OUTDOOR LANDSCAPE PRESENTING METHOD AND EXERCISE ASSISTANCE SYSTEM

Abstract

An outdoor landscape presenting method and an exercise assistance system are provided. The method is described below. A map program is executed. A user operation used for planning an outdoor exercise route through the map program is received. Multiple outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route are obtained. Exercise state information of an exercise equipment is detected. The outdoor landscape images are presented on a display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 112131079, filed on Aug. 18, 2023. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to a human-computer interaction technology, and more particularly, to an outdoor landscape presenting method and an exercise assistance system.

Description of Related Art

With the growing popularity of indoor exercising, more and more users choose to do indoor exercises (e.g., gyms or their homes) by using exercise equipment such as flywheels, treadmills, or steppers. Although some manufacturers have proposed exercise equipment that can support the playback of pre-recorded videos during exercise in an attempt to give users a sense of presence of outdoor exercise, in practice, users can only barely choose to play one of the small number of videos provided by manufacturers, and these pre-recorded videos are only updated once in a long time. In the long run, users will easily give up indoor exercise due to the lack of a sense of presence of outdoor exercise.

SUMMARY

The disclosure provides an outdoor landscape presenting method and an exercise assistance system, which may improve the sense of presence of outdoor exercise felt by users when performing indoor exercise.

The embodiment of the disclosure provides an outdoor landscape presenting method, which is described below. A map program is executed. A user operation is received. The user operation is used for planning an outdoor exercise route through the map program. Multiple outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route are obtained. Exercise state information of an exercise equipment is detected. The outdoor landscape images are presented on a display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information.

The embodiment of the disclosure also provides an exercise assistance system, which includes an exercise equipment and a control host. The control host is coupled to the exercise equipment. The control host is used for executing the following. A map program is executed. A user operation is received. The user operation is used for planning an outdoor exercise route through the map program. Multiple outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route are obtained. Exercise state information of the exercise equipment is detected. The outdoor landscape images are presented on a display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information.

Based on the above, after executing the map program, a user operation may be received to plan the outdoor exercise route through the map program. According to this outdoor exercise route, multiple outdoor landscape images may be obtained. Afterwards, the outdoor landscape images may be presented on a display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information of the exercise equipment. Thereby, the sense of presence of outdoor exercise felt by users when performing indoor exercise may be improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an exercise assistance system according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a user operating an exercise equipment according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of planning an outdoor exercise route according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a reference table according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of presenting different outdoor landscape images according to the change in the virtual moving distance according to the embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an outdoor landscape presenting method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an exercise assistance system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 1, an exercise assistance system 10 includes an exercise equipment 11 and a control host 12. The exercise equipment 11 is available for users to perform self-exercises. For example, the exercise equipment 11 may include a treadmill, a flywheel, a stepper, etc., and the type of the exercise equipment 11 is not limited thereto.

The control host 12 is coupled to the exercise equipment 11. The control host 12 may be combined with the exercise equipment 11 or independent of the exercise equipment 11. For example, the control host 12 may be the control computer of the exercise equipment 11. Alternatively, the control host 12 may also be a portable electronic device such as a tablet computer, a smart phone, or a game console, and the type of the control host 12 is not limited thereto.

The control host 12 may include a display interface 121, an operation interface 122, a communication interface 123, a storage circuit 124 and a processor 125. The display interface 121 may be used for displaying the image. For example, the display interface 121 may include a plasma display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD), an light emitting diode (LED) display or an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, etc., and the type of the display interface 121 is not limited thereto.

The operation interface 122 may be used for receiving a user operation and generating a corresponding input signal. For example, the operation interface 122 may include signal input devices such as a remote control, a touch pad, a mouse, or a physical keyboard, and the type of the operation interface 122 is not limited thereto. Alternatively, the operation interface 122 may also be combined with the display interface 121 to form a touch screen.

The communication interface 123 is used for coupling the control host 12 to the exercise equipment 11 and communicating with the exercise equipment 11 (e.g., the communication interface of the exercise equipment 11). For example, the communication interface 123 may support Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy (BLE), universal serial bus (USB), various wired or wireless communication standards such as universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) or WiFi, and the communication standards that the communication interface 123 may support are not limited thereto. In addition, the communication interface 123 may also be used for connecting to the Internet and communicating with the remote server.

The storage circuit 124 may be used for storing data. For example, the storage circuit 125 may include a volatile storage circuit and a non-volatile storage circuit. The volatile storage circuit is used for storing data volatilely. For example, the volatile storage circuit may include random access memory (RAM) or similar volatile storage media. The non-volatile storage circuit is used for storing data non-volatilely. For example, a non-volatile storage circuit may include a read-only memory (ROM), a solid state drive (SSD), a traditional hard disk (HDD), or a similar non-volatile storage device.

The processor 125 is coupled to the display interface 121, the operation interface 122, the communication interface 123, and the storage circuit 124. The processor 125 may be responsible for the overall or partial operation of the control host 12 (or the exercise assistance system 10). For example, the processor 125 may include a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or other programmable general-purpose or special-purpose microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a programmable controller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or other similar devices, or a combination of these devices.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a user operating an exercise equipment according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 2, it is assumed that the exercise equipment 11 is a flywheel, and the user may operate the exercise equipment 11 to perform self-training (or indoor training). The display interface 121 (and the operation interface 122) may be provided on the exercise equipment 11. When the user is operating the exercise equipment 11, the user may view the image presented by the display interface 121. In one embodiment, when the user is operating the exercise equipment 11, the user may also operate the operation interface 122.

In one embodiment, the processor 125 may execute a map program 101 to enable an online map or an offline map. For example, the map program 101 may be stored in the storage circuit 124. Alternatively, the map program 101 may also be stored in a remote server. For example, the online map may include various electronic or digital maps such as Google map, Apple map, or Baidu map, and the types of online maps are not limited thereto. After executing the map program 101, the processor 125 may present the online map or the offline map through the display interface 121.

In one embodiment, the processor 125 may receive the user operation through the operation interface 122. This user operation may be used for planning an outdoor exercise route through the map program 101. For example, the map program 101 may plan an outdoor exercise route on the online map or the offline map according to this user operation. For example, the processor 125 may set a starting point and a destination on the online map or the offline map according to this user operation. According to the set starting point and destination, the map program 101 may automatically generate the outdoor exercise route between the starting point and the destination.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of planning an outdoor exercise route according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, a map image 30 may be presented on the display interface 121. The processor 125 may set reference points 31 and 32 according to the user operation. Then, according to the reference points 31 and 32, the map program 101 may automatically generate an outdoor exercise route 33. The reference point 31 is the starting point of the outdoor exercise route 33, while the reference point 32 is the destination of the outdoor exercise route 33. In other words, according to the reference points 31 and 32, the map program 101 (or the processor 125) may automatically plan the outdoor exercise route 33 between the reference points 31 and 32. In addition, the outdoor exercise route 33 may be presented in the map image 30. It should be noted that the map image 30, the reference point 31, the reference point 32 and the outdoor exercise route 33 shown in FIG. 3 are examples and are not used to limit the disclosure.

In one embodiment, after determining the outdoor exercise route (e.g., outdoor exercise route 33 in FIG. 3), the processor 125 may obtain multiple outdoor landscape images corresponding to this outdoor exercise route. For example, these outdoor landscape images may present at least a part of the street views on this outdoor exercise route. Then, the processor 125 may store these outdoor landscape images in the storage circuit 124.

In one embodiment, the processor 125 may receive route planning information provided by the map program 101 according to the user operation. This route planning information may include information related to the determined outdoor exercise route (e.g., outdoor exercise route 33 in FIG. 3). The processor 125 may download the outdoor landscape images from an external server through the communication interface 123 according to this route planning information. Taking Google Map as an example, this external server may be Google's map server or street view image server, and the downloaded outdoor landscape images may be the street view images provided by Google's map server or street view image server. However, the disclosure does not limit the type of the outdoor landscape images, as long as at least a part of the street views on this outdoor exercise route are presented.

