Assistive clothing
First Claim
1. An apparatus and method for precisely controlling the limbs of a living body or body form, such as robotics equipment, consisting of:
- joint manipulation means consisting of partially-covering body shell segments and/or other control devices clasped to the body and operatively connected to each other and/or connected to other means by cables or ribbons that are pulled between them by actuators on at least one end of the cable, etc. and effect motion upon and/or pressure upon and/or support of the joint(s) or limb(s) that are affected by the attitude of the element so moved and/or are connected by movable actuation rods or telescoping support means or a direct force actuation means that maintains and changes the relative positions and amounts of force upon the shells and the elements attached to or controlled by them by push and/or pull and/or twist-based support and/or connected by hinged connectors either passively stabilizing or actively effecting a force on the position of the joint whose position they affect, with at least those non-passive actuation means that require direction operatively connected to processing means; and
sensors, incorporated in the actuation means as is common in the many forms of precise positioning actuators such as stepper motors, servo motors, etc. and/or separately placed sensors to measure the angle and/or position and/or attitude of body parts operatively connected to processing means; and
processing means capable of determining, based on preset norms, tabular data, algorithmic and/or programmatic logic or other means, a desired joint-control point position or joint angle (or receiving said desired position or angle information from another means) and then directing joint manipulation means to achieve that/those positions or angles;
such that the limbs, despite the inherent difficulties of managing slippery surfaced, non-rectangular limbs with no handles for easy attachment and obtuse angle joints located below the surface on an axis that cannot be touched, are strategically grasped and effectively and precisely moved and/or firmly secured in a manner accurately reflecting the position(s) demanded by processing means.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and process for empowering those in wheelchairs and others with loss of limb control to walk, climb stairs, sit in ordinary chairs, use normal bathroom facilities and stand at normal height with their peers. It also provides a means to speed rehabilitation of the injured and a means to deliver more comfortable and effective prostheses while providing superior physical therapy without draining professional resources which includes new simulation and training means. Most of the apparatus is worn under normal clothing allowing them to enjoy a normal appearance. Additional advancements include improved actuator design, user interface, visual means and advanced responsive virtual reality.
406 Citations
42 Claims
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1. An apparatus and method for precisely controlling the limbs of a living body or body form, such as robotics equipment, consisting of:
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joint manipulation means consisting of partially-covering body shell segments and/or other control devices clasped to the body and operatