FR3081336A1 - ASSISTANCE IN THE USE OF SPORTS PRACTICES APPARATUS - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device. According to the invention, such a method comprises: - a determination (50) of at least one morphological parameter associated with a user (3) of said sport practice device; - as a function of said at least one determined morphological parameter, an identification (52), in a database of reference morphological profiles (9), of a reference morphological profile (10) associated with said user (3); - during the use of said sports practice device (1) by said user (3), a simultaneous display (53) of a posture and / or a movement (13) of said user (3) on said device ( 1), acquired by at least one video acquisition device (21, 22), and of a posture and / or a reference movement (14) associated with said reference morphological profile (10). Thus, the user (3) can easily adapt his practice to his morphological profile and visualize and correct his posture and / or his movement with respect to the posture and / or the reference movement.

Description

ASSISTANCE IN THE USE OF SPORTS PRACTICE EQUIPMENT

1. Field of the invention

The field of the invention is that of sport, and in particular rooms in which are made available to users of sports equipment, such as weight machines. More specifically, the invention relates to a method for assisting the use of such devices.

2. Prior art and its drawbacks

In recent years, there has been a growing enthusiasm among users for sports halls, in which various weight training and sports equipment are made available. One of the advantages of these sports halls is indeed free and permanent access to sports equipment made available to customers. They can access it without constraint, over extended time slots, which gives them great flexibility in relation to their personal and professional schedules.

However, the use of the proposed devices requires, at least at the beginning, training or supervision by a professional. Otherwise, there are risks of improper use, which can result in poor posture and potentially injury. However, the presence of a trainer is not always guaranteed, especially when the client attends the gym early in the morning or late in the evening, or during busy periods.

To overcome this drawback, the sports halls provide users with display panels for each sports practice device. Using pictograms, these display panels explain how to use the devices, and how they work. The major drawback of these display panels is their lack of clarity which often leads to improper use of the device by the inexperienced customer.

There is therefore a need for a technique to aid the use of sports equipment which does not have these various drawbacks of the prior art.

3. Statement of the invention

The invention responds to this need by proposing a method for assisting the use of a sports practice device, which comprises:

a determination of at least one morphological parameter associated with a user of the sport practice device;

as a function of the morphological parameter (s) determined, an identification, from a database of reference morphological profiles, of a reference morphological profile associated with the user;

during the use of the device by the user, a simultaneous display of a posture and / or a movement of the user on the device, acquired by at least one video acquisition device, and d '' a reference posture and / or movement associated with the reference morphological profile.

Thus, the invention is based on a completely new and inventive approach to helping the use of sports equipment. Indeed, the invention allows a user to simultaneously view his posture and / or movement when using a device and a reference posture and / or movement, which correspond to the position and / or movement ideal that it should have on this type of device, according to its morphological profile. This posture and / or this reference movement are, for example, those of sports coaches, i.e. qualified personnel for the use of such sports training devices, which have been previously registered in a reference database. In order to best identify the reference posture and / or movement to present to the client, one or more morphological parameters associated with the client are compared to the morphological parameters of the sports coaches, or more generally of the referring users who have performed the postures and / or reference movements. We can thus select the referring user whose morphological profile is closest to that associated with the client.

It will be noted that by, morphological profile associated with a user, is meant here, and throughout this document, a set of values of morphological parameters associated with this user, examples of which are given below. In the following, we will also use, with the same meaning and scope, the terms of the user's morphological profile.

The user can thus use in a personalized and optimized way a sports practice device, as well as visualize, and therefore correct his posture and / or his movement during use of the device. This significantly reduces the risk of improper use of sports equipment, in the absence of supervisory staff, and therefore the risk of injury to customers.

According to a first aspect, the simultaneous display implements a superimposed display, on a rendering device viewable by the user, of the posture and / or of the movement of the user on the one hand, and of the posture and / or of the reference movement on the other hand.

Such a superimposed display allows the user for example to visualize his own movement and, in watermark, on the same reproduction device, the ideal reference movement that he should have. It is thus very easy for him to correct his movement or his posture, until he is perfectly superimposed on the reference movement or posture which is associated with him.