In one embodiment, the processor 125 may obtain multiple reference points (e.g., reference point 0 to reference point N in FIG. 3) on the outdoor exercise route (e.g., outdoor exercise route 33 in FIG. 3) according to the route planning information. For example, these reference points may be distributed along the outdoor exercise route. The processor 125 may obtain coordinate information (e.g., longitude and latitude information) of these reference points according to the route planning information. The processor 125 may download the outdoor landscape images from the external server (e.g., Google's map server or street view image server) according to these reference points (and/or the coordinate information of these reference points). For example, each of the reference points may correspond to one outdoor landscape image, and this outdoor landscape image may present the outdoor landscape (i.e., street view) on the corresponding reference point.

In one embodiment, the processor 125 may detect exercise state information of the exercise equipment 11 through the communication interface 123. For example, this exercise state information may reflect the wheel speed, conveyor belt rotation speed, or pedaling frequency of the exercise equipment 11. The wheel speed, conveyor belt rotation speed, or pedaling frequency may reflect the effort of the user to operate the exercise equipment 11 at the moment. For example, when the user pedals the pedal of the flywheel, the conveyor of the treadmill, or the pedal of the stepper harder and/or faster, this exercise state information may reflect that the wheel speed, conveyor belt rotation speed, or pedaling frequency of the exercise equipment 11 is higher. On the contrary, when the user pedals the pedal of the flywheel, the conveyor of the treadmill, or the pedal of the stepper more lightly and/or slowly, this exercise state information may reflect the wheel speed, conveyor belt rotation speed, or pedaling frequency of the exercise equipment 11 is lower. The processor 125 may present the outdoor landscape images on the display interface 121 sequentially according to this exercise state information. In one embodiment, by sequentially presenting the outdoor landscape images when the user is operating the exercise equipment 11, the user may have a sense of presence of actually moving outdoors (e.g., riding a bicycle, walking, or jogging) along the outdoor exercise route.

In one embodiment, the processor 125 may obtain a virtual moving distance of the exercise equipment 11 according to the exercise state information. For example, the processor 125 may evaluate a virtual traveling speed of the exercise equipment 11 within a time period according to the exercise state information. For example, this virtual traveling speed is directly related to the wheel speed, conveyor belt rotation speed, or pedaling frequency of the exercise equipment 11. Then, the processor 125 may evaluate the virtual moving distance of the exercise equipment 11 within this time period according to the virtual traveling speed. For example, assuming that the virtual traveling speed of the exercise equipment 11 within the time period ΔT is V, the processor 125 may determine the virtual moving distance of the exercise equipment 11 over the time period ΔT as D, where D=V×ΔT. Afterwards, the processor 125 may present the outdoor landscape images on the display interface 121 sequentially according to the change in this virtual moving distance.

In one embodiment, the processor 125 may record the distances between the reference points on the outdoor exercise route and the starting point of the outdoor exercise route respectively according to the route planning information. Afterwards, in response to the virtual moving distance being a specific distance, the processor 125 may present one of the outdoor landscape images on the display interface 121.

