Sensor and event system, and associated methods

• US 20020077784A1
• Filed: 05/03/2001
• Published: 06/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adrian F. Larkin, Curtis A. Vock, Perry Youngs
• Inventors: Vock, Curtis A., Youngs, Perry, Larkin, Adrian F.
• Granted Patent: US 6,825,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/187
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0025 Tracking the path or location of one or more users, e.g. players of a game
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/40 Acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/836 Sensors arranged on the body of the user
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0021 Tracking a path or terminating locations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0605 Decision makers and devices using detection means facilitating arbitration
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0616 Means for conducting or scheduling competition, league, tournaments or rankings
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/00 Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/22 in connection with sports or games

Abstract

The system of the invention is used in measuring sports metrics at an event or venue. The system includes “n” sensors, “m” repeaters, a base station and an operations terminal. One or more sensors attach to each athlete (and/or the athletes vehicle) at the event or venue to determine a sports metric, e.g., airtime, g'"'"'s, drop distance, spin, rotation. The information about the sports metric is transmitted to one or more repeaters; and that information is relayed to the base station. The operations terminal provides a user interface, and may further interface with a judging station or TV to provide the sports metric, in near real-time, to judges, viewers and others at the event or venue.

Claims

1. A n event system, comprising:

a plurality of sensors for attachment to one or more athletes, and/or vehicles ridden by athletes, each of the sensors detecting sports metric information and wirelessly transmitting that information external to the sensors;

one or more repeaters for receiving the information; and

an operations terminal in communication with the repeaters to collect the information for transmission to a data informing device to communicate the information to end users.

2. A system of claim 1, wherein the end users are selected from a laptop display, an LCD display, an array of LEDs such as in a scoreboard, the Internet, and television.

3. A system of claim 1, further comprising a base station for receiving the information from the repeater and for communicating the information to the base station, wherein the repeaters wirelessly transmit the information to the base station.

4. A sensor, comprising a processor, a battery, a first accelerometer, a RF section, and a battery, the first accelerometer sensing vibration and/or free fall data, the processor connected with the accelerometer to process the data to determine sports metric information, the RF section communicating the information wirelessly to one or more repeaters, the battery providing power for the accelerometer, the processor, and the RF section.

5. A sensor of claim 5, further comprising second and third accelerometers, the processor connected with the second and third accelerometers to determine or refine the sports metric information.

6. A sensor of claim 5, wherein the RF section comprises temperature drift correction circuitry to compensate for temperature changes in the sensor to reliably communicate the information to the repeaters.

7. A sensor of claim 5, wherein the sports metric information comprises one or more of airtime, g'"'"'s, impact, drop distance, spin and rotation.

8. A sensor of claim 5, further comprising one or more rotational accelerometers.

9. A method of detecting airtime, comprising mounting at least one accelerometer with free fall detection to a athlete and detecting level shifts of acceleration data to determine airtime.

10. A method of claim 9, further comprising mounting the accelerometer at the waist of the athlete.

11. A method of claim 9, further comprising mounting the accelerometer to the boot or vehicle of the athlete.

12. A method of claim 9, further comprising mounting at least two accelerometers to the athlete, one at the waist and one at the boot or vehicle of the athlete.

13. A method of claim 9, further comprising detecting a spectrum of information from the accelerometer and detecting an absence of the spectrum in the determination of airtime.

14. A method of claim 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13, further comprising using an adaptive filter to finesse the determination of airtime.

15. A method for determining airtime from acceleration data acquired from a ski, comprising mounting one or more accelerometers with the ski and monitoring frequencies of data from the accelerometers to detect airtime based upon change information in one or more frequencies of data, and processing the data with adaptive filters to compensate data for snow conditions and for reducing noise generated from ski clicks (i.e., where the skis connect during an airtime event).