GB2190773A

GB2190773A - Pedometer stop watch

Info

Publication number: GB2190773A
Application number: GB08612315A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Robert Ma
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-05-21
Filing date: 1986-05-21
Publication date: 1987-11-25
Also published as: GB8612315D0

Abstract

A pendulum 600 is designed to absorb the natural swing energy of a human body while running so as to cause continuous swinging of the pendulum 600 and repeated actuation of a microswitch 900 connected to a circuit board 501 where the precise number of running steps is derived. The device can be hung from the waist. A display 402 and 4 control keys 102 are provided, as are various watch functions. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Pedometer stop watch BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Jogging is kind of sports suitable for people at various ages and of various bodies for a long-term exercise. However, the viewpoints of the sporting medical science indicate that careful attention must be paid to assure a proper balance in line with the physical state even if it is a slow, mild sports and to keep it as a successive, everlasting exercise.

Therefore, it is necessary to gain accurate computation of the time & distance and the consumed CAL for an exercise. Currently, there are many simply designed jogging watches. However, the structure of such watches is so inferior that it tends to damage and inaccurate caculation. This is because of an design based on incorrect theory.

This invention uses a mechanical structure sophisticated, enough to absorb shake. Also, an electronic IC is equipped so that jogging or walking distance can be precisely figured out.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The design theory of this invention is that a group of pendulums, in a highly balanceable and sophisticated mechanical structure, is used in order to receive the energy of natural swing from a man who is jogging or walking, thus resulting in its successive swinging. In addit, that a group of microswitches and an electronic IC panel are equipped to receive the cutover and cutout actions of the pendulum and figure out accurate times.

With respect to the operational functions of this invention, the average step distance of each jogging or walking step may be pre-set into the memory of the IC panel. After your body movement, the jogging or walking distance could be figured out in addition the display of the number of the steps. Besides, the consumed CAL is also counted out so as to adjust the physical capacity of individual exercisers' performance.

This invention may be placed on a waist belt or on the top of a trouser. With the exception of the above functions, it is capable of many other functions, such as timing (of the month, day, hour, minute, second and week), alarming, hour reporting, and being used as stop watch, etc.

BRIEF OF THE DRA WING Figure 1 Layout of Preferred Embodiment Figure 2 Vertical Section of the Components Figure 3 Perspective View Figure 3A Sectional View Figure 3-1 Embodiment of Used Spring of the Pendulum Figure 3-2 Same as above Figure 3-3 Same as above Figure 4 Circuitry Figure 5 Block Diagrams of Used Microswitch Figure 6 Operational Flow Chart of the Control Keys DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The preferred embodiment of this invention is designed in the form of a box-type body as shown in Fig. 1. The body is composed of an upper cap (101) and a lower cap (201). At the top of the lower cap (201), a proturberant strut (202) may be erected (see Fig. 3A) and engaged with a hanging ear (203) by supersonic welding so that a jogger or walker may hang this invention at the waist belt.Alternatively, the haning ear may be replaced by a wrist-watch-type belt for wearing at hand or by a necklace for wearing on the neck, or by a belt head.

As shown in Fig. 2, a transparent board (301) is equipped in the front between the upper cap (101) and the lower cap (201) to protect the display (402) on the base board (401).

A circuit board (501) is equipped between the upper cap (101) and the lower cap (201) and locked into the upper cap (101) by a screw.

The face of the above circuit board (501) is the configuration of electronic circuitry (502) and a pendulum is locked at the bottom side.

The pendulum (600) includes a swing rod (601) carring a drill hole to lock the pendulum wheels (602), (603) and (604). The said group of pendulum wheels is capable of keeping precise balance. The swing function works as the swing rod (601) of the pendulum (600) is fixed at the circuit board (501) by the fixing bolt (605) and the hanging ear (606) at the top of the the swing rod (601) of the pendulum (600) is hooked up by the spring (700).