In one embodiment, according to the route planning information, the processor 125 may record a distance between one of the reference points (also referred to as the first reference point) and the starting point of the outdoor exercise route as the first distance and a distance between another one of the reference points (also referred to as the second reference point) and the starting point of the outdoor exercise route as the second distance. The first distance is different from the second distance. Afterwards, the processor 125 may present an image corresponding to the first reference point in the outdoor landscape images (also referred to as the first outdoor landscape image) on the display interface 121 in response to the virtual moving distance being the first distance. In addition, the processor 125 may present an image corresponding to the second reference point in the outdoor landscape images (also referred to as the second outdoor landscape image) on the display interface 121 in response to the virtual moving distance being the second distance. By analogy, the processor 125 may present the outdoor landscape images on the display interface 121 sequentially according to the change in this virtual moving distance.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a reference table according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 4, in one embodiment, the processor 125 may create a reference table 41 according to the route planning information. The reference table 41 may be used for recording the image corresponding to each of the reference points on the outdoor exercise route (i.e., the outdoor landscape images) and the information about the distance between each of the reference points and the starting point of the outdoor exercise route. For example, according to the reference table 41, the outdoor landscape images corresponding to the reference point 0 to the reference point N on the outdoor exercise route are images IMG(0) to IMG(N), respectively, and the distances between the reference point 0 to the reference point N and the starting point of the outdoor exercise route are D(0) to D(N), respectively. In one embodiment, the reference point 0 may be the starting point of the outdoor exercise route, and/or the reference point N may be the destination of the outdoor exercise route. It should be noted that the reference table 41 may also record the above information and/or more useful information in other forms, which is not limited by this disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of presenting different outdoor landscape images according to the change in the virtual moving distance according to the embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 5, continuing from the embodiment in FIG. 4, as the virtual moving distance increases, for example, gradually increases from distance D(0) to D(N), the images IMG(0) to IMG(N) may be presented on the display interface 121 sequentially For example, in response to the virtual moving distance being D(i), the image IMG(i) may be displayed on the display interface 121 to present the street view when the user moves to the reference point i outdoors. In addition, in response to the virtual moving distance being D(j), the image IMG(j) may be displayed on the display interface 121 to present the street view when the user moves to the reference point j outdoors. Where i and j are both positive integers between 1 and N, and i is not equal to j. By analogy, the processor 125 may present the images IMG(0) to IMG(N) on the display interface 121 sequentially in response to the change in this virtual moving distance.

In one embodiment, when calculating the distance between each of the reference points and the starting point of the outdoor exercise route, the processor 125 may perform a normalization operation on the distance to limit the expression of the distance to a default value range (e.g., between 0 and 1). For example, by performing the normalization operation, around 100 meters may be converted into a value of “0.1”, around 200 meters may be converted into a value of “0.2”, and so on. In addition, the calculation method of the normalized operation may also be adjusted according to practical needs, which is not limited by the disclosure.

In one embodiment, the image resolution of at least one outdoor landscape image downloaded from the external server may be different from the screen resolution of the display interface 121. Thus, in one embodiment, the processor 125 may perform resolution adjustment and/or image size adjustment on the downloaded outdoor landscape image. Afterwards, the processor 125 may present the adjusted outdoor landscape image through the display interface 121. In this way, the image quality of the outdoor landscape image presented by the display interface 121 may be improved.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an outdoor landscape presenting method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIG. 6, in step S601, a map program is executed. In step S602, a user operation received. The user operation is used for planning an outdoor exercise route through the map program. In step S603, multiple outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route are obtained. In step S604, exercise state information of an exercise equipment is detected. In step S605, the outdoor landscape images are presented on a display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information.

However, each step in FIG. 6 has been described in detail as above, and will not be repeated herein. It should be noted that each of the steps in FIG. 6 can be implemented as multiple program codes or circuits, which is not limited by the disclosure. In addition, the method in FIG. 6 may be used in conjunction with the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments, or may be used alone, which is not limited by the disclosure.

To sum up, the outdoor landscape presenting method and the exercise assistance system proposed by the disclosure may dynamically plan an outdoor exercise route through a map program and automatically obtain multiple outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route. Afterwards, the outdoor landscape images may be presented on a display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information of the exercise equipment. Thus, when the user is operating the exercise equipment, the outdoor landscape images presented by the display interface allows the user to have a sense of presence of actually moving outdoors along the outdoor exercise route.

Although the disclosure has been described in detail with reference to the above embodiments, they are not intended to limit the disclosure. Those skilled in the art should understand that it is possible to make changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the protection scope of the disclosure shall be defined by the following claims.

Claims

1. An outdoor landscape presenting method, comprising: executing a map program;receiving a user operation, wherein the user operation is used for planning an outdoor exercise route through the map program;obtaining a plurality of outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route;detecting exercise state information of an exercise equipment; andpresenting the outdoor landscape images on a display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information.

