RU2597584C2 - Remote control systems of shoe insole with heating - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: footwear.

SUBSTANCE: remote control system of insole with heating, in which there are presented address data to define specific insole for heating.

EFFECT: from beginning of process of heating generated periodically repeated control signals for heating soles.

14 cl, 4 dwg

Description

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

[0001] The present invention relates to remote controlled heated insoles for shoes and an improved method for controlling such heated insoles, which provides more reliable means of ensuring that the temperature desired by the user is obtained.

BACKGROUND

[0002] The present invention relates to heating shoe insoles and to improving the ability to obtain a desired temperature through wireless control signals. Heated insoles are designed to help the user survive the cold weather by providing additional heating when natural body heat is not enough or when additional heating is required for greater comfort. When the limb of the body begins to freeze, a natural physiological vasoconstriction reaction occurs in the body, in which the nervous system restricts blood flow to the frozen limb in an attempt to retain heat in the rest of the body. It is well known that frostbite and other injuries caused by cold primarily occur in the fingers and toes due to vasoconstriction, and maintaining heat in these limbs will help their guaranteed life support or at least a more comfortable stay outdoors.

[0003] Heated insoles are a key component to prevent damage in cold weather and are well known to hunters and tourists as standard rescue equipment when in forests and forest stands. However, there is a problem in managing such insoles, since often the insole temperature needs to be adjusted to suit various conditions and comfort levels. Standard temperature control methods require the user to remove their shoes to gain access to the insole in order to make the desired adjustments. Besides the fact that this procedure takes a lot of time, removing the user's foot from the shoe to provide access to the insole puts the foot in the cold. This control procedure will no doubt lower the foot temperature even further, thus increasing the risk of damage.

[0004] However, an improved control method has been developed that uses a manual remote control system using an external transmitting unit with respect to the insole and a receiving unit located in the insole assembly within the shoe. In this case, the user carries out the desired heating adjustment by selecting the heating settings on the manual remote unit, which are then transmitted wirelessly to the receiving unit located inside the heated insole unit. Although this improved control method is an improvement, design requirements for the proper placement of the heated insole result in suboptimal conditions for wireless control, as will be shown in the following discussion.

[0005] Heated insoles are placed in shoes with a lower surface in relation to the lower part of the shoe, and an upper surface in relation to the user's foot during use. The antenna is placed inside the insole parallel to the surface of the earth, as well as the foot located above it. However, a disadvantage in the prior art is the restrictive placement of the antenna, which generally prohibits the reception of information transmitted from the hand-held unit to the receiving unit due to the effect of grounding the signal occurring on the lower part and on the user's foot located on top of the antenna. This grounding effect is often powerful enough to delay information from the transmitter to the receiver, and therefore interferes with any regulation of heating.

[0006] Additionally, it is especially important to overcome the loss of signal to take into account the location of the RF receiver inside the shoe in contact with the ground. Known radio-controlled insoles contain a wire antenna located along the midline of the insole. This causes flaws because it affects the strength of the signal. The inventors came to the understanding that most of the transmitted signal is blocked by the ground and does not reach the receiver antenna located in the insole. The feet and body of the user are also able to block the signal. One improvement of the present invention is the placement of the receiver antenna in a position more advantageous for receiving a signal, for example, near the outer edge of the insole. With such an antenna, reception is significantly improved.

[0007] The present invention comprises a heated insole device for controlling a desired insole temperature that uses radio frequencies with an improved transmission system. The present invention uses a standard frequency of 433 MHz, but can also be used with other frequencies, such as the commonly used 2.4 GHz frequency.

[0008] As described above, the manufacture of a product such as an insole requires that the device itself be relatively flat and fit standard shoes. This requirement makes it necessary that the necessary power source, control methods and means of communication are located within the shoe and lie in a horizontal plane parallel to the surface of the earth. Although this space limitation is achieved with good design practice, radio communication suffers mainly from the horizontal orientation of the antenna, its proximity to the ground, and the person standing above it. In addition, the transmission at the frequencies described above is dictated by the controls and is a limited transmission of only up to several seconds per hour, so the concept of continuous transmission will be prohibited even at the energy potential.

[0009] The present invention also discloses a communication system and method that helps to provide more efficient transmission of user commands by providing multiple transmissions at specific time intervals. By means of discrete timed gears performed after the user has started controlling the temperature, the likelihood of gears coinciding with those moments when the user takes a step and raises the foot increases. A timed control signal can be provided by the remote control or can be controlled by a microprocessor inside the insole. In the absence of contact of the foot with the ground, the distance between the antenna horizontally located inside the insole and the ground surface increases significantly, which leads to an increase in the reception range for the insole. A secondary phenomenon that occurs when the foot is in the air is to relieve the pressure of the person who wears these shoes from the insole, and to reduce the pressure on the foam between the antenna and the person by a certain measured value. This reduction in pressure is small, but contributes to increased transmission success, thus providing a more reliable use experience.