In a particular embodiment, such a reproduction device is an augmented reality system worn by the user, for example a helmet or glasses of augmented reality.

This system superimposes the user's posture and / or movement with the reference posture and / or movement. Thanks to this system, the user sees around him the members of a reference user having an ideal posture and / or movement on the sports practice device. This allows the user to place his limbs in an equivalent way and easily compare his own posture and / or his own movement with the posture and / or the reference movement. In addition, the wearing of such a helmet or such glasses does not hinder the movements of the user on the sports practice device, which is particularly practical.

In another embodiment, which may be implemented alternately or cumulatively with the previous one, such a rendering device is a terminal placed in the field of vision of the user when the device is used.

For example, a tablet, which is today an object of great consumption, and therefore relatively inexpensive, can be fixed directly on the sports practice device: it allows the user to view live and simultaneously his posture and / or its movement and the posture and / or the reference movement. According to a first embodiment, the tablet screen is divided into two zones, one dedicated to displaying the movement of the user, and the other for displaying the reference movement. As a variant, these two displays are superimposed on the display screen of the tablet, in order to further facilitate the comparison of these two movements by the user, and thus optimize the correction of his posture.

According to another aspect, such a method also comprises a selection, by the user, on the terminal, of an angle of view of his posture and / or of his movement. Indeed, the movement of the user can be captured by several cameras arranged around the sports practice device. The user can thus select the angle of view which allows him to visualize with the most precision any divergences between his movement and the reference movement, and thus facilitate the possible correction of his position. In addition, the use of a tablet equipped with a touch screen proves to be particularly ergonomic to carry out this selection with a single click, in particular when the client is in use of the sports practice device.

According to yet another aspect, such a method also comprises storage on a server interrogable remotely of at least one sequence of images associated with the simultaneous display.

Thus, even after leaving the sports hall, the user can review their use of the sports practice device, for example by means of an application downloadable on their smart phone (in English "smartphone") and for example follow progress, or take the time to analyze your posture errors in more detail.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the morphological parameter (s) belong (s) to the group comprising:

lalongueurdesbras;

lalongueurdesavant arm; lalongueurdesjambes;

shoulder width;

the size of an individual, etc.

Depending on the type of sports practice device, all or some of these parameters may be of advantageous interest (for example, the length of the arms or forearms may be secondary for the use of a press type device).

Advantageously, such a determination comprises a capture of images of the user in at least two distinct positions, and an analysis of the captured images delivering the morphological parameter (s). In this document, the terms capture and acquisition are used interchangeably. In particular, a video acquisition comprises an image capture.

Such a determination can thus be automated, and not require human intervention, which can be particularly advantageous in the absence of supervisory personnel in the sports hall. Taking images, by a camera or a camera, in several different positions allows precise and reliable measurement results.

In addition, during this image capture, the user is positioned in front of a grid reference. The processing of images in order to determine the values of the morphological parameters is thus facilitated. Such a grid mark can for example be affixed to a wall of the sports hall.

The invention also relates to a computer program comprising program code instructions for implementing a method as described above, when executed by a processor.

The invention also relates to a system for assisting the use of a sports practice device, comprising:

a device for determining at least one morphological parameter associated with a user of the sport practice device;

a module for interrogating a database of reference morphological profiles, capable of delivering, as a function of the determined morphological parameter (s), a reference morphological profile associated with the user;

at least one video acquisition device capable of acquiring a posture and / or a movement of a user when using the device;

at least one playback device, viewable by the user, capable of simultaneously displaying the posture and / or movement of the user acquired by the video acquisition device and a posture and / or a reference movement associated with the morphological profile reference.

More generally, such a system is capable of implementing the method described above, and has in combination the same characteristics and advantages.

Finally, the invention relates to a sports practice device comprising such a system.

4. List of figures

Other objects, characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description, given by way of simple illustrative example, and not limiting, in relation to the figures, among which:

Figures IA and IB illustrate an environment for implementing the invention according to particular modes of the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a display mode according to a particular embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates the determination of at least one morphological parameter of a user of a sporting practice device, according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates the various stages of creation of a database of reference morphological profiles, according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 presents the different steps leading to the display of a posture and / or a reference movement following the identification of a reference morphological profile associated with the profile of the user, according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates the material structure of a system for assisting the use of a sports practice device, according to an embodiment of the invention.

5. Detailed description of embodiments of the invention

The general principle of the invention is based, on the one hand, on the identification of a reference morphological profile closest to the morphological profile associated with a user of a sporting practice device, and on the other hand, on the simultaneous presentation to the user of his movement, and of the ideal movement associated with the reference morphological profile, in order to allow him to easily and effectively correct his posture, and thus avoid any risk of improper use of the device.

Indeed, when using a sports practice device, the posture and / or movement of the user on a sports practice device, as well as the posture and / or the reference movement are displayed simultaneously. This posture and / or this reference movement are selected according to the reference morphological profile associated with the morphological profile of the user. For this, at least one morphological parameter associated with a user is determined. The user's morphological profile, which includes the morphological parameter (s) thus determined, is then compared to different reference morphological profiles stored in a database, on the basis of these parameters.

The notion of “closest reference morphological profile” corresponds for example to the result of a search for a profile among reference profiles stored in the database, for which a minimum distance is established between at least the value of a morphological parameter of this reference profile and the value of this morphological parameter of the user's morphological profile.

In a particular embodiment, the user can select one or more morphological parameters before launching a profile search. Indeed, the relevant morphological parameters for the assessment of a profile may depend on the exercise practiced (for example, arm length and shoulder width for sit back drafts, and leg length for a thigh press) . If several morphological profiles result, the user can select the morphological profile he wishes.

The reference posture and / or movement and the user's posture and / or movement are then displayed simultaneously when using a sports practice device. Thus, the user can adapt his practice to his morphological profile and visualize and correct his posture and / or his movement in relation to the posture and / or the reference movement.

We now present, in relation to FIG. 1A, an environment for implementing the invention according to a particular embodiment. Such an environment notably includes a sports practice device 1. One or more image or video acquisition devices are placed around the device referenced 1. They can be fixed or mobile, and possibly orientable, to adapt to the better under the conditions of image acquisition. Such devices are, for example, cameras or cameras 21, 22 capable of filming the user 3, and positioned for example laterally and / or frontally, so as to film the user 3 when the device is in use 1, preferably from several viewing angles. A viewing angle is generally associated with the location of an image acquisition device.

In order to be able to restore the image of the posture and / or the movement of the user 3, the cameras 21, 22 are connected to a rendering device 4, by a wired or wireless link. Such a rendering device 4 is for example an electronic tablet 5, the display mode of which is illustrated in FIG. 2, viewable by the user 3 when the latter uses the sports practice device 1. Such a tablet 5 is for example fixed on the structure of the sporting practice device, preferably on an orientable support to facilitate its consultation by the user 3.

FIG. 1B illustrates another embodiment of the invention, in which the user 3 wears an augmented reality system 6, for example a helmet or glasses. Thanks to this system, the user 3 sees around him the members of a reference user having an ideal posture and / or movement on the sports practice device 1. This allows him to place his members in an equivalent manner and thus easily correct his posture and / or movement. The members of the reference user appear as a watermark of their own members in their field of vision, thanks to this augmented reality helmet, which does not hinder their movements on the sports practice device.

The mode of display of the posture and / or movement of the user 3 on the tablet, or touch screen, is shown in relation to FIG. 2. In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the tablet 5 displays simultaneously the image of the posture and / or movement of the user 3 as filmed live by the cameras 21, 22 (upper part of the screen), and the posture and / or the reference movement which he must be reproduced to avoid injury (lower part of the screen). This posture and / or this reference movement are those previously filmed by the reference user, for example a sports coach.

