The present invention relates generally to a system and apparatus for performance monitoring, and more particularly to monitoring the performance of athletes.
In recent years, as sensor technology has improved and decreased in cost, monitoring the performance of athletes using sensors worn on various parts of the body has become more commonplace. While sensors worn by athletes in confined spaces with limited motion (such as cardio training or strength training on exercise machines or free weights) are now widely available, and can be wired or connected wirelessly to monitoring equipment positioned nearby, sensor technologies for team sports played on large playing surfaces are still technically challenging. In particular, performance monitoring of athletes in high speed, high impact team sports, for example hockey or football, still have room for significant improvement in order to collect and analyze data at a similar level to data that can be collected for other types of activities in more confined spaces.
What is needed is a performance monitoring solution that overcomes some of these challenges.
The present disclosure relates to a system and apparatus for performance monitoring, particularly in high speed, high impact team sports played on large surface areas, for example, hockey played on ice rinks, basketball and other games played on hard surface courts, or football, soccer, rugby, and other games played on grass fields, artificial turf, or the like.
In an aspect, the system and apparatus comprises at least one master sensor module worn by an athlete with one or more additional sensors worn on other locations of the athlete's body.
In one example embodiment, a sensor module is integrated into a piece of equipment worn by an athlete, such as a helmet or a pair of shoes or skates. In another embodiment, a sensor module is integrated into athletic equipment that is handled by an athlete, such as a hockey or lacrosse stick.
In another example embodiment in the context of hockey, the sensors may be housed in the cavity of a supporting frame located below the athlete's foot, but just above the blade of a skate. In other example embodiments, the sensors may be integrated into footwear, such as cleats or court shoes. The sensors may be integrated into a circuit board having a processor and a memory, and may include one or more accelerometers, one or more gyroscopes, one or more magnetometers, a barometer, and various sensors including, for example, one or more temperature sensors, one or more ranging sensors including a Bluetooth RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) between devices, or an UWB (Ultra-Wideband) ranging device, or even one or more optical ranging devices. The circuit board may be powered by a power source, such as a rechargeable battery that can be replaced or charged in situ within the cavity by connecting a charger at an externally accessible charging port, or in some example embodiments the power source may be charged wirelessly.
In another example embodiment, the circuit board may further include a wireless transceiver module for short range communications. For example, short-range communications including Bluetooth™, Wi-Fi™, or UWB, may be used to connect sensors in an embodiment including a pair of skates, and may further enable connection and coordination with other sensors integrated into other equipment worn by the athlete, for example, such as a helmet, body padding, a waist belt, a chest belt, or a plurality of sensors integrated into various locations on a bodysuit. Sensors integrated into equipment handled by the athlete, for example a hockey or lacrosse stick, may also be in communication and coordination with sensors worn on the athlete's body. In another embodiment, in addition to motion sensors, biometric sensors that provide measurements of an athlete's physical condition, such as stress level, hydration, heartbeat, oxygen levels, etc., may be integrated to provide data that is correlated to the athlete's motion, position, and acceleration data.
In another embodiment in the hockey context, a sensor module housed in a cavity of a pair of skates comprises a master module, and further includes one or more wireless transceivers for longer range, high speed communications, such as Wi-Fi™, UWB or LTE™. This longer range, high speed communications may be used by a remote data collection server in order to coordinate and transfer data collected from multiple sensors worn by an athlete. For example, in some embodiments, the remote data collection server may be a desktop computer located within an arena, or a laptop computer or tablet used by coaching staff. As described above, in other embodiments, the sensor module may be integrated into other types of athletic footwear, as required by the context of the sport being played. For example, sensor modules may be integrated into the soles of court shoes or spiked shoes, or otherwise affixed in a manner to assist with the sensing function particular to the sport in question. As described above, sensor modules may also be integrated into sports equipment that is handled by the athlete, such as a hockey stick or lacrosse stick. Further, as described above, these motion and acceleration sensor modules may be further integrated and coordinated with biometric sensors to provide data relating to the athlete's physical condition that correlates to position, motion, and/or acceleration data.
In another example embodiment, a longer-range wireless transceiver may also receive communications from a remote computer in order to relay communications from coaching staff to the athlete. In some embodiments, these communications may be delivered to the athlete, for example, via earphones or via a small monitor integrated into a helmet. Alternatively, communications may take the form of visual depictions—either static or dynamic live or streaming video—projected onto a lens or other headwear affixed to the athlete. This communication system may thus be used for coaching, for example, during training sessions, or for providing live feedback and guidance during a sporting event or performance. In another example embodiment, communications may take the form of haptic feedback delivered through equipment that the athlete is handling, such as a hockey stick or lacrosse stick.
In another example embodiment, the wireless transceiver may also transmit and receive communications between two or more players via the remote server. The wireless transceiver may also transmit and receive communications directly between players. This may allow the communication system to be used to enable multi-party communications between players and coaching staff, during a training session, game, or other interaction.
In some example embodiments, the sensors of the sensor module housed in a cavity of a shoe or skate are protected by a shock absorbing inner housing in order to withstand external shocks, for example, the shock of stopping a hockey puck launched by a slap shot, or blocking a tackle during a football play.
In another embodiment, the sensors or the sensor module housed in a skate or shoe cavity are removable, such that any performance data stored on the sensor or sensor module that did not successfully transmit to a remote data collection server may still be downloaded and captured. This direct data collection from the sensor or sensor module may also be used to download more bandwidth-intensive data, such as video, which may require too much bandwidth when multiple players are attempting to transmit performance data simultaneously or when bandwidth is unavailable due to technical limitations in the particular setting the athletes finds themselves. It will be appreciated, however, that if multiple data collection servers are active at the same time, it would be possible to independently record video data from multiple players in real-time.