2. The outdoor landscape presenting method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining the outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route comprises: receiving route planning information provided by the map program according to the user operation; anddownloading the outdoor landscape images from an external server according to the route planning information.

3. The outdoor landscape presenting method according to claim 2, wherein downloading the outdoor landscape images from the external server according to the route planning information comprises: obtaining a plurality of reference points on the outdoor exercise route according to the route planning information; anddownloading the outdoor landscape images from the external server according to the reference points, wherein the outdoor landscape images respectively present street views corresponding to the reference points.

4. The outdoor landscape presenting method according to claim 1, wherein presenting the outdoor landscape images on the display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information comprises: obtaining a virtual moving distance of the exercise equipment according to the exercise state information; andpresenting the outdoor landscape images on the display interface sequentially according to a change in the virtual moving distance.

5. The outdoor landscape presenting method according to claim 4, wherein the outdoor landscape images comprise a first outdoor landscape image and a second outdoor landscape image, and the first outdoor landscape image corresponds to a first reference point on the outdoor exercise route, the second outdoor landscape image corresponds to a second reference point on the outdoor exercise route, and presenting the outdoor landscape images on the display interface sequentially according to the change in the virtual moving distance comprises: presenting the first outdoor landscape image on the display interface in response to the virtual moving distance being a first distance; andpresenting the second outdoor landscape image on the display interface in response to the virtual moving distance being a second distance, wherein the first distance is different from the second distance.

6. The outdoor landscape presenting method according to claim 5, further comprises: recording a distance between the first reference point and a starting point of the outdoor exercise route as the first distance according to route planning information; andrecording a distance between the second reference point and the starting point of the outdoor exercise route as the second distance according to the route planning information.

7. The outdoor landscape presenting method according to claim 1, wherein the map program comprises at least one of an online map and an offline map.

8. An exercise assistance system comprising: an exercise equipment; anda control host, coupled to the exercise equipment,wherein the control host is used for: executing a map program;receiving a user operation, wherein the user operation is used for planning an outdoor exercise route through the map program;obtaining a plurality of outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route;detecting exercise state information of the exercise equipment; andpresenting the outdoor landscape images on a display interface sequentially according to the exercise state information.

9. The exercise assistance system according to claim 8, wherein obtaining the outdoor landscape images corresponding to the outdoor exercise route by the control host comprises: receiving route planning information provided by the map program according to the user operation; anddownloading the outdoor landscape images from an external server according to the route planning information.

10. The exercise assistance system according to claim 9, wherein downloading the outdoor landscape images from the external server by the control host according to the route planning information comprises: obtaining a plurality of reference points on the outdoor exercise route according to the route planning information; anddownloading the outdoor landscape images from the external server according to the reference points, wherein the outdoor landscape images respectively present street views corresponding to the reference points.

11. The exercise assistance system according to claim 8, wherein presenting the outdoor landscape images on the display interface sequentially by the control host according to the exercise state information comprises: obtaining a virtual moving distance of the exercise equipment according to the exercise state information; andpresenting the outdoor landscape images on the display interface sequentially according to a change in the virtual moving distance.

12. The exercise assistance system according to claim 11, wherein the outdoor landscape images comprise a first outdoor landscape image and a second outdoor landscape image, and the first outdoor landscape image corresponds to a first reference point on the outdoor exercise route, the second outdoor landscape image corresponds to a second reference point on the outdoor exercise route, and presenting the outdoor landscape images on the display interface sequentially by the control host according to the change in the virtual moving distance comprises: presenting the first outdoor landscape image on the display interface in response to the virtual moving distance being a first distance; andpresenting the second outdoor landscape image on the display interface in response to the virtual moving distance being a second distance, wherein the first distance is different from the second distance.

13. The exercise assistance system according to claim 12, wherein the control host is further used for: recording a distance between the first reference point and a starting point of the outdoor exercise route as the first distance according to route planning information; andrecording a distance between the second reference point and the starting point of the outdoor exercise route as the second distance according to the route planning information.

14. The exercise assistance system according to claim 8, wherein the map program comprises at least one of an online map and an offline map.