To do this, the user 3 programs, for example on the sports practice device 1, a series of N movements (for example 15 prints, 15 press movements, 15 abdominals, etc.) which he intends to perform in one given time, one minute for example. It is then possible to launch, on tablet 5, the display of “ideal” movements as an exercise to follow. The ideal movements for the morphological profile closest to that of the user are then displayed as a film, which the user must endeavor to follow. The user's movements are then displayed in a window next to the screen of the tablet 5.

Thanks to the various cameras 21, 22 positioned around it, the user 3 can select via the tablet 5 the angle of view, for example lateral or frontal, of his posture and / or of his movement. This selection is made ergonomically, using the touch screen of the tablet 5. As a variant, the rendering device 4 can also be a personal computer of the PC type, or a television screen for example.

Additional indications can be brought to the screen, as an indication of the conformity of the postures of the upper and lower parts of the screen. For example, a red cross is affixed on the upper part of the screen, as long as the posture of user 3 does not conform to the reference posture displayed in the lower part. This compliance indicator can also take another simple and apprehensible form for the customer, such as a thumbs-up, an emoticon, etc. In other embodiments, image analysis software can make it possible to locate the areas of the image in which the divergences between the upper and lower parts are the greatest, and indicate them on the screen, by example by coloring or surrounding them. At a glance, the user can easily detect what he needs to correct (for example the position of his neck, when the position of his legs would be correct).

In another embodiment not shown in FIG. 2, the display of the two movements of the user 3 on the one hand and of the reference on the other is done in a superimposed fashion: for example, the user visualizes the movement filigree reference of its own movement. He can thus adjust his position or posture until the superposition is perfect, i.e. a single movement appears on the screen, which corresponds to optimal use of the machine.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of determining the morphological parameters of the user 3. For this, the user 3 is positioned in front of a grid reference 7, in at least two distinct positions (position A and position B). User images 3, for example photos, are taken using an image capture device 8 such as a video camera or a camera. They are then analyzed to determine certain morphological parameters such as the length of his arms, the length of his forearms, the length of his legs, the width of his shoulders, etc.

Alternatively, the determination of the morphological parameters of the user 3 can be done using a measuring tape. For this, user 3, alone or with help, manually measures the length of his arms, the length of his forearms, the length of his legs, the width of his shoulders, etc. These measures can be taken either on arrival at the sports hall, or before arrival, for example when registering.

In the same way, it is also possible to use a stadiometer in order to take measurements of the morphological parameters of the user 3.

As will be seen in more detail below in connection with FIG. 5, these determined morphological parameters make it possible, from a database of reference morphological profiles 9, to determine the closest reference morphological profile 10 of the user's morphological profile 11 3.

We present in relation to Figure 4 the different stages of the creation of such a database of reference morphological profiles 9. Different reference users, or sports coaches Cl, C2, C3, are photographed in at least two distinct positions (see figure 3, position A and position B), in order to determine one or more morphological parameters such as the length of the arms, the length of the forearms, the length of the legs, the length of the shoulders, etc. During a step referenced 40, these morphological parameters are then recorded, in combination, to form a database of morphological profiles 9. To a morphological profile corresponds one or more values associated with one or more morphological parameters. Each item P_MORPH_Ci of the database includes for example an identifier of the reference user profile, called a coach, and noted Cl, C2, C3, and a n-tuplet of the different lengths measured during step 40, expressed in meters .

During a step referenced 41, the sports coaches are filmed exercising on various sports equipment 1, by as many cameras as necessary, for example a front camera and several side cameras, to show all the positions and / or all movements. The cameras are fixed, and always positioned in the same way on a given sports practice device 1. A removable green background is installed behind the sports practice machine during the film, in order to be able to remove the entire background of the video in a subsequent treatment, according to a technique known to the world of cinema. Once the film has been made, the green background is removed from the video to keep only the sports practice device 1 and the sports coach. Thus, each coach C1, C2 and C3 is associated with a video of their posture and / or their movement, respectively Ml, M2 and M3. This video is kept as being the perfect posture and / or movement on a certain sports practice device 1 for a given morphological profile.