It is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or the examples provided therein, or illustrated in the drawings. Therefore, it will be appreciated that a number of variants and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as described herein. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
The present invention will be better understood and objects of the invention will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings, wherein:
As noted above, the present disclosure relates to a system and apparatus for performance monitoring, particularly in high speed, high impact team sports played on large surface areas, such as hockey played on ice rinks, basketball and other games played on hard surface courts, or football, soccer, rugby and other games played on grass or artificial turf fields, or the like. Various example embodiments will now be described with reference to the drawings.
As depicted in
As an illustrative example,
In another example embodiment, the sensors, the circuit board, and data storage devices housed in the cavity are protected by an inner housing in order to withstand external shocks, such as the shock of stopping a hockey puck launched by a slap shot, or the impact of a blocked tackle in a high-impact sport such as football.
In another embodiment, the data storage device and/or the sensor module is configured to be removed so that any performance data stored on the data storage device that did not successfully transmit to a remote data collection server may still be downloaded and captured directly from the removable storage device. The removable storage device may be, for example, a microSD™ solid state memory card capable of storing gigabytes of data. This direct data collection from the sensor module may also be used to download more bandwidth-intensive data, such as video, which may require too much bandwidth when multiple players are attempting to transmit performance data simultaneously, or when bandwidth is unavailable due to technical limitations in the particular setting that the athletes find themselves. It will be appreciated, however, that if multiple data collection servers are active at the same time, it would be possible to independently record video data from multiple players simultaneously in real-time.
In another embodiment, the circuit boards depicted in
By way of example, when the sensor modules are capturing data at a data sampling rate of 100 Hz, a total internal data rate is estimated to be 2300 to 4000 bytes/sec per module, or more.
In an example embodiment in the hockey context, the player system may also be configured to measure various parameters, including absolute skate orientation, relative skate-to-skate orientation, relative skate-to-skate position, body orientation, relative body-to-skate orientation, and relative body-to-skate position. As will be appreciated, certain sensor modules will experience higher dynamic characteristics, such as sensor modules attached to a player's feet. Other modules, such as the sensor module at the player's hips, will have a relatively slower dynamic characteristic. This relative dynamism of the sensor modules may depend on the context of the sport in which the athlete is engaged. The player system may include algorithms to combine the data from the modules to give relative orientations, and positioning of an athlete's to body and limbs. Depending on whether the type of data being collected is more specific to an individual player, or more team-oriented, the number of sensors or sensor modules worn by the athletes may be varied.
In an example embodiment, the player system further includes one or more wireless transceivers configured for longer-range, high-speed communications, such as Wi-Fi™, UWB, or LTE™. These longer-range, high-speed communications may be used to transfer data collected from multiple sensors or sensor modules worn by an athlete to a remote data collection server. For example, the remote data collection server may be a desktop computer located within an arena or stadium, a laptop computer or tablet used by coaching staff, or a remote server providing cloud data storage services.
In another embodiment, the longer-range wireless transceiver may also receive communications from a remote computer in order to relay communications from coaching staff to the athlete. These communications may be delivered to the athlete, for example, via earphones or via a small monitor integrated into a helmet or other lens surface (for example, glasses, sunglasses, goggles, or other eyewear). This exemplary communication system may thus be used for real-time coaching, for example, during training sessions, competitive play, or other performances.
As depicted in
The positioning data collected for all players on the playing surface at the same time may allow coaching staff to collect data on how effectively the players are implementing practiced team formations or other configurations designed to increase the likelihood of effective game play. The positioning data can be used, for example, to alert the coaching staff as to whether a player is consistently out of expected or desired position, or situations in which a player is fatigued to the point of impacting player performance such that player rotation, replacement, or substitution is appropriate. This positioning data may be further correlated with biometric data collected from additional biometric sensors located on the player, such as stress level, pulse or heartbeat, hydration, oxygen levels, etc.
In another embodiment, a remote server may be configured to allow a wireless transceiver to transmit and receive communications between two or more players. In other embodiments, a wireless transceiver may also be configured to transmit and receive communications directly between players. This configuration may allow a communication system to be used to enable multi-party communications between players and coaching staff, for example during a training session. In some example embodiments, players may receive communication from the coaching staff via earphones or integrated video screen in a helmet or lens surface (in case of glasses, sunglasses, googles, or the like).
In an example embodiment in the context of hockey, the helmet audio-video system described in
In another embodiment in the hockey context, a sensor and transmitter may be placed within a puck to determine the location of the puck on the ice and relative to the players. By using the sensors to identify a player's position and body/limb orientation, the positioning system identifies where a player is located on the ice, and the helmet-mounted cameras may capture the player's perspective. In this example, as the puck moves around the ice and is tracked by the positioning system, the positioning system may determine which player is closest to the action at any given time. This may allow the spectator to shift perspective to whichever player is presently controlling the puck. In other sports contexts, similarly integrated sensor and positioning systems may allow a spectator to shift perspectives to whichever player is controlling the ball, for example, a football or basketball. In those examples, the football or basketball may also have integrated sensor modules.
The sensor system in combination with the positioning system is thus configured to create a real-time, virtual environment where a spectator can see and experience the game from the perspective of any one of the players presently active on the playing surface. This perspective will allow a spectator to virtually experience a game at the playing surface level as if they were playing. In some examples, the spectator may also replay captured data in slow-motion, if desired, in order to clearly see captured video from the players' perspectives on the playing surface.
While various illustrative embodiments have been described above by way of example, it will be appreciated that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined by the following claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CA2018/000116 | 6/12/2018 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62518010 | Jun 2017 | US |