ES2886399A1 - Timing method and equipment (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Timing method and equipment, which uses beacons (1) emitters of identification signals at each control point (3) of a race and an electronic device (2) receiver of the signals, which calculates the passing time from the signals captured. The electronic device (2) receives and recognizes the beacons (1) and the received power (RSSI) or approach angle for the calculation of the passage time. The bidirectional communication between the electronic device (2) and the beacon (1) is not contemplated. Only the communication from the beacon (1) to the electronic device (2) is contemplated. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

DESCRIPTION

Timing method and equipment

TECHNICAL SECTOR

The present invention relates to a timing method and equipment, based on devices carried by participants in sporting or recreational events.

It is applied in the field of sport and leisure.

STATE OF THE ART

In sports races such as: marathon-style foot races, half marathons, 10Ks, 5Ks among others... mountain races, trails, triathlons, duathlons, mountain triathlons, mountain bike races, bicycle touring, road cycling and road, rollerblades, rollerblades, skiing, cross-country skiing, horses, cars, motorcycles, among others. It is necessary to have measurement systems of at least one time to generate classifications. Timing systems currently on the market are mainly based on objects worn by the runner himself on his bib, shoe or ankle, such as RFID tags, which seek to measure the time of each runner automatically.

In each race one or more checkpoints are placed, such as the start, the finish and intermediate points. At each point, equipment is installed that consists, among other parts, of receiving antennas that act with the objects to detect their passage and thus measure the time of passage at each point. The time of passage can be obtained in several ways while the objects are within the reception range of the antennas.

Previously, low-frequency, near-field RFID was used. This implied that the chip had to go in the shoe since it could be read at distances less than approximately one meter. Due to the low frequency, the reading speed was very slow, making any classic anti-collision algorithm impossible, causing reading losses to occur at the start of a race, where the agglomeration of runners is greater. Therefore, some runners did not have a start time. Finally, due to this slowness, it was not possible to read chips at more than 50 or 55 km/h. The team loaded the chip passing, emitting energy. Then it stopped broadcasting to give him the opportunity to discharge the accumulated energy by returning a signal, to which he had entered his identification code.

Currently, RFID is located in the Ultra High Frequency or UHF band and the reading is done in the far field. Thus the chip can be placed on the number. In addition, anti-collision algorithms are applied (aloha eslotado) to have more readings at the start and readings can be obtained at 200 km/h or more. Due to their low price, it is more expensive to recycle the chips than to dispose of them.

In both cases, the chip must be read by a receiver installed in the timing system. In the case of UHF, the timing equipment emits a signal that, among other things, powers the chip. The chip has internal elements to establish communication through backscattering . However, due to the limitations of backscattering ( backscattenng) there are risks of error in the reading and of participants whose passage time is not obtained. Consequently, it is advisable to double reading teams at key points, such as the start or finish, to reduce misreads or lost reads.

Reading equipment is always expensive, heavy and bulky equipment, with a certain assembly time. Consequently, they are labor intensive and block the road for a long time, affecting traffic before, during and after the race. It includes, among other parts, some antennas on the ground, in a protection ditch. Therefore, the tendency is to place the least possible number of reading equipment.

Some examples of developments are: US2018326285, EP3055811, EP2776983 and JP2018129666,

In all these systems, the labels must be handled correctly by each and every one of the users, otherwise numerous read failures can occur.

There are also technologies based on active RFID that emit when they are activated by passing through a loop antenna or "loop" or the like, powered by the timing system. The active object or chip responds by emitting a signal interpreted by a receiver included in the timing system. The timing system is responsible for storing and sending the lap times to a race control center.

These solutions are more advantageous, but they also have a much higher cost and do not ensure reading under all conditions.

The applicant is not aware of any solution similar to the claimed invention.

BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE INVENTION

The invention consists of a timing method and equipment according to the claims. In its different embodiments it solves the problems of the state of the art.

The equipment is based on the use of electronic devices carried by users (smartphones, smartwatch...) or any type of wearable technology ( weamble) capable of emitting signals with a standard, such as GSM, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, LoRa or any similar standard. In some applications, the electronic device may need to be waterproof or encased in protective cases.

