistance training exercise.
Hand grip sensor S1724 provides electrical pulses detected from user's hand which allows to calculate current heart beat rate of the user. Pulses are getting amplified by operational amplifier D3725 and are getting monitored by the microcontroller D2702. Information about the current user's heart beat rate gets sent to the host computer or video game consul through wireless interface of the module 701. Information about current acceleration of the ECM is provided by the 3D accelerometer D5726. Video game can show user in real time the better way to perform exercise and at the same time to adjust the resistance level of exercise to maintain the heart beat in the safe range.
The invention enables various physical exercise based activities, as can be illustrated by the example of remote or virtual online arm wrestling competition depicted on
It is beneficial to provide pose tracking into video game, physical exercise, or physiotherapy. Pose tracking is feasible with off the shelf methods and a higher resolution (2 mp or better) web camera. In the embodiment, fiduciary marks are imprinted on the handles of the controller to facilitate pose tracking. Further, user can wear ankle or wrist bands, or gloves with marks. Video gaming system recognizes the position of fiduciary marks using an open source ARToolKitPlus. Controller integrates data from the accelerometers and periodically transfers the integrated position and velocity to video gaming system The data are used to enhance the tracking precision. The software utilizes OpenCV motion tracking algorithms to combine the data from un-marked motion tracking, tracking of fiduciary marks, position data from the motor, and accelerometer data into single motion model. Intel integrated performance primitives library is used to facilitate image processing.
The system may be used to enable automated physiotherapy. Physiotherapist sets exercise parameters and observe initial session through web cam over Internet. During recovery after a dislocation, it is important to allow joint movement up to certain angle, and provide different resistance during eccentric and concentric phases. The software in video gaming system is configured to supervise users exercises and provide the controlled level resistance to the patient's hand movement at each stage of the exercise. During exercise, the software displays screen schematically shown on
There is research claiming that vibrating the resistance during exercise substantially increases exercise efficiency and has physio-therapeutical effect The invention can easily provide such an exercise regime. Further, because the invention tracks the use posture and exercise speed, the vibrating regime can be optimized depending on those parameters.
Many of the known video games use a video camera (such as a combination of visible light and infrared video camera as provided in Microsoft Kinect) to track users posture. The invention advantageously uses video camera to recognize exercise device used by the user (or available to be used in a view of the video camera), as well as the current setting of the exercise device. This information is advantageously used to record the history of exercise regime, adjust prompts given to the user by the exercise system, and to plan exercise regime. In an embodiment, the exercise devices contains markers to facilitate the recognition. In some embodiments of the invention, the markers are available for sales and can be attached to pre-existing exercise devices. In other embodiments, the invention is compatible only with a limited number of exercise devices with pre-manufactured markers, those enabling lock-in of the costumer and more profits. It is apparent to one ordinary skilled in the art that more business methods falls within the scope of invention.
In the simplest form, the pulley based strength staining machine can be implemented as an electronic-less upgrade to Wii Balance board. Such a product would contain 2 handles connected with a rope of adjustable length, one of the handles would have a pocket to insert WII remote, and 2 leg extensions - 2 with blocks, 2 without blocks.
A lot of other different pulley based machines coupled with a video gaming system are in the scope of invention. Some configurations are shown on
The invention can advantageously monitor the user pulse rate and advantageously use the pulse rate information to adjust the exercise parameters. For example, if pulse rate is too high, the invention can advantageously suggest to use slower motion or reduce the resistance or exercise duration, or number of repetitions and/or sets. If the pulse rate is too high, the invention will advantageously increase the exercise demand. The invention will advantageously store user pulse rate for various exercises and use this information to optimize parameters for future exercises.
