Patent Application
20220390978
The present invention relates to a system and method for counting spatially arranged, moving markers positioned on corresponding objects. In particular, the present invention relates to a system for counting markers, present in a moving group, by sensors for detecting weight of at least one weight stack plate moved in a given weightlifting machine.
Prior art of “Sensor arrays for exercise equipment and methods to operate the same” US 20070213183 A1, discloses a linear array of sensors. The array of sensors includes a plurality of sensors positioned adjacent and opposite the resting position of each weight plate, and at equally spaced locations above the example stack of weights up to the highest travel position attainable by the top weight plate of the example stack of weights. The example sensor array is enclosed in, covered and/or attached to any variety of housing and/or mounting bracket.
A drawback of this solution is that there must be present a lot of sensors wherein the number of sensors greatly exceeds the number of weight plates because the sensors must extend up to the highest travel position attainable by the top weight plate.
Therefore, due to the number of required sensors this solution is also ineffective with relation to cost.
There have been attempts to mitigate this problem so that the number of sensors is lower than the number of weight plates in order to decrease the cost of the sensors system.
Further, the lower the number of required sensors the lower power consumption of the entire system, which is often battery powered.
Such solution is present in EP3542874 entitled “System and method for assisting a weightlifting workout” describes a system where distances between the sensors are set during mounting and setup and are fixed for a given weight stack device. Nevertheless, these distances are a multiplication of a height of a single weight plate, for example four weight plates distance equals 10 cm for a weight plate having 2.5 cm height.
A disadvantage of this solution is that it cannot immediately detect a moved weight because a weight stack must be moved (typically lifted) by a distance (typically height) equal to a spread of sensors so that one may determine how many markers (weight plates) have been moved.
There is also a problem arising from the fact that different weight stacks having different weight plate sizes will require different rails of sensors where such sensors have different spacing.
Such system is also not suitable to support weight stacks having weight plates of different sizes (e.g. weight plates of increasing height).
It would be advantageous to present a solution where the aforementioned drawbacks would be obviated.
The aim of the development of the present invention is therefore an improved and cost effective system and method counting spatially arranged, moving markers.
An object of the present invention is a method for counting spatially arranged, moving markers wherein said markers are arranged to move along a movement axis being parallel to a sensors axis of sensors configured to detect said markers during movement, whereas there are fewer sensors than markers, the method being characterized in that it comprises the steps of: providing information on a number of markers; providing information on a sequence of said sensors; providing information on an initial setup of the system by specifying how many markers are preceding and following each sensor taking into account the axis of movement and a direction of an engaging movement; arranging said sensors, in said initial setup, such that at least two of the sensors are arranged such that all the markers precede them taking into account the axis of movement and said direction of the engaging movement; determining a sensor ST having 0 following markers and a sensor ST-1 following the ST sensor in the direction of the engaging movement; awaiting detection of a marker by the sensor ST-1; determining a sensor SB closest to the starting sensor taking into account said direction of an engaging movement and at the same time having more than 0 detected markers; verifying whether the SB sensor is the starting sensor and in case it is not, determining a number of moved markers as a sum of detected markers and following markers for the SB.
Preferably, the method further comprises the steps of: in the case the verifying step is positive, setting a variable H as a sum of predefined heights of objects associated with said markers preceding the starting sensor based on the number of markers preceding the starting sensor as well as the number of markers counted by the starting sensor; determining a sensor STT as the closest sensor following ST−H; and awaiting detection of a marker by the sensor STT.
Preferably, said number of moved markers is increased by 1 when the SB is facing a marker.
Preferably, said information on an initial setup of the system comprises a list defining heights of all objects associated with said markers.
Preferably, said information on an initial setup of the system comprises a list defining weights of all objects associated with said markers whereas after said verifying step the method is configured to provide a total weight as a sum of weight of all objects associated with said moved markers.
Preferably, the method further comprises a step of awaiting a return of the weight plates to the initial position and increasing a counter of repetitions.
Preferably, said information on an initial setup of the system further comprises information on whether each sensor is facing a marker.
Preferably, said sensors are mounted on at least one rail being configured to be connectable to other such rails in order to form longer rails along said sensors axis.
Another object of the present invention is a computer program comprising program code means for performing all the steps of the computer-implemented method according to the present invention when said program is run on a computer.
Another object of the present invention is a computer readable medium storing computer-executable instructions performing all the steps of the computer-implemented method according to the present invention when executed on a computer.
Another object of the present invention is a system for counting spatially arranged, moving markers wherein said markers are arranged to move along a movement axis being parallel to a sensors axis of sensors configured to detect said markers during movement, whereas there are fewer sensors than markers, the system being characterized in that: a configuration stored in a memory comprises: information on a number of markers; information on a sequence of said sensors; information on an initial setup of the system by specifying how many markers are preceding and following each sensor taking into account the axis of movement and a direction of an engaging movement; at least two of the sensors are arranged in said initial setup, such that all the markers precede them taking into account the axis of movement and the direction of the engaging movement; a controller configured to execute the steps of: determining a sensor ST having 0 following markers and a sensor ST-1 following the ST sensor in the direction of the engaging movement; awaiting detection of a marker by the sensor ST-1; determining a sensor SB closest to the starting sensor taking into account said direction of an engaging movement and at the same time having more than 0 detected markers; verifying whether the SB sensor is the starting sensor and in case it is not, determining a number of moved markers as a sum of detected markers and following markers for the SB.
Preferably, one of said sensors is arranged facing or preceding a first marker being the starting marker in said spatially arranged group of markers taking into account a direction of an engaging movement.
Preferably, said sensors are arranged on at least two connected rails arranged along the sensors axis wherein each rail is configured to provide a report to the controller wherein such report comprises sensors identifiers and sensors sequence.
Preferably, said controller is physically separated from said rails.
Preferably, said controller is further configured to execute the steps of: in the case the verifying step is positive, setting a variable H as a sum of predefined heights of objects associated with said markers preceding the starting sensor based on the number of markers preceding the starting sensor as well as the number of markers counted by the starting sensor; determining a sensor STT as the closest sensor following position ST−H; and awaiting detection of a marker by the sensor STT.
These and other objects of the invention presented herein, are accomplished by providing a counting spatially arranged, moving markers. Further details and features of the present invention, its nature and various advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments shown in a drawing, in which:
Some portions of the detailed description which follows are presented in terms of data processing procedures, steps or other symbolic representations of operations on data bits that can be performed on computer memory. Therefore, a computer executes such logical steps thus requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities.
Usually these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computer system. For reasons of common usage, these signals are referred to as bits, packets, messages, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
Additionally, all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Terms such as “processing” or “creating” or “transferring” or “executing” or “determining” or “detecting” or “obtaining” or “selecting” or “calculating” or “generating” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the memories or registers or other such information storage.
A computer-readable (storage) medium, such as referred to herein, typically may be non-transitory and/or comprise a non-transitory device. In this context, a non-transitory storage medium may include a device that may be tangible, meaning that the device has a concrete physical form, although the device may change its physical state. Thus, for example, non-transitory refers to a device remaining tangible despite a change in state.
As utilized herein, the term “example” means serving as a non-limiting example, instance, or illustration. As utilized herein, the terms “for example” and “e.g.” introduce a list of one or more non-limiting examples, instances, or illustrations.
The system and method according to the present invention take into account that a sequence of sensors is known wherein the system comprises at least two sensors arranged along an axis parallel to an axis of movement of corresponding markers positioned on weight plates (or objects in general).
Each weight plate (110-117) has a corresponding marker (120-127) configured to be detected by a suitable sensor (142-146) when such marker passes a detection area covered by such sensor. The number of weight plates (110-117) is known and is a parameter of the system provided by means of defining a sequence of sensors (142-146). Typically, the markers (120-127) are facing the corresponding sensors (142-146).
The sensors (142-146) are positioned along an axis parallel (150) to the axis of movement (100). For the ease of mounting, the sensors (142-146) may be positioned on a suitable rail (141), which might house typical components such as power lines, data lines, a controller chip etc, which are typical modules allowing such sensors (142-146) to operate.
The rail (141) may be made of a relatively rigid material such as hard plastic in order to protect the sensors (142-146) and components mounted therein.
The rail (141) may also function as an element maintaining a fixed positioning of the sensors (142-146), which is beneficial for a purpose of mounting the sensors (142-146) on a target weight stack device.
Such rails (141) may be manufactured in one size (e.g. 100 cm) or in several basic sizes (e.g. 25 cm, 50 cm and 100 cm) and optionally comprise a connector (at one or both of its ends) so that the rails (141) may be connected an operate as a single system.
In case of connectable rails (141), each rail (141) may comprise its own controller in order to form a system as shown in
To this end, each rail (141) is aware of its sensors (142-146) and may provide a report to a controller wherein such report comprises sensors identifiers, sensors sequence and preferably a length of the rail (141). Based on this, a controller may correctly identify sensors (142-146) from different rails (141) and act in view of system configuration as explained above.