As shown in Fig. 3, immediately after the other end of the spring (700) is hooked up at the proturberant strut on the edge of the upper cap (see Fig. 3A) and a shake breaks out, the swing wheel of the pendulum (600) will be forced to swing from the static points (S) to the raising point (P) and after being obstructed by the positioning rod (607), retrieve to the return point (N) and touch the positioning rod (608), thereby forming a conducted circuit for signal output.

The swing wheels will keep swinging when there exists external force out of the shake.

Otherwise, they will be pulled back by the spring (700) and relocated at the static point (S).

A variety of working methods may be applied to the above spring (700) to attain some function as shown in Fig 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3.

At the bottom side of the circuit board (501) in Fig. 2, a battery seat may be equipped to fill in the mercury cell (800). The microswitch (900) is designed to have one end connected to the positioning rod (608) and the other end joined to the positioning belt (605), so that the pendulum (600) can swing, and cut in the microswitch (900) only under a shake at a fixed degree and thus an input of the circuit signal. Under this design, any other shake less than a fixed degree are absorbed by the spring (700), thus causing no miscalculation. The microswitch (900) as the same microswitch (28) of Fig. 4.

The aforesaid microswitch (700) is connected with the entire circuits. Besides, the circuits on the circuit board (501) may be controlled by the key (102) exposed in the upper cap (101). SECA-A is the sectional view of the key and the beeper (103) is glued at inside the fencing board (104) of the upper cap (101).

Following details the configuration of the electronic circuits of this invention: The electronic device of this invention is composed of a single-chip 4-bits microprocessor (10) and a liquid-crystal display driver (20).

The microprocessor (10) works under a low voltage (1.5-4.5V) and uses a tiny amount of current to produce volatage in the front and back electrode screen of the liquid-crystal display driver and thus make the rod molecular of the liquid crystal rearrange in response to the magnetic action. After the rearrangement, a cyclic light function is made possible to enable the area of the liquid-crystal display driver to display words and marks. The microprocessor (10) is manufacture by sanyo electric co., LTD. Modei number LC 5850.

Please refer to Fig. 5 that is the block diagram of equivalent circuits of the microprocessor (10) used by this invention. The device includes an oscillating pulse generator (11) as the working cycle of the microprocessor (10).

The oscillating pulse generator (11) then forwards the time sequence pulse into the advance driver (12) for amplification. The amplifed pulse is then sent to a preset timer and a time sequence control (14). Normally, if no timing arrangement is made, the collecting panel (15) will not transmiss any data into the preset timer (13). Hence, the preset timers (13) will not dispatch any signal to the time sequence control (14) in a certain period of time. Besides, there are an input end (16) and INT interrupting signals which are able to cause the functioning of the time-sequence control (14) and further of the program counter (17). In a normal state, the function starts from 0 up and each code in the program counter (17) may be input to the read-only memory (18) as decimal location.All the codes memorized in each location will then be forwarded via the collecting panel (15) to the inputing unit (19) for data computation. The computed data pass on the collecting panel (21) and move to the liquid-crystal driver (22), thus causing the functioning of the liquid-crystal display driver (20). Alternatively, the readonly memory (18) may have its data temporarily stored through the interim storage memory (23) or forward the data to the liquid-crystal driver (22) directly through the collecting panel (21). Both the caculating unit (19) and the interim storage memory (23) also can have its data output from the output end (24) via the collecting panel and thus cause the beeper (31) or the bulb working. If there is any subprogram to be processed, then the read-only memory (18) will dispatch its signal to the program counter (17).This way, the 4-step lapper (25) can be controlled for purpose of making decimal location of the sub-program.

Please refer to Diagram 4 which describes the circuit's working state of this invention.

Legs 36 and 38 of the microprocessor (10) are extended to connect an oscillating crystal (26). Due to voltage conductivity, the oscillating pulse generator (11) (please refer to Diagram 4) generates 32.768KHz. The adjustable condenser (27) is used for frequency rectification. Legs 33, 32, 8 and 7 link in series the control switches S1, S2, S3 and S4 respectively to control and preset various functions.

Another ends of the control switches S1, S2, S3 and S4 are connected with the right end of the voltage (27), i.e. VDD. Another microswitch (28) joins in series to VOD and Leg 19 INT and Leg 21 Ml's end. When a user activates, the microswitch (28) will come up in a cutover & cutout state and then generate input signals. The signals will be forwarded to the input end (16) inside the microprocessor (1) and the time sequence control (14) where to cause the program counter to make a computation in line with the time sequence pulse.

Legs 25, 26 and 27 have M2, M3 and M4 respectively extended to VSS1, i.e. the negative end of the cell (27) in the form of a fixed input. So only M1 has the input of changing signals. Legs 30, 31 have respective CUP1 and CUP2 linking a voltage uping and downing capacitor (29). Leg 5 is the output end of the beeper's signals. The signals are amplified under the co-action of the resistor R1 and 01, thereby causing the horn sounding and the output signals of Leg 6 are amplified under the action of Q2, thus causing the bulb lightening. Legs 40-43, 45, and 47-63, totally 25 legs, are the positive conducting side through which output goes to the liquid-crystal display driver (20). The negative conductance side of the liquid-crystal display driver (2) is linked with COM 1, COM 2 and COM 3. And COM 1, COM 2 and COM 3 are located at respective negative region in contrast with the positive side. Since there is a little difference, this arrangement can make possible at most 75 (x 25) liquid-crystal display.

Please refer to Fig. 6 concerning the operational flow chart of the control switch. When switchover is used for various functions, only a consecutive pressing of the control switch S2 will call up in sequence the timing function, alarming function (50), hour alarming (60), step counting function (70), horse watch function 80, and then retrieve to timing function.

Each time the control switch S2 is pressed, the liquid-crystal display driver (20) will release all the data contained in that device. In addition, when the timing function (40), alarming function (50) or step counting function (70) works, press of the control switch S1 will switch into day/month/week adjusting function (41), alarm adjusting function (51), or step-count adjusting function (71) respectively.

The operating methods of all the above functions are described as follows: The liquid-crystal display (20) shows only the hour, minute and the second at the very beginning. When the control switch S3 is pressed, it will display Timing Function (40) When the control switch S2 is pressed, the timing function will work. Then press the control switch S1, the "second" digits will be flashing, ready for adjusting the second. In case that retrieval to zero is desired, the control switch S3 must be pressed. After adjustment of the "second" position, press the control switch S2 and then the "hour" digits will appear and keep flashing. Then press the control switch S3 for "hour" adjustment.

After the hour adjustment, press the control switch S2 and the "minute" digits will come up and remain flashing. Then press the control switch S3 for "minute" adjustment. If adjustment of the unit place of the minutes is required, press the control switch S2 and the digits of the "minute" place will be flashing.

Then press the control switch S3 for "minute" adjustment.

Date/Month/Week Adjusting Function (41) Press the control switch S2 to let the "month" digits appearing and flashing in the display and then press the control switch S3 for "month" adjustment. After the adjustment, press the control switch S2 to let the date digits appearing and flashing in the display, and then press the control switch S3 for "date" adjustment. If adjustment of "week" is required, the control switch S2 must be pressed again to let the "week" digits coming up and flashing. Then press the control switch S3 for "week" adjustment. The function will be restored to its normal state after press of the control switch S2.

Alarm Adjusting Function (51) Press the control switch S2 to call for the alarming function. If adjustment of the "hour" place is desired, press the control switch S1 to let the "hour" digits appearing and flashing. Then press the control switch S2 for "hour" adjustment. If adjustment of "minute" place is desired, press the control switch S2 to let the "minute" digits emerging and flashing and then press the control switch S3 for the "minute" adjustment. Furthermore, if adjustment of the minute of the unit place is desired, the control switch S2 must be pressed a let the minute at the unit place layed out and flashing. Then press the control switch S3 for such adjustment.After the above-mentioned adjustments, press the control switch S1 to close the alarm adjusting function. (To start or close the alarming action, the control switch S4 must be pressed and the display will come up with triangular points.) Hour Reporting Function (60) Press the control switch S2 to call for the display of the hour reporting function.

Step Counting Function (70) Press the control switch S2 to let the display coming up with the step counting function. After step counting, press the control switch S4 for retrieval to zero.

Alternative measure unit may be selected to make sure the length of a step. Applicable units are centimetering or footing system.

When the control switch S1 is pressed, the display will show the word "cm" or "ft". The unit may be set as alternatively as desired. In case of exchange of the unit, press the con troi switch S3. If adjustment of the step distance is required, press the control switch S2 to let the display flashing and then press the control switch S3 to adjust for the distance of a step.

Step-count Adjusting Function (71) To set desired steps, press again the control switch S2 to let the digits of the "million" place appearing and flashing and then press the control switch S3 to proceed with setting up the values of desired steps. To adjust the digits of the "hundred thousand" place, press the control switch S2 to let the digit flashing and then press the control switch S3 to set up the digits of desired steps. Digits up to 7 places may be set in sequence in accordance with the operating procedures mentioned above. Finally, press again the control switch S1 to restore the step counting function.

After step counting starts, the beeper will sound as soon as the preset digits of desired steps are gained.

To call for the values of the step distance and consumed CAL, press the control switch S3 to gain the total distance of strides and again press the control switch S3 to obtain the value of consumed CAL.

Stop Watch Function (80) To show the function of the stop watch function, the control switch must be pressed.

The stop watch will start timing after the control switch S3 is pressed again. To let the stop watch stop, the control switch must be once more pressed (the IC then will stop working). Finally, the control switch must be pressed if retrieval to zero is desired.

Press the control switch S3 and the stop watch will start timing. Press again the control switch S3 and the stop watch will stop timing (IC then will stop working). In case of calling for accumulated timing, press again the control switch S3 and the time will be accumulated in sequence. For retrieval to zero, press the control switch 53 to stop timing and then press the control switch 54 to get to that end.

To restore the timing function of the stop watch, press the control switch S3. Then press the control switch S4 to display the time worked out from inside. Consecutive operation is possible if above procedures are followed. Finally, for retrieval to zero, press the control switch 53 and then the control switch S4.

Claims

1. A multifunctional electronic step counter in which a pendulum is activated following the physical movement of a runner, thus causing electronic circuit to output, in a cutover/cutout cycle, such data about time arrangement, memory and sporting frequency.

2. In the subject claimed in above 1, the electronic step counter displays the data associated with time. In addition to displaying the data in respect of month, date, hour, minute, second, week, etc., the step counter is capable of various functions, such as alarming, hour reporting, and stop watch which are associated with the sporting status and capacity of a sportsman.

3. In the electronic step counter claimed in above 1, the device can respond to the request of a sportsman for specified function and memorized data and output by means of sound and digital values the specified data when it reaches a desired state.

4. In the electronic step counter as claimed in above 1, the sporting course may be figured out in accordance with the distance of a sportsman's strides and laid out in the display with such digits as the numbers of steps, unit of a kilometer or mile, values of the CAL consumed by the human body.

5. In the electronic step counter as claimed in above 1, an upper cap and a lower cap form a box body. A display in the front of the box is equipped and covered by a transparent board. Inside the upper cap, a piece of electronic circuit board is fixed thereat and a group of pendulum installed on the circuit board. The pendulums are caused to swing themselves by external force from the shaking of a jogger or walker and thus switch on or off the microswitch situated on the circuit board.

6. In the step counter as claimed in above 1, the device has a swing rod. Swing wheel is locked at the tail of the rod. The middle of the swing rod is bolted at the circuit board.

Springs are used to fix the rod, thereby assuring a steady balance of the swinging action of the pendulum. The swing action of the abovementioned pendulum is confined by a positioning rod at a raising point and a positioning rod at a return point. The positioning rod at the raising point is conducted to an end of the microswitch while the positioning rod at the middle of the pendulum is extended to another end of the microswitch. Under this design, the pendulum will cut in the microswitch to allow for signal output each time when it touches the positioning rod of the return point in its swinging course.

7. A multifunction electronic step counter substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3-1 and Figs. 4 to 6; or these Figures as modified by Fig. 3-2; or Fig. 3-3 of the accompanying drawings.