Many possible pulse measurement techniques can be used in the invention. In some embodiments, traditional electric contact based heart sensors are used, as shown on
However, the invention advantageously envisions the use of noncontact heart and breath monitoring techniques in exercise machines. Some of the methods for noncontact measurements of heart and breath rate include include laser Doppler (S. Ulyanov and V. Tuchin, “Pulse-wave monitoring by means of focused laser beams scattered by skin surface and membranes,” in Proc. SPIE, Los Angeles, Calif., 1984, pp. 160-167), microwave Doppler radar (E. Greneker, “Radar sensing of heartbeat and respiration at a distance with applications of the technology,” in Proc. Conf. RADAR, Edinburgh, U.K., 1997, pp. 150-154) and thermal imaging (M. Garbey, N. Sun, A. Merla, and I. Pavlidis, “Contact-free measurement of cardiac pulse based on the analysis of thermal imagery,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 54, no. 8, pp. 1418-1426, August 2007). Although use of all the methods above are within the scope of invention, in the preferred embodiment the invention uses ordinary Web camera coupled with video gaming system, ordinary web camera installed on a treadmill or other specialized exercise device, the phone camera, or camera build in the Kinect or similar peripheral. The same camera is preferably used for motion and pose tracking. It is know in the art that light reflection properties of human skin changes with blood pulse (see J. Allen, “Photoplethysmography and its application in clinical physiological measurement,” Physiol. Meas., vol. 28, pp. R1-R39,Mar. 2007). Those slight color changes could be used to detect the pulse and breathing rate (see W. Verkruysse, L. O. Svaasand, and J. S. Nelson, “Remote plethysmographic imaging using ambient light,” Opt. Expr., vol. 16, pp. 21434-21445, Dec. 2008. and M. Z. Poh, D. J. McDuff, and R. W. Picard, “Non-contact, automated cardiac pulse measurements using video imaging and blind source separation,” Opt. Expr., vol. 18, pp. 10762-10774,May 2010.). All the references are incorporated here within by reference. In the research prototypes developed in the art, OpenCV library is used for face detection, and then blind signal decomposition is used to detect the pulse. Although the same method can be practiced with the invention, another approach would include parametric modelling of skin color changes and detection of the parameter change.
The invention advantageously automatically determines by the processor of a video gaming system the resistance force used during strength training exercise. In one embodiment, the video camera coupled with a video gaming system is used to recognize the weights or adjustable resistance band, or not extended length of resistance band. In other embodiments, the video gaming system receives the resistance directly from the strength machine coupled with a video gaming system. In embodiments, the same video camera is used to recognize the person who is exercising.
In an embodiment, the information of a person exercise history could be used to enable a business transaction with the said person. For example, a person may qualify for a discounted health or life insurance rate in consideration of a regular exercise. In this case the invented software would aggregate the exercise history information and use it as evidence with the insurance provider. Alternatively, the need to exercise may be a safety requirement associated with the job condition, or part of a sentence, or a condition of receiving disability benefits while recovering. The exercise history can be used for grading in the school curriculum. The invention can be used for all those purposes. In an embodiment, the invention use biometric data, such as face or fingerprint recognition to identify the person who exercised. In an embodiment, the invention can use multiple video gaming systems, for example the personal computer equipped with a web camera could be used to monitor in-house exercises, and a smartphone with location identification service, accelerometer, and web camera could be used for outdoor activities. In an embodiment, the system can monitor and facilitate early development activities of child.
This application is a continuation of U.S. utility application Ser. No. 13/111,869 filed May 19, 2011 that a is a continuation in part of U.S. utility application Ser. No. 12/618,680 filed Nov. 13, 2009 that claims priority under 35 USC Section 119(a) from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/115,082, filed Nov. 16, 2008. The application Ser. No. 13/111,869 further claims priority under 35 USC Section 119(a) from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/346,865, filed May 20, 2010. All the above mentioned applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61115082 | Nov 2008 | US | |
| 61346865 | May 2010 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13111869 | May 2011 | US |
| Child | 13620508 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12618680 | Nov 2009 | US |
| Child | 13111869 | US |
