Patent Application
20240139606
Not applicable.
The present disclosure generally relates to sports equipment used in blind and visually impaired sporting events. More specifically, the disclosure relates to a sound-generating device that can be incorporated into balls, pucks, and other sporting equipment to assist blind and visually impaired athletes to locate the device during the sporting event.
One challenging aspect for no-vision and low-vision athletes is tracking a moving ball by sound, determining its trajectory and velocity in a three-dimensional space. In tennis, for example, a mechanical rattle is constructed using a hollow plastic ball filled with ball bearings, which is surrounded by a foam outer ball. The ball only generates a brief rattle sound when it hits the ground or is struck by a player. Athletes are challenged to find this mostly silent ball in three-dimensional space. Even when the ball rattles upon striking the ground, the rattle sound is not optimized for source location. With these challenges, striking the ball in mid-flight or after a single bounce is difficult, whereas this move is common in tennis matches involving non-visually impaired athletes.
Other prior attempts to develop sound devices for athletes with low or no vision included inserting mechanical jingle bells and other mechanical rattles into these devices. The mechanical devices do not produce a sound but for the period during a momentum change. The sounds produced by the mechanical device were not adapted for source localization. Others attempted to create electronic sounds, though the sounds were likewise not adapted for source localization. For example, these prior devices used pure tones that generate a sine wave, which is especially difficult for the brain to localize.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to develop a sound-generating device that overcomes the problems with prior devices and improves the participation and enjoyment of blind and visually impaired athletes in various sports.
According to embodiments of the present disclosure is a sound-generating device that can be incorporated into a ball and other types of sports equipment. The sound-generating device can be tracked by blind and visually impaired athletes in three-dimensional space. Further, the frequency and waveform of the sound generated by the device improves the athlete's perception of velocity and directional change of the ball during game play.
In one embodiment, the device is a battery-powered circuit connected to a speaker, which generates a sound adapted to enable enhanced play by visually impaired athletes. The sound generated by the device is a ‘high color’ sound, meaning that it generates many sound frequencies, and is in a range of frequencies that is easy for the brain to localize. The brain uses different qualities of sound to localize the source of the sound in each the x-, y-, and z-planes. Because sports tend to involve localizing sport devices in all three dimensions, the sound of the device has a set of physical properties that fall within these specifications and ranges for each plane. Furthermore, these sounds are localizable in unaltered sport soundscapes, where sound waves can be altered by other sound waves in the environment and the playing surface. The device can omit a continuous sound, which allows the athletes to track the device continuously. In cases where a sport has previously adopted a sound device that makes a sound upon momentum changes, the device can incorporate a recording of that sound, which is played upon momentum changes in order to give the athlete more information and to stay true to the culture of the sport.
According to embodiments of the disclosure is sound-generating device 100 used in sporting equipment 101 such as balls, pucks, bats, and other items that must be tracked by an athlete during a sporting performance. The device 100 comprises a sound-generating circuit 110 and a speaker 113. In one example embodiment shown in
The sound generated by the device 100 has specific characteristics that aid the athlete in source localization. The sound qualities are based on the fact that the brain exploits different sound qualities to localize sound in each of the x, y, and z planes. For example, the horizontal plane provides both interaural time differences and level differences. The vertical plane does not have binaural cues, as human ears are relatively level on the sides of our heads, and therefore relies on spectral cues characterized by the head-related or anatomical transfer function specific to an individual. Depth is largely conveyed by sound intensity, though reverberation contributes, too. Moreover, sound ‘color’ such as the varieties of frequencies that convey the meaning or relevance of a sound, and the bandwidth of frequencies are important in a number of dimensions. As a result, in one embodiment, the sound generator 111 produces at least one frequency of sound associated with each of the x, y, and z planes, where the frequency associated with each plane is adapted to improve localization for that particular plane. For sports like hockey, where the puck 101 is largely confined to the x and y planes, the sound associated with the z plane may be omitted.
By way of further example, in one embodiment, the sound generated by the device 100 is continuous, with the sound changing to a different sound upon a momentum or direction change, then back to the continuous sound. A waveform of this sound is depicted in
In general, sounds in the vertical plane (y-axis) are best localized when that sound is complex (‘high color’ containing many frequencies) and includes components in the >7000 Hz range. The sound can contain either broadband or narrow band (centered around 8000-10,000 Hz). In the horizontal plane (x-axis), when the source of the sound is in front of the athlete, the sound is localizable at frequencies <1000 Hz and comprises a broad band of frequencies. Distance (z-axis) is localized when the sounds are complex. Taken together, a particular sport's demands can be considered in generating a sound that improves play. For example, is the sport device 101 only localized in the x- and z-axes, such as bocce, or are all three dimensions critical, such as in tennis. In some embodiments, the sport device 101 will include sound frequencies in a variety of ranges, having sounds in the range under 1000 Hz along with sounds greater than 7000 Hz with high sound color.
In a test utilizing the sound-generating device 100, blindfolded participants were able to locate the direction of the sound-generating device 100 with an average angular error of 4.0 degrees at a 30-foot distance compared to an average angular error of 9.5 degrees when locating a standard blind and visually impaired (BVI) tennis rattle ball. The improvement was maintained even after making the rattle sound of the traditional BVI rattle ball continuous. Further, in a tennis match played with both the traditional BVI rattle ball and a ball incorporating the sound-generating device 100, players successfully made contact with the ball incorporating the device 100 100% of the time compared to about 50% for the traditional BVI ball.
When used in this specification and claims, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” and variations thereof mean that the specified features, steps, or integers are included. The terms are not to be interpreted to exclude the presence of other features, steps or components.
The invention may also broadly consist in the parts, elements, steps, examples and/or features referred to or indicated in the specification individually or collectively in any and all combinations of two or more said parts, elements, steps, examples and/or features. In particular, one or more features in any of the embodiments described herein may be combined with one or more features from any other embodiment(s) described herein.
Protection may be sought for any features disclosed in any one or more published documents referenced herein in combination with the present disclosure. Although certain example embodiments of the invention have been described, the scope of the appended claims is not intended to be limited solely to these embodiments. The claims are to be construed literally, purposively, and/or to encompass equivalents.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/420,228, filed on Oct. 28, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63420228 | Oct 2022 | US |