These videos Ml, M2, M3 are also stored in the database 9, in association with the identifier of the coach C1, C2, C3 and the n-tuple of its morphological parameters, in the item P_MORPH_Ci.

We can of course also supplement the information in database 9 with additional data, such as the coach's weight, age or body mass index (BMI).

After constitution of this database 9 of reference morphological profiles, it can be used, for each user 3 of a weight training machine, to identify the reference morphological profile 10 P_MORPH_Ci closest to his morphological profile 11 P_MORPH_UT (see figure 5). For this, after a step 50 of determining one or more morphological parameters (see FIG. 3), the morphological profile 11 of the user P_MORPH_UT is compared with the morphological profiles of reference users P_MORPH_Ci, of the database of reference morphological profiles 9 (step referenced 51). It will be noted that this comparison 51 may relate to all of the morphological parameters of the profile P_MORPH_Ci, or to only some of them (for example only the length of the arms), for example as a function of the sports practice device on which the user wants to practice.

During this step referenced 51, a module 12 for interrogating the database of reference morphological profiles 9 compares the profile P_MORPH_UT of the user with the set of reference profiles P_MORPH_Ci contained in the base 9.

A reference morphological profile 10 closest to the user's morphological profile 11 P_MORPH_UT, in this case the P_MORPH_C2 profile, is identified during a step 52. Thus, the posture and / or the reference movement M2 14 associated with the reference morphological profile P_MORPH_C2 10, and to be reproduced so as not to be injured when using a sports practice device 1, will be able to be displayed simultaneously with the posture and / or movement M_UT 13 of the user 3 during a step 53, on the rendering device 4 viewable by the user 3 during practice. The user 3 will thus be able, independently, to monitor his position and / or his movement and correct it directly.

We now present, in relation to FIG. 6, the material structure of a system 60 for assisting in the use of a sports practice device according to one embodiment of the invention. Such a system notably comprises a module for interrogating a database of reference morphological profiles capable of determining the reference morphological profile closest to that of a user.

The term module can correspond as well to a software component as to a hardware component or a set of hardware and software components, a software component corresponding itself to one or more computer programs or subroutines or more generally to any element of a program capable of implementing a function or a set of functions.

The system 60 of FIG. 6 comprises a processor 61, a storage unit 62, an input device 63, an output device 64 and an interface unit 65, which are connected to each other by a bus 66. Of course, the constituent elements of the system 60 can be connected to each other by any other type of connection, in place of the bus 66.

The processor 61 controls the operation of the system 60. The storage unit 62 stores at least one computer program, intended to be executed by the processor 61, and various data, including for example the database of reference morphological profiles 9 ( which can also be stored in the "cloud" (in French, cloud) and searchable remotely), as well as various parameters necessary for the operations performed by the processor 61.

The processor 61 can be produced in hardware, software form, or in the form of a hardware and software combination. For example, the processor 61 can be designed in the form of a dedicated hardware component, such as an integrated circuit, or of a programmable processing unit of the CPU type ("Central Processing Unit" for central processing unit) which runs a computer program stored in memory.

The storage unit 62 can take any form suitable for storing a program or computer-readable data, for example a computer-readable storage means such as a semiconductor memory, or a magnetic recording means. , optical or magneto-optical loaded in a read / write accessible unit.

The program causes the processor 61 to perform various actions, including:

the analysis of user images captured in different positions to deduce one or more morphological parameters;

querying the database 9 to identify the reference morphological profile closest to that of the user;

control of the video acquisition device which captures the images of the user when he uses the weight training device;

the superimposed display of the reference movement and the movement of the user on a reproduction device such as a tablet or an augmented reality headset.

The input device 63 may take the form of a touch screen, a keyboard, a mouse, or any other form allowing a user to enter commands relating to the superimposed display of his movement and of the movement. associated reference, for example the selection of a viewing angle. The output device 64 can take the form of a display screen proposing to the user the simultaneous or superimposed display of its movement and of the associated reference movement.

