GB2282521A

GB2282521A - Sport shoes

Info

Publication number: GB2282521A
Application number: GB9320738A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Alireza Madjdnia
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1993-10-08
Filing date: 1993-10-08
Publication date: 1995-04-12
Also published as: GB9320738D0

Abstract

A Sports shoe which incorporates a sensory device to measure the stepping timing information in order to transmit the data to an external (or alternatively internal device) where it is manipulated to compute and monitor factors such as No. of steps per time period, acceleration, speed, travel led distance or measure of fitness. The analogue signal produced by the piezo electric sensor is amplified before it is sampled by the A/D device. The serial digital data is assigned with a reserved identification code. The data is then modulated on an R.F. carrier. The sensor/transmitter section is powered using a rechargeable battery. The R.F. signal transmitted from the shoe and picked up by the receiver antenna eg on a watch like unit on the wrist is amplified and then demodulated. The microcontroller manipulates the incoming stepping data to compute the desired factors. An optical sensor detects the users heart beat to be used in computation of fitness factor.

Description

Intelligent sports shoes This invention relates to microprocessor incorporated sports shoes which together with the aid of an additional device can monitor and manipulate a series of useful physical parameters associated with an athletic activity.

Currently, the only means of monitoring a runner's important performance parameters (such as speed, acceleration, travelled distance ,number of steps per minute, burnt calories, etc. ) is to monitor the activity in a controlled environment i.e. on an indoors computerised running track.

It would be highly useful if the athlete could monitor his/her performance in a real life situation.

According to the present invention there is provided an intelligent sports shoes comprising a sensor/transmitter section built as a part of the shoe and a receiver/display section which the user can wear it around his/her wrist like a wrist watch.

It is also possible to combine the two sections to incorporate them inside the same body in order to reduce the product cost.

Fig. 1 illustrates the block diagram of the sensor/transmitter section which is housed inside the body of the shoe. The choice of right or left shoe to house the sensor/transmitter section is entirely arbitrary.

The pressure sensor is consisted of a layer of piezo electric material of the same size of the bottom of the shoe which is sandwiched in the middle of the bottom layers. With every step taking place the piezo electric device produces a burst of electrical energy due to piezo electric effect. This signal is then amplified adequately so that it can be sampled by the analogue to digital converter. The A/D converter is consisted of an 8 bit A/D device with serial output. The resultant digital stream of data is then encoded with a 16 bit identification code. The later is needed to ensure that the receiver section (Fig.2) only responds to the data from its unique transmitter shoe as other transmitters might be in the reception range and cause confusion. Due to simplicity of the processing tasks an eight bit microcontroller is quite adequate for this application.

The output from the microcontroller is a stream of digital data which contains the stepping action timing information that can be manipulated in the receiver section to estimate the running speed, calories and travelled distance.

The R.F. modulator is a highly efficient low power crystalcontrolled oscillator that is digitally modulated with the serial data from the micro controller. The fact that required range is not needed to be greater than a few meters means that the R.F.

section is reasonably economical in term of power consumption.

The antenna is merely a loop of suitable wire that is fitted around the edges of the shoe.

The microcontroller has a secondary task of supervising the power supply electrical energy. Surface mount technology together with the use of a flexible P.C.B. and custom designed chips provides the practical solution for the fabrication of the complete system. A custom designed chip can be developed to contain all the electronic elements required in the design. The transmitter section is powered by a custom made rechargeable battery. The later is required to be a highly efficient and lightweight device. The battery is recharged using an external mains recharger .The serial data from the micro controller contains the battery status information so it can be monitored in the receiver section.

Fig.2 The block diagram of the receiver/monitor section The receiver/monitor section block diagram is illustrated in fig.2.

The R.F. signal picked up by the antenna is first amplified adequately to the required level by a pre-amp stage. The signal is then fed to the demodulator section, a crystal-controlled super heterodyne design together with the required pulse conditioning output stage. These all carried out inside the R.F. section block shown in fig 2. Here, the microcontroller is a 16/32 bit device that handles the incoming data from the R.F. section block, numerical keyboard and the optical sensor. The user enters his/her weight, height, age using the keyboard. The keyboard also features special buttons for entering a series of commands. The optical sensor block is consisted of an infra red emitter L.E.D. and a photo transistor which is positioned at a specific angle on the skin surface of the user's wrist.It therefore can detect the cycle of blood flow or in the other words the user's heaA beat rate. The heart beat rate is monitored continuously to ensure the safety of exercise for individuals with heart problems. In case of any danger an alarm is set off immediately.

An intelligent software resident in the internal ROM manipulates the stepping data, heart beat rate pulse stream and the keyboard data to compute the fitness factor, speed, acceleration, distance, etc. It also uses data from a calibration mode. Here, the user runs a fixed distance and then the processor records the stepping data.

This is repeated a few times at different speeds.

The analysis of these records together with other gathered data enables the resident program to compute the desired parameters to an acceptable accuracy.

The computed data is then monitored by two means.: 1)L.C.D. screen 2)Speech synthesiser The audio output is monitored using a lightweight headphone.

The computed data is also stored in the memory to form a profile of the use's performance in a weekly or monthly basis. An R.S.232C interface block interfaces the receiver device with a P.C.

to obtain a detailed and graphical analysis of the user's performance.The complete receiver/monitor section is also powered by a custom designed rechargeable battery.

Claims

1. An intelligent sports shoes comprising the application of shoes for implementing a sensory device as a part of it's body to measure factors such as no. of steps per time period, speed, travelled distance, acceleration or measure of fitness.

2. An intelligent sports shoes as claimed in claim 1 wherein the measured data is transmitted to an external receiver device where it can be monitored.

3. An intelligent sports shoes as claimed in claim 1 wherein the measured data is manipulated and monitored by a device built in the body of the shoe.

4. An intelligent sports shoes as claimed in claim 1 and claim 2 or claim 3 wherein a sensor device is used to measure and monitor the rate of heart beat.

5. An intelligent sports shoes as claimed in claim 4 wherein the gathered information is stored in memory storage in order be manipulated by a computer through a communication link.