WO1998013107A1

WO1998013107A1 - Fitness apparatus associated with the control of a computer game

Info

Publication number: WO1998013107A1
Application number: PCT/EP1997/005199
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hans-Jürgen KRAMER
Original assignee: Kramer Hans Juergen
Priority date: 1996-09-25
Filing date: 1997-09-23
Publication date: 1998-04-02
Also published as: DE19641202B4; AU4776997A; DE19641202A1

Abstract

In existing fitness apparatus to strengthen the heart circulatory system or specific muscle groups the user is fully aware of every single movement of his or her body as well as of his or her physical effort focusing fully on the latter. The fitness apparatus disclosed by the invention seeks to divert the concentration of the subject to the mastering of a computer game thereby purposely distracting him or her from the straining physical effort. A hard and boring training session becomes an entertaining game session. Several individual hard exercises can be performed from one chosen basic position of the body. For instance, in the case of the computer game Tetris, four individual physical exercises would be required. When a physical exercise is carried out a sensor emits an electric impulse that is passed on to a computer and used to control a digital computer game (e. g. Tetris). The pressing of a key in the computer keyboard is equivalent here to a physical exercise such as bending the knees and stretching them out again by overcoming a force of around 600 Newton.

Description

description

FNTNESS DEVICE IN CONNECTION WITH THE CONTROL OF A COMPUTER GAME

There are a variety of fitness devices, mainly for strengthening the cardiovascular system and the muscles or special muscle groups. When using these devices, you are fully focused on every effort and every effort is fully conscious of the actor

It is known that physical exertion, if it takes place in the context of a game, is much easier for the actors because the whole concentration (consciousness) is focused on the game and the essential game element (eg the ball) and only after the end of the game the exhaustion (with the mental conclusion that a great physical exertion must have taken place) is consciously perceived. One speaks of 'hard training' (among other things also using fitness equipment or equipment which are known as components of fitness equipment) and the 'joy of the game, whereby the physical effort (per unit of time) in the context of a game is usually still far above that of the training

Exactly this human peculiarity is used in the fitness device according to patent claims 1 and 2. The hard fitness training turns into a fitness training which is fun and perceived as being short-lived

Many computer games such as Tetris can also be contested by two people at the same time in the form of a competition. Of course, this is also possible with two devices according to patent claims 1 and 2

Since the force resistances can be designed to be variably adjustable, the device for the game can be set to a specific pulse frequency, which stands for the intensity of the load. This allows fair competition between players with a wide variety of physical requirements with equal chances of winning This effect and possibility with an emphasis not on fitness but on playful competition is intended with the fitness device

An exemplary embodiment of the invention is described below. The computer game Tetris was selected, which is controlled with four different keys on the computer keyboard (or with a digital joystick). The four keys are thus assigned four separate strength exercises - strength exercise AS arms from the angled basic position below Extend the effort to the front and bend it again (with the oil pressure damping cylinders selected as force resistors, about 10 to 15% of the force in the main direction is required for the return. This would be the case if the arms were bent)

- Strengthening exercise AB Extend your arms to the side and bend again while overcoming the resistance to force

- Power exercise BS Bend your legs from the extended basic posture and stretch them again under power

- Strengthen the BH legs in a stretched state against gravity and lower them again

The exemplary embodiment shown in the drawings is characterized by two additional requirements (outside of the claims)

- The device should also be a piece of furniture, e.g. the chair in front of the computer. Suitable as a home device for smaller apartments, since no additional space is required or if the visibility of a fitness device is not desired - The actions with the device should not strain the spine

Fig. 1 represents the basic body posture, from which each strength exercise is started and then returned

Fig. 4 shows the device without a side cover, where no further measures regarding the operational readiness have taken place.The inclination of the backrest to the vertical is 15 degrees in the idle state. The device is designed so that the operational readiness is achieved in the shortest possible time by folding, turning, spring-loaded latching Only the foot pedals ((2) in Fig. 8) have to be removed from under the seat and inserted into the corresponding holder at the top of the leg extension device

Fig. 5 shows, among other things, a tilt of the entire chair by 10 degrees forward. This is to ensure that the resulting force from the effective body weight and the counterforce due to the leg extension points approximately vertically into the backrest in the area of the pelvis together with the stronger upholstery these forces are fully intercepted by the pelvis of the body and do not strain the spine

In the operating state, the backrest is rotated backward by a further 30 degrees so that the angle between the stretched legs (seat level) and the backbone is 135 degrees. Smaller angles were a hindrance to the free development of leg extension and elevation

