Training aid for complex athletic moves

• US 10,008,126 B1
• Filed: 01/12/2016
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marina Linderman
• Original Assignee: Marina Linderman
• Inventors: Linderman, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): McCrosky, David J
• Application Number:
  US14/994,138
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/10 Athletes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/09 Rehabilitation or training
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1122 of movement trajectories
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/389 Electromyography [EMG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6825 Hand
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/744 Displaying an avatar, e.g. an animated cartoon character
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports

Abstract

A training aid for an athletic movement comprises: an EMG acquisition device for placement on a muscle of a user. The training aid is configured to: identify an acquired set of EMG signals generated during the movement from muscles in two different appendages; divide the set of EMG signals into a sequence of smaller time intervals; compare the placement in the smaller time intervals of peak EMG signals in the acquired set of EMG signals to a reference criteria; identify whether the acquired EMG signals satisfy or does not satisfy the reference criteria during the movement. A set of movements are displayed, such that a displayed movement is matched to acquired EMG signals during one of the smaller time intervals, and the movements are displayed with an indication of which move or moves are wrong based on whether the EMG signals matched with the movement, satisfies the reference criteria.

Claims

1. A training aid for an athletic movement, comprising:

an EMG acquisition device for placement on a muscle of a user; and

a processor and a computer readable medium, having computer readable instructions stored thereon, wherein when read by the processor, cause the processor to;

identify an acquired set of EMG signals generated during the movement from muscles in two different appendages;

divide the set of EMG signals into a sequence of smaller time intervals;

compare the placement in the smaller time intervals of peak EMG signals in the acquired set of EMG signals to a reference criteria;

identify whether the acquired EMG signals satisfy or does not satisfy the reference criteria during the movement;

display a set of movements that are matched to the acquired EMG set such that a displayed movement is matched to acquired EMG signals during one of the smaller time intervals, and the movements are displayed with an indication of which move or moves are wrong based on whether the EMG signals matched with the movement satisfies the reference criteria.

2. The training aid of claim 1, wherein the set of movements comprise a series of movements, that when aligned together in time, comprise the athletic movement with the indication of which of the series movements are wrong based on whether the EMG signals matched with the movement satisfies the reference criteria.

3. The training aid of claim 2, wherein identifying whether the acquired EMG signals satisfy or does not satisfy the reference criteria during the movement comprises identifying an intensity peak associated with a shorter movement and determining if the time interval of the peak is longer than a predetermined length of time;

wherein if the time interval exceeds the predetermined time, the training aid displays an indication of error.

4. A training aid for completing a golf swing, comprising:

an EMG acquisition device for placement over a muscle in a hand of a user;

and

a processor and a computer readable medium, having computer readable instructions stored thereon, wherein when read by the processor, cause the processor to;

identify an acquired pattern of EMG signals generated during the movement;

compare the acquired pattern to a reference EMG criteria;

display an indication of whether the acquired EMG pattern satisfies the reference EMG criteria during the movement.

5. The training aid of claim 4, wherein duration of the golf swing is divided into a sequence of movements, at least some of which are identified by the presence of EMG signal peaks in the acquired EMG pattern.

6. The training aid of claim 5, wherein one of the sequence of movements comprises an impact movement, and the training aid further comprises four EMG acquisition channels configured to acquire EMG signal patterns from two muscles in a dominant hand of the user and two muscles from a non-dominant hand of the user;

wherein comparing the acquired pattern to a reference EMG criteria, comprises;

first identifying a largest EMG signal peak acquired from each channel and determining whether the peak in each of the four channels occurred within a predetermined time interval of each other; and

if all peaks did not occur within the predetermined time interval, displaying an indication that the EMG pattern failed to satisfy the reference EMG criteria for the impact movement.

7. The training aid of claim 6, wherein if any of largest EMG signal peaks occurred over a duration longer than a second predetermined time interval, displaying an indication that the EMG pattern failed to satisfy the reference EMG criteria.

8. The training aid of claim 7, wherein comparing the acquired pattern to a reference EMG criteria, comprises identifying a third EMG signal peak acquired immediately preceding the largest EMG signal peak;

and

if the third EMG signal peak occurred over a duration longer than a third predetermined time interval, displaying an indication that the EMG pattern failed to satisfy the reference EMG criteria, for a third movement immediately preceding the impact movement.

9. The training aid of claim 8, wherein comparing the acquired pattern to a reference EMG criteria, comprises identifying a second EMG signal peak acquired immediately preceding the third EMG signal peak;

and

if the third peak occurred over a duration longer than a fourth predetermined time interval, displaying an indication that the EMG pattern failed to satisfy the reference EMG criteria, for a second movement immediately preceding the third movement.

10. The training aid of claim 9, wherein comparing the acquired pattern to a reference EMG criteria, comprises identifying a first EMG signal peak acquired immediately preceding the second EMG signal peak, and from a channel configured to acquire EMG signals from the dominant hand of the user;

and

if the first peak occurred over a duration longer than a fourth predetermined time interval, displaying an indication that the EMG pattern failed to satisfy the reference EMG criteria, for a first movement in the sequence of movements comprising the golf swing.

11. The training aid of claim 10, wherein comparing the acquired pattern to a reference EMG criteria, comprises determining whether a duration of time between the third and fourth EMG signal peaks is shorter than a duration of time between the second and third EMG peaks;

if the duration of time between the third and fourth EMG signal peaks is longer than a duration of time between the second and third EMG peaks, displaying an indication that the EMG pattern failed to satisfy the reference EMG criteria, for second, third and the impact movements comprising the golf swing.

12. The training aid of claim 8, wherein identifying a third EMG signal peak acquired immediately preceding the largest EMG signal peak, comprises identifying a third EMG signal peak acquired immediately preceding the largest EMG signal peak acquired in the user'"'"'s non-dominant hand detected from a muscle connected to a thumb.

13. The training aid of claim 9, wherein the second EMG signal peak acquired immediately preceding the second EMG signal peak is acquired from the user'"'"'s non-dominant hand detected from a muscle connected to a thumb.

14. The training aid of claim 10, wherein the channel configured to acquire EMG signals from the dominant hand of the user is configured to acquire EMG signals from a muscle connected to a little finger of the dominant hand.

15. The training aid of claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to:

compute intensities of the based on acquired EMG signals;

divide an entire time of the golf swing into a plurality of smaller equal length time intervals; and

compute a mean intensity in each of the plurality of smaller time intervals.

16. A training aid for improving a golf swing, comprising:

sensors for measuring electrical activity in muscles of both hands of a user;

a processor configured to;

divide the electrical activity into a sequence of time intervals;

compare peak electrical activity detected by the sensors to a set of reference conditions of electrical activity for a sequence of movements that comprise a golf swing;

cause a display device to identify which, if any, of the sequence of movements that comprises the golf swing, failed to meet the reference conditions;

cause the display device to display the set of movements with the indication of which moves were wrong from the point of muscle activities.

17. The training aid of claim 16, wherein the reference conditions comprise a fourth peak electrical activity in both hands occurring within a predetermined time interval and if the peak electrical activity failed to occur within the predetermined time interval, the processor is configured to display an indication of a failed condition associated with at least one of the sequence of movements.

18. The training aid of claim 17, wherein the reference conditions comprise locating a third peak electrical activity occurring before the fourth peak electrical activity in a non-dominant hand of a user, and determining whether the third peak occurred over a duration shorter than a second predetermined time interval;

if the third peak occurred over a duration longer than the second predetermined time interval, the processor is configured to display an indication of a failed condition for at least one of the sequence of movements.

19. The training aid of claim 18, wherein the reference conditions comprise locating a second peak electrical activity occurring before the third peak electrical activity in a dominant hand of a user, and determining whether the second peak occurred shorter than the second predetermined time interval.

20. The training aid of claim 16, wherein the reference conditions comprise determining whether a third intensity peak occurred within a predetermined time interval from a center of a maximum peak and the processor is configured to display an indication of a failed condition associated with a movement preceding an impact movement.