It is a substantial improvement over traditional timing chips and systems, since it has high precision, independence from the number of participants and high assembly simplicity. The classic timing equipment, of high weight and volume, is eliminated, reducing the occupation of the track, logistics and cost, allowing timing points to be set up at many points in the race. They are replaced by basic equipment whose sole function is to emit one or more beacon signals without receiving any type of communication from the object. Departure, intermediate or arrival times can be read with high precision, even if there are crowds and long arrival or departure lines.

The race timing method comprises the stages of:

1. Set up at least one stationary electronic beacon, lighthouse or beacon, emitting at least one signal for each time control point of the race route. Beacons can use a standard such as Bluetooth or WiFi.

2. Configure at least one electronic device for each participant with a beacon signal receiver, and associate it with the participant. This will normally be done by the participant configuring their own electronic device with an application. Where appropriate, the organizer may lend or rent temporary electronic devices.

3. Calculate the time of passage through a point of the route or the position of the electronic device from the power of the signals received from the beacons using machine learning or their angle of arrival. The calculation of the powers can be done numerically using advanced data analysis techniques that would cover two stages: a) signal filtering by applying different types of digital filters to eliminate noise and b) conditioning with network-based estimators multilayer artificial neurons to obtain the necessary precision in the electronic device and/or in its remote server. The coefficients of the digital filters as well as the architecture and the synaptic weights of the neural models will be previously determined.

4. If the position has been calculated by means of the angle of arrival, calculate the time in which the electronic device passes the control point from the power(s) received at different angles.

5. Submit the time to a race control center.

For example, the pass time can be calculated by arranging the beacons around the control point and estimating the moment when the power received from a beacon, a group of beacons or the set of beacons reaches the maximum. To obtain this maximum, it is necessary to apply point 3 of the timing method. Without applying this point, it is not possible to obtain a pace time that is precise enough to comply with the usual standards such as those of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation or the World Athletics, among others.

The arrival angle can be estimated by moving the main lobe of an electronic device antenna, to detect in which position the maximum power is received.

Therefore, the race timing equipment that applies the method comprises at least one beacon at each control point and an electronic device for each participant that will send the information to a race control center.

Each beacon is configured to only emit signals for the different electronic devices, without opening a two-way communication, so they are simpler. These devices are configured to calculate the position from the power or angles of each signal (AoA: "angle of arrival") received from the beacons, either directly or using an external server that receives, among other signals, the powers received by the electronic device of each beacon. The remote server can be the race control center itself.

Other variants will be indicated in the rest of the report.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the invention, the following figures are included.

Figure 1: Schematic top view of the plane of a race.

Figure 2: Top view of an example checkpoint.

Figure 3: Graphs of the RSSI received by a device with three static beacons emitting simultaneously when it passes through a control point, depending on the distance to the point and, consequently, to the three beacons.

Figure 4: Neural Network type Gated Recurrent Unit.

MODES OF EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Next, an embodiment of the invention is briefly described, as an illustrative and non-limiting example of the latter.

The figures show a scheme of a race with the components for timing a race. Part of a series of static beacons (1). The beacons (1) will emit an identification signal using a medium or short range standard, for example Bluetooth. One beacon (1) or more will be placed at each time control point (3), especially the start and finish. The number of checkpoints (3) is defined by the direction of the race, with at least one being the finish line.

Each participant will carry an electronic device (2), which will generally be a smartphone, a smartwatch or another similar device. In the electronic device (2) a suitable program or application will be executed to carry out the timing. The electronic device (2) comprises a power supply battery, as is known, a microcontroller that executes the program, a receiver to receive the signal from the beacon (1) and a transmitter to the race control center (4). The electronic device (2) does not send any signal to the beacon (1) to ensure that its capacity is not saturated.

During the race, the participant will carry his electronic device (2) that detects the signal from the beacons (1) of each control point (3). As it approaches the control point (3), the electronic device (2) will make many detections for each beacon (1), measuring the received power or RSSI ( Received Signal Strength Indication) value or the approach angle (AoA) in each one. ), also based on the detection of the RSSI by changing the reception angle of the signal. Relevantly, the electronic device (2) will not send any information to the beacon (1), so that the operation of the beacon (1) is independent of the number of users.