FIGS. 6 and 7 show the device for arm movements in isolation

Then (1) indicates the position of the sensors for motion detection and pulse generation of the strength exercises AB, AS and BH (2) is the device which, by folding over about 110 degrees, tilts the

'Chairs' allowed by 10 degrees

The arm levers (8) are in this illustration in the position 'arms stretched out laterally' within the framework of the power exercise AB. The two oil pressure damping cylinders (3) which are attached are fixed to one another (in the central plane of the device) connected The force resistance is effective when the movable rods (5) are pushed into the cylinder, in contrast to all other cylinders, where the decisive work has to be done when pulling them out. The rods of the damping cylinders (4) for AS are firmly coupled to the cylinders for AB This makes use of the fact that the rod of a cylinder can always rotate freely in it. The cylinders from AB therefore always have the same lateral direction to the plane formed by the cylinders for AS

The lower axis (6) rotates in the frame of the chair and is always in the plane of the arm levers, which therefore (in terms of movement in the sense of the AS power exercise) always move synchronously

Joints are located at (7). They only allow rotation in one plane

annotation

The device allows yet another separate strength exercise. Extend your arms sideways and stretch your arms while exerting force (the combination of force resistances from AB and AS) in front of your body and bend them back.This exemplary embodiment would also make it possible to control a computer game that requires five different impulses If only an additional requirement was placed on the sensor circuit, FIGS. 8 and 9 show the device for the strength exercises BS and BH separately

For the leg lifting exercise BH, the rotatable mounting in (3) and the cushioning (1) when lowering the stretched legs are decisive. The feet sit in pedals that can be rotated about an axis (2) and are fixed there, for example by straps with Velcro fasteners for a 'normal' adult, a movement of around 500 mm is necessary (510 mm are shown in the drawings) The standard damping cylinders always allow a movement of around 60% of their total length. For 600 mm length (this is the length of the 'inside of the chair) 'The exemplary embodiment would be a 600 mm long cylinder So just barely accommodable) there would only be a range of motion of 360 mm.Therefore, two cylinders (7) and 530 mm long) must be connected in series in terms of force. This is realized by the elements (4) (fixed connection with lower cylinder, upper cylinder, movable guided in four rolls) and 4a (upper cylinder firmly connected to the movable rod (7a) of the lower damping cylinder)

The spiral springs (8) are used to quickly return the legs to their leg position by overcoming the 'restoring force' of the damping cylinder (10 to 15% of the main force)

For the non-linear springs with regard to their force-displacement ratio (the damping cylinder has a quasi-linear force-displacement relationship at a constant speed of movement), in the tensioned state, force resistances of 40 (upper spring) to 60 (lower spring) Newton are provided for each the four damping cylinders is an average (since vanabel is adjustable

Force) to choose about 250 Newtons

(9) shows the bracket for the foot pedal axis With the rail (6) the individual (long or short legs) operating range of the leg extension is set before starting use, i.e. the cylinders can be moved as a whole forward and fixed there for the action

(5) shows the position of the motion sensor A light barrier based on reflection (emitter and receiver next to each other is only slightly dependent on ambient light) with further processing by means of a monoflop circuit is proposed. The sensor is firmly attached to the upper cylinder and takes the reflected light from a highly reflective one at the bottom Cylinder fixed area shortly before the reversal point of the movement cycle is reached, the sensor should enter the area of the reflection area and of course leave it again when it returns (generation of a pulse and computer-compatible processing with monoflop switching). The reversal point should still be within the reflection range. Otherwise there would be two impulses

This is also the reason why the lower spring should be a bit stronger than the upper one, so that when the legs are bent, the upper cylinder with the sensor is safely within the reflection zone, i.e. the reversal point of the movement cycle is precisely defined here Position of the Foot pedal bracket, ie pushing back into the upper cylinder, is then irrelevant with regard to the pulse generation.

The reflective surface should be movable for individual adjustment of the action area.

Fig. 10 to Fig. 65 represent a whole game round with recording of all four strength exercises:

- Power exercise AS (Fig.10 to Fig.23). In the middle picture of the page (Fig. 16 and Fig. 17) at the reversal point of the movement cycle, pulse triggering with shifting of the 'game stone' (game object symbol) by one position to the left.