[0010] For example, it is well known that an adult walks at a speed of 3 mph (4.8 km / h), which equals 4 feet / s (1.2 m / s) with a step length of about eighteen inches (45 cm) ) Such a step and pace involve about 2.6 steps every second.

[0011] Since people have two legs and alternate them when walking, it follows that each foot rises above the ground every 1.3 seconds or about once per second.

[0012] Knowing that each foot is above the ground once a second for almost a second provides a more reliable connection by transmitting while the foot is in the air, rather than on the surface of the earth. Transmissions every half second will guarantee the coincidence of the signal transmitted by radio while the foot is in the air, thus delivering the assigned command to the insole. Other time periods may be selected in accordance with prevailing government regulation.

[0013] For skiers and snowboarders using the present invention, the position of the foot also changes from a purely horizontal to a slightly vertical orientation, for example, when the skier uses the edges or the snowboarder changes position. Moreover, the heating operation can occur while the user is on the lift, which also changes the orientation of the sole.

[0014] The periodically transmitting sequence of encoded signals at short intervals after the start of the insole heating process allows the user to more efficiently transmit heating instructions to the insole.

[0015] The present invention includes a pair of battery-powered electrically heated insoles that are in radio communication with a keyfob radio transmitter. The battery is a lithium-ion polymer battery and is equipped with its own conventional protective circuit. The transmitter sends an encoded signal that will be received and decoded by a unique pair of insoles. Insoles have an on / off switch. This switch can be set to the “on” position before the insole is placed in shoes.

[0016] When the switch is in the on position, the insole does not generate heat, and the RF system in the insole is ready to receive commands from the transmitter in the form of a key fob. Each insole has an on / off switch and may have a unique code that allows the selected insoles to heat up. When both switches are on, both insoles will respond to the transmitter in the form of a key fob. The user can use the transmitter in the form of a key fob to select between the “no heat”, “medium heat” and “strong heat” modes by pressing the appropriate button on the transmitter in the form of a key fob. Settings other than discrete may be used.

[0017] When the heating setting is selected on the transmitter made in the form of a key fob, the radio frequency receiver in the insole determines the signal and, if it is designed for a specific insole, activates this process in it. The microprocessor measures the temperature near the heater, and if the temperature is too low for the selected setting, the current from the battery flows to the heater until the thermistor reaches the set temperature. The thermistor creates a signal that is sent to the microprocessor. The microprocessor controls the flow of current to achieve and maintain the set temperature until the user selects another setting. Other methods for controlling the heating of the insole may be used.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a transmitting unit.

[0019] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an electrical circuit inside the insole.

[0020] FIG. 3A and 3B show partial cross-sectional insoles showing an arrangement of an antenna in accordance with the present invention and the related art.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0021] In FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a transmitter 10 according to the present invention. The transmitter includes an integrated circuit S14010 connected to a plurality of push buttons 12, 14 and 16. Push buttons generate signals to cause strong, medium heat and no heat in the insole, respectively. The user selects the push button to activate to control the insole temperature.

[0022] The LED 18 may be connected to the transmitter to indicate that the transmitter is transmitting and / or it is turned on and capable of transmitting. The antenna 19, connected to the transmitter wirelessly, transmits the electronic signals arising in the transmitter 10 to an electrical circuit in the insole.

[0023] The transmitter 10 decodes the user command by determining which of the push buttons is selected, and drives four packets of information or electrical signals, with each packet containing data and an address. The packet duration is, for example, 120 ms, and all four packets take approximately 512 ms to transmit. To ensure that the command is received properly, a sequence of four packets is repeated every 5 seconds for the next minute for a total of up to 20 packets. This is within the limits of the Federal Communications Commission (USA).

[0024] In FIG. 2 shows an electrical diagram located in the insole. The transmitted data packets are received and decoded by the receiver 24 connected to the microcontroller 26. The decoded signal is sent for processing to the microcontroller, which creates a control signal for the heater control 28 to obtain the desired temperature conditions for the insole. Additionally, the address data determines the insole to be controlled. The heater control 28 is connected to a heater assembly 30 located in the insole to heat the insole to a desired temperature. The heater assembly also includes a temperature measuring device, such as a thermistor, for determining in real time the temperature of the heated insole to determine the need for additional heating under the control of the microcontroller 26.

[0025] The power source of the microcontroller 26 and the heater assembly 30 is a 4.2 V lithium-ion polymer battery 32 having an internal protective circuit 34.

[0026] The lithium battery 32 is recharged using an external DC charger 22 connected to input sockets 36 located inside the insole. Thus, charging is controlled outside the insole. The voltage limiter 38 is connected to the output of an external charging source to ensure that the voltage supplied to recharge the battery 32 is below a predetermined level. The battery is charged using an external charger to control the voltage and current supplied to the batteries, and the voltage limiter 38 provides precise voltage control to optimally charge the battery. An LED 23 is proposed with an external DC charger 22 to display the status of the battery, so that it can be determined when the battery is sufficiently charged and the external charger can be disconnected from the insoles. 3B voltage regulator circuit 42 is provided to ensure proper operation of the microcontroller and heater assembly. The control circuit for the system shown in FIG. 2, comprises a voltage regulator 42 for controlling a voltage on the microcontroller 36.