The theoretical power is a function of the inverse square of the distance, as is known, but the real power received includes strong random errors, so it is erratic (figure 3). To improve the accuracy of this timing method, several stages of advanced data analysis are performed, including signal cleaning and temporal/spatial estimates using multilayer neural networks.

The RSSI signals are processed by the electronic device (2) or in an external server to transform them into position and/or passing time, with high precision. In the RSSI-based version, the one that is not based on the approach angle, only the moment when the device passes the control point is calculated. Therefore, the crossing of the finish line or any other control point and the associated time can be detected.

This checkpoint pass detector is based on RSSI readings received by the device from one or more beacons placed around the time checkpoint. In the case of Figure 3, there are three Bluetooth beacons.

These readings and their corresponding reading instant are grouped into "packages" or "windows" of at least 10 readings that are introduced into a system that, through the use of supervised learning and at least one neural network model ( Deep Learning), returns the inferred step instant.

Said windows have the following aspect, for the FR, FL, RR and RL beacons and repeated in at least ten lines:

print of

FL RL RR FR

weather

16:42:12.234 81 80 74 78 16:42:12.462 78 82 76 78 16:42:12:742 77 80 75 76

The RSSI signal is processed by filtering out abnormal values and linearly interpolating the necessary values.

The preferred system is composed of at least one recurrent neural network (RNN). It has a structure based on a single hidden layer, specifically a GRU (Gated Recurrent Unit) (figure 4) of at least 10 units and an output layer of 1 unit, so they return a single one-dimensional value.

To train these networks, real samples of step times obtained from other active, passive and photofinish timing systems have been arranged in order to improve their accuracy over time.

These neural models have been combined to optimize their performance by applying ensemble methods.

This position or passage time can be sent by the electronic device (2) immediately to a control center or when the capacity of the 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, WIFI, LoRa or similar and later networks allows it. The control center (4) can be located near the race, through a local network arranged on the course, or on an Internet server.

It is also possible to send the data without processing, or with a certain partial processing, to an external server, such as a control center (4) located in the race or a server on the Internet. In this case, the treatment of the signals will be carried out on the server.

To adjust to the speed at which the participant can go or to the number of participants, the emission power of the beacon (1) is adjusted. In a high turnout marathon or car race, such as a rally, you can increase the strength of the signal so that it begins to detect at a greater distance.

Figure 1 shows a diagram of a race, where several intermediate control points (3) are arranged, in addition to the finish line and the start. Each control point (3) has a different number of beacons (1), at least one, which may not be placed strictly on the line of the control point (3).

Figure 2 shows a finish line with four markers (1), organized in two lines. The first row would be located on or very close to the finish line. The second would be located apart from the finish line. The participants carry their respective electronic devices (2), which obtain the arrival time by performing the calculations already explained in the memory on the signals received from the beacons. Once the device obtains the lap time, it will send it to the race control center in one of the ways described above.

Claims (1)

1- Timing method, characterized by comprising the stages of: configure at least one electronic, static beacon (1) to emit only one or more identification signals, at a control point (3); configure at least one electronic device (2) with a receiver of the beacon signals (1); calculating the time in which the electronic device (2) passes the control point (3) from the power of the signals received from the beacons (1) or the angle of arrival; send the time to a control center (4) of the race. 2- Timing method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the calculation of the passage time of the electronic device (2) is carried out by applying digital signal processing for noise elimination and signal conditioning together with temporal estimators and Nonlinear spatial based on machine learning. 3- Timing method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the passage time calculation is performed on an external server. 4- Timing method, according to claim 3, characterized in that the electronic device (2) sends the power data of the signals of the beacons and/or the angle of arrival (1) to the server partially treated or untreated. 5- Timing method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the passage time calculation is performed by previously calculating the position of the electronic device (2) by calculating the angle of arrival (AoA). 6- Timing method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the step time calculation is performed in the electronic device (2). 7- Racing timing equipment comprising at least one control point (3), which applies the method of any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it comprises at least one beacon (1) at each control point (3 ), set to only emit identification signals, and an electronic device (2) configured to calculate the time of passage through the control point from the power of each signal received from the beacons (1) or the angle of arrival of the signal.