- Exercise AB (Fig. 24 to Fig. 37). In the middle picture of the page (Fig. 30 and Fig. 31) at the reversal point of the movement cycle, triggering of the pulse with displacement of the token by one position to the right.

- Exercise BS (Fig. 38 to Fig. 51). In the middle picture of the page (Fig. 44 and Fig. 45) at the reversal point of the cycle of motion, the pulse is triggered by turning the counter by 90 degrees counterclockwise

- Exercise BH (Fig. 52 to Fig. 65). In the middle picture of the page (Fig. 58 and Fig. 59) at the reversal point of the movement cycle, triggering of the pulse with lowering of the counter to the very bottom.

In Fig. 66, Fig. 67 to 70 and Fig. 71 to 74, the preferred embodiment is shown without the two additional requirements mentioned above (device at the same time seating and spine-friendly). The corresponding device would then be considerably easier to manufacture. The following should be noted regarding the performance of the embodiment of the fitness device. For the purpose of individual adaptation, it is proposed to use the type of oil pressure damping cylinder whose force resistance can be variably adjusted. In order to make the right choice, however, the average power values for the 'ordinary person' must be known.

1. Oil pressure - damping cylinder and coil spring (or rubber spring) for the power exercise BS

From a purely mechanical point of view, both legs must have a force (damping cylinder plus spring) of 600 Newtons with a path of 510 mm, i.e. a work of 306 joules can be applied. With an expiry of the movement cycles of the order of 1.5 seconds, 1 second for the actual force action and the return (for AS) i.e. the 'in - starting position - to - take action' (for BS and AB) can be estimated for 0.5 seconds, this corresponds to a power of 306 watts.

2. Oil pressure - damping cylinder for the power exercise AS

The distance between the arm lever joint and the middle of the actor's hand is

910 mm and 172 mm up to the starting point of the damping cylinder, i.e. The force resistance effective on the hand is reduced by a factor of 5.29 based on the resistance of the damping cylinder. For a resistance of 500 Newton you get effectively 94.5 Newton and with a distance of 425 mm a work of around 40 Joule. For both arms together, 80 joules of work and 80 seconds of power for one second of the main force action. 15% of the main force is to be used for the arm lever return, i.e. a power at 0.5 seconds of 24 watts. Altogether an output of 104 watts.

3. Oil pressure - damping cylinder for the AB power exercise With a force resistance of 250 Newtons per damping cylinder and a path of 465 mm, you get a work of around 44 joules for both arms and an output of around 29 watts at 1.5 seconds

Together with the power for the second half-period of around 13 watts, 42 watts

4 powers for the BH strength training

With an effective leg weight of 100 newtons and an effective weight of the device of 40 newtons and a distance of 476 mm, this results in a work of around 67 joules and an output of 67 watts

These are all work and performance values from a purely mechanical point of view. The corresponding biomechanical energy and performance quantities, which are highly dependent on the muscle groups used, could be derived from this using special literature

With a mechanical power range between 42 and 306 watts and a weighted average value (based on the number of cycles in the game) of 124 watts, the normal player in the lower level of Tetris has a pulse rate of between 120 and 140 beats per minute

The high level range (high sinking speed of the game bucket) from Tetris is not achievable with the exemplary embodiment described - in the case of personal computers with their very high clock frequency today - if a large, finely graduated level range (for the Windows version, for example 10 level) for this application should also be available a simple software change would have to take place. A total decrease in the sink rate by a factor of 3 (with regard to the relatively fast version of Windows, for example) would be appropriate Among the numerous versions of the Tetπsorgmal there are variants, especially the 3D version, which are more suitable in this regard

Claims

claims

Fitness device for completing the training of the cardiovascular system and the muscles in connection with the control of a computer game, characterized in that a) several separate (spatially differently positioned / oriented) strength exercises in overcoming force resistances (force resistances, these are spiral springs, leaf springs, oil pressure Damping cylinders, weights etc.) can be carried out alternately, b) each strength exercise is performed cyclically as a single exercise cycle, ie An exercise cycle ends when the posture corresponding to the start of the exercise is reached again and c) an electromechanical switch or electronic sensor is assigned to each separate power exercise in such a way that a control signal for controlling a digital (digital, ie by digital control devices such as computer keyboard or digital joystick controllable computer games such as the popular TETRIS) computer game is generated 2. Fitness device according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the force resistances are arranged so that all separate strength exercises begin in one and the same, common posture and ends, which ensures a seamless, immediate transition from one strength exercise to another and thus provides control of the computer game at optimal speed