The sequence of sensors (142-146) is known (in this case 5) and the distance D between consecutive sensors is also known. The distance D need not be a multiple of a height of each weight plate (110-117) and thus allows having weight plates (110-117) of different heights on the same weight stack.
The system assumes a known configuration of said system at rest (i.e. an initial position of the markers (120-127) with respect to the sensors (142-146)). In particular, it is known how many markers (120-127) are positioned prior to (preceding markers) and after (following markers) each sensor taking into account the axis of movement (100) and the direction of the engaging movement (160). In other words, the present system does not need to be aware of exact positions of respective markers (weight plates).
Usually the markers (120-127) move in a subgroup as not all weight plates (110-117) are typically lifted. Nevertheless, in rare cases all markers (120-127) will move.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the distance D between consecutive sensors may differ, but it must be known to the system in relation to all consecutive sensor pairs.
In yet another example, there is not present the requirement for it to be known a'priori how many markers (110-117) are positioned prior to and after each sensor taking into account the axis of movement (100). In such a case there must be known a distance M between markers (e.g. between centre points of such markers). This is useful because based on these distances (i.e. distances between consecutive sensors, distances between consecutive markers, marker size) the system may determine how many markers (120-127) are positioned prior to and after each sensor taking into account the axis of movement (100) and the direction of the engaging movement (160).
Nevertheless, this embodiment is less preferred than the first embodiment defining (as a configuration, example of which is shown in
In a preferred embodiment, the markers (120-127) are positioned between the starting sensor ((146) as shown in
In an alternative embodiment, the markers (120-129) may be positioned also below (preceding) the starting sensor (146) taking into account said direction of an engaging movement (160) as shown in
Correspondingly, a starting marker (127 in
As an example, in case of a vertical weight stack having an engaging motion of markers directed upwards, the starting sensor is the one positioned lowest (146) while the starting marker is the last marker (127 in
The present solution eliminates a need of adjusting the sensors (142-146) setup (typically on the rail (141) to the sizes of the weight plates (110-117) as well as allows use of the system on weight stack machines using different weight plates (110-117) of differing weights and/or heights.
Said adjusting process is meant as eliminating a need of physical adjusting because there is still present a configuration in the applicable parameters stored in memory of the system.
Another advantage of the present system is that the mounting of the system on a weight stack machine need not be very precise as in case of prior art systems. This is a result of a focus of the present solution on relative positioning between the sensors (142-146) and the markers (120-129) and not on their absolute positioning.
As will be described later, the present method minimizes a travel distance required in order to detect a number of lifted weight plates (110-117) comprising said markers (120-127).
The system may be realized using dedicated components or custom made FPGA or ASIC circuits. The system comprises a data bus (201) communicatively coupled to a memory (204). Additionally, other components of the system are communicatively coupled to the system bus (201) so that they may be managed by a controller (205).
The memory (204) may store computer program or programs executed by the controller (205) in order to execute steps of the method according to the present invention. It may also store any configuration parameters as explained above and further with reference to
The sensors (206) may be powered from a battery of from the mains via a power supply (203). The controller (205) will usually be configured to provide data, via a communication module (207), to an external device such as a smartphone, which may also be used to setup and control the system.
Optionally, the system may comprise a proximity module (202) such as an RFID (or Bluetooth LE) sensor, that may be used in order to identify particular users operating the system. Such user may be identified using a smartphone comprising an RFID functionality or a suitable workout garment, such as a glove, comprising an RFID functionality configured to identify a particular user. Based on such identification a connection may be set up with an application executed on such user's device e.g. smartphone, tablet etc.
As already explained, the system may optionally comprise connected rails (141) arrangement that form the sensors module (206) in case two or more rails (141) of sensors (142-146) are connected.
In the following description the sensors (142-146) are enumerated such that Si denotes a sensor having an index of i (it is system dependent whether index i increases or decreases while following the engaging movement (160) as long as it is clear what is a sequence of sensors in the engaging movement). In an example shown in
The method shown in
Next, at step (302), the process awaits detection of a marker by the sensor ST-1 following the Sr. The distance between ST and ST-1 is considered a minimum travel distance required to count an exercise repetition. When the ST-1 sensor has detected a marker it means that it may be determined how many weight plates (110-117) have been moved in order to later count total weight.
Subsequently, at step (303), the method determines a sensor (142-146) closest to the weight stack start (closest to the bottom in case of a vertical system or in other words closest to the starting sensor (146)) and at the same time having more than 0 detected markers. Such sensor may be marked as SB referring to a bottom sensor.
Further, at step (304), the process verifies whether the SB sensor is the starting sensor e.g. (146) taking into account said direction of an engaging movement (160) as shown in
In case it is not, the method determines (305) a number of moved markers (120-127) as:
MC+MNA+MNO for the SB.
After step (305) the process proceeds to awaiting (306) a return of the weight plates (110-117) to the initial position.
From the equation above it stems that a travel distance required to detect weight may be reduced to the distance D when the first marker (taking the direction of engaging movement into account; i.e. sensor (143) in
In the case the check of step (304) is positive, the present method sets (307) a variable H as a sum of predefined heights of weight plates (see for example configuration shown in
Next, at step (308) the present process determines a sensor (STT) as the closest sensor following position ST−H and awaits (309) detection of a marker by the sensor (STT) (MC=1).
Subsequently, the method proceeds to awaiting (306) a return of the weight plates (110-117) to the initial position.
A repetition may also be counted when the system switches from an engaging movement to a returning movement. Each repetition may be timed and time, repetitions count, travel distance and total weight may be calculated (based on system configuration) and stored in the controller (205) as well as reported to a user's device via said communication module (207).
It is clear to one skilled in the art that in order to correctly update the variables MC, MNA and MNO the system must be able to detect a direction of movement (engaging or returning) of the weight plates. This may be effected by known methods, one of which is presented in the Applicant's co-pending European Patent Applications EP18461537.5 or EP19461616.5.
At this stage it is determined that the ST sensor is sensor S4 while the ST-1 sensor is S3.
Having the number of top 6 weight plates moved, weight may be counted (as a simple sum) based on a predefined configuration of weight plates in which each weight plate is assigned a weight that may differ between the weight plates (110-119).
Similarly, travel distance of said 6 weight plates may be measured as predefined measures of the respective 6 weight plates in the direction if the engaging movement (e.g. a sum of all heights of the 6 weight plates).
Optionally, the configuration provides information for each sensor (142-146) whether it is facing a marker (120-127).
A detection of whether a sensor is considered as facing a marker (120-127) is implementation dependent in a sense that the facing condition may be defined within a given threshold or range, for example a marker fully within a coverage area of a sensor or a marker 95% within a coverage area of a sensor or a marker 90% within a coverage area of a sensor depending on configuration of the system. Other thresholds or ranges are also withing the scope of the present invention.
In this example a first rail (150) reports sensors S1_1 to S1_5 (142-146) in the order given while the second rail (150A) reports sensors S2_1 to S2_5 (142A-146A) in the order given.
It is also known that the first rail (150) follows the second rail (150A) in the direction of the engaging movement (160).
A distance between consecutive sensors may be given, in this case 10 cm. Correspondingly, a distance between consecutive markers may be given, in this case 5 cm (e.g. the corresponding weight plates may have the same height but different weights as specified in the configuration (504).
In case the weight plates (110-117) on which the markers (120-127) are positioned have different heights, such heights may be explicitly given as an ordered sequence of values.
In a similar manner a weight plate common weight may be given e.g. 10000g or an ordered list of weights per the associated weight plates may be given.
At least parts of the methods according to the invention may be computer implemented. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit”, “module” or “system”.
Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in any tangible medium of expression having computer usable program code embodied in the medium.
It can be easily recognized, by one skilled in the art, that the aforementioned method for counting spatially arranged, moving markers may be performed and/or controlled by one or more computer programs. Such computer programs are typically executed by utilizing the computing resources in a computing device. Applications are stored on a non-transitory medium. An example of a non-transitory medium is a non-volatile memory, for example a flash memory while an example of a volatile memory is RAM. The computer instructions are executed by a processor. These memories are exemplary recording media for storing computer programs comprising computer-executable instructions performing all the steps of the computer-implemented method according the technical concept presented herein.
While the invention presented herein has been depicted, described, and has been defined with reference to particular preferred embodiments, such references and examples of implementation in the foregoing specification do not imply any limitation on the invention. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader scope of the technical concept. The presented preferred embodiments are exemplary only, and are not exhaustive of the scope of the technical concept presented herein.
Accordingly, the scope of protection is not limited to the preferred embodiments described in the specification, but is only limited by the claims that follow.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20461509.0 | Feb 2020 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2020/085383 | 12/9/2020 | WO |