[0027] The location of the protective circuit 34 inside the battery is an improvement over the location of the protective circuit outside the lithium battery. The location of the protective circuit inside the lithium battery is important because if a short circuit occurs in the battery, the danger will be prevented by the presence of a protective circuit in it. If the protective circuitry is remote from the lithium battery, it is not possible to prevent damage to the battery from such a short circuit.

[0028] In normal use, the user sets the on / off switch 44 in the insole to the on position so that the battery voltage can control the electrical circuit located therein. The microcontroller 26 receives a command signal from the radio frequency receiver 24 and decodes the information to find out if the unique address matches the insole address. If such a match is established, the microcontroller then determines the desired heating settings based on the command signal. Once the heating setting is decoded, the microcontroller 26 instructs the heating controller 28 to turn on the heater and maintain the desired desired heating. This continues until the user switches the on / off switch to the off position or until the battery runs out. Additionally, the transmitter has a heating controller (No heating), which can also turn off the heating element.

[0029] The present invention comprises a pair of battery-powered electrically heated insoles that are connected by radio to a radio frequency transmitter 8 in the form of a key fob (see FIG. 1). The transmitter 10 sends an encoded signal that can be received and decoded using a unique pair of insoles. When the switch in the insole is turned on, the insole does not generate heat, and the radio frequency system in the insole is ready to receive commands from the transmitter in the form of a key fob. Each insole has its own on / off switch. When both switches are on, both insoles can respond to the R / F transmitter in the form of a key fob, depending on the address data. The user can use the transmitter 8 in the form of a key fob to select between the modes "without heating", "medium heating" and "strong heating" by pressing the appropriate button on the transmitter 8 in the form of a key fob.

[0030] When the heating settings are selected on the transmitter 8 as a key fob, the RF receiver 24 in the insole detects the signal and activates the microprocessor 26. The microprocessor 26 recognizes the state of the thermistor that measures the temperature and is located near the heater, and if the temperature is too low for the selected setting, the current from the battery 32 flows to the heater 30 until the thermistor reaches a predetermined temperature.

Then the microprocessor 26 reduces the flow of current to maintain a predetermined temperature. The temperature is maintained until the user selects another setting.

[0031] It is especially important to consider the location of the radio frequency receiver inside the shoe in contact with the ground in order to overcome signal loss. Known radio-controlled insoles contain a wire antenna 40 located along the midline of the insole (see Fig. 3). This is problematic because there is not enough signal power. Most of the transmitted signal is blocked by the ground and does not reach the receiver antenna located in the insole. The feet and body of the user are also able to block the signal. The antenna 42 of the receiver of the present invention is located near the outer edge of the insole (see Fig. 3a).

[0032] When the user needs to recharge the batteries, the insoles can be removed from the shoe and the switches are turned off. Alternatively, charging sockets can be accessed from the outside of the shoe with appropriate waterproof protection for the charging sockets.

[0033] It should be understood that the preferred embodiment has been described in order to better illustrate the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby allowing a person skilled in the art to use the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications suitable for the particular intended use.

Claims (14)

1. A system for remotely controlling the temperature of a heated insole, comprising: an electronic circuit and a heating element disposed in the insole, said electronic circuit comprising a receiver configured to receive wireless transmitted signals, a microprocessor associated with said receiver and said heating element, remote a transmitter configured to transmit an initial wireless control signal to a receiver upon receipt of a temperature control command ers of said heating element, said transmitter also being configured to automatically transmit, after the initial control signal is transmitted, two or more additional wireless control signals to the receiver at periodic intervals, while the initial wireless control signal and each additional wireless control signal instructs the microprocessor to execute the same received command and to control the temperature of the specified heating element. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the additional wireless control signals are initiated by the initial wireless control signal. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein said one control signal is turned on by a switch in the transmitter. 4. The system of claim 3, wherein said switch is pressed once to start the heating process. 5. The system of claim 1, wherein it is possible to periodically transmit additional wireless control signals for five minutes or less. 6. The system of claim 5, wherein it is possible to periodically transmit additional wireless control signals for two minutes or less. 7. The system of claim 5, wherein it is possible to create additional wireless control signals approximately every fifteen seconds. 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the insole comprises a battery connected to an electronic circuit. 9. The system according to claim 8, in which the electronic circuit in the insole further comprises a voltage limiter connected to the specified battery. 10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an antenna associated with said electronic circuit, the antenna being located at the periphery of the insole. 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the initial and additional wireless control signals comprise unique insole identification data. 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the unique insole identification data comprises a data sequence corresponding to at least one insole to be heated. 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the ionic lithium polymer battery contains safety circuits located between the battery poles and the connecting wires. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the battery further comprises input sockets configured to connect to rechargeable sources outside of said insole.

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