The interface unit 65 provides an interface between the system 60 and an external device, such as a remote interrogable server on which the videos of the user are memorized during sports practice. The interface unit 65 can be wired or wirelessly connected to the external device.

Although a single processor 61 has been shown in FIG. 6, this processor can comprise different modules and units, implementing the functions of the assistance system 60, according to the embodiments of the present patent application, such as :

a unit for analyzing user captured images;

a module for configuring the database 9 and for storing morphological parameters in the form of morphological profiles in the latter;

a database query module;

an image processing unit managing the superimposed display of the user's movement and a reference movement.

These different modules and units can also be embedded in several processors 61 communicating and cooperating with each other.

FIG. 6 illustrates only one particular way, among several possible, of implementing the system 60, so that it performs the steps of the method detailed above. Indeed, these steps can be carried out indifferently on a reprogrammable calculation machine (a PC computer, a DSP processor or a microcontroller) executing a program comprising a sequence of instructions, or on a dedicated calculation machine (for example a set of logic gates like an FPGA or an ASIC, or any other hardware module).

In the case where the help system 60 is produced with a reprogrammable calculation machine, the corresponding program (that is to say the sequence of instructions) may be stored in a removable storage medium (such as for example a floppy disk, CD-ROM or DVD-ROM) or not, this storage medium being partially or totally readable by a computer or a processor.

Claims (12)

1. Method for assisting in the use of a sports practice device (1), characterized in that it comprises: a determination (50) of at least one morphological parameter associated with a user (3) of said sports practice device (1); as a function of said at least one determined morphological parameter, an identification (52), in a database of reference morphological profiles (9), of a reference morphological profile (10) associated with said user (3); during the use of said sport practice device (1) by said user (3), a simultaneous display (53) of a posture and / or a movement (13) of said user (3) on said device (1 ), acquired by at least one video acquisition device (21, 22), and of a posture and / or a reference movement (14) associated with said reference morphological profile (10). 2. A method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that said simultaneous display (53) implements a superimposed display, on a reproduction device (4) viewable by said user (3), said posture and / or said movement (13) of said user (3) on the one hand, and said posture and / or said reference movement (14) on the other hand. 3. A method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device (1) according to claim 2, characterized in that said rendering device (4) is an augmented reality system (6) carried by said user ( 3). 4. A method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device according to claim 2, characterized in that said rendering device (4) is a terminal (5) disposed in the field of vision of said user (3) when using said device (1). 5. A method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device according to claim 5, characterized in that it also comprises a selection, by said user (3), on said terminal (5), of a angle of view of said posture and / or said movement (13). 6. A method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it also comprises a storage of at least one sequence of images associated with said display. simultaneous (53) on a remote interrogable server. 7. A method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that said at least one morphological parameter belongs to the group comprising: an arm length; a length of a forearm; one leg length; shoulder width; a size of said user. 8. A method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that said determination (50) comprises a capture of images of said user (3) in at at least two distinct positions (A, B), and an analysis of said captured images delivering said at least one morphological parameter. 9. A method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device according to claim 8, characterized in that, during said image capture, said user (3) is positioned in front of a grid mark (7). 10. Computer program comprising program code instructions for implementing the method of assisting in the use of a sports practice device according to any one of claims 1 to 9 when it is executed by a processor. 11. Support system for the use of a sports practice device, comprising: a device for determining at least one morphological parameter associated with a user (3) of said sports practice device (1); a query module (12) of a database of reference morphological profiles (9), capable of delivering, as a function of said at least one determined morphological parameter, a reference morphological profile (10) associated with said user (3 ); at least one video acquisition device (21, 22) capable of acquiring a posture and / or a movement of a user (3) when using said device (1); at least one video playback device (4), viewable by said user (3), capable of simultaneously displaying said posture and / or said movement (13) of said user (3) acquired by said at least one video acquisition device ( 21, 22) and a reference posture and / or movement (14) associated with said reference morphological profile (10). 12. Sports apparatus comprising a system for assisting the use of a sports apparatus according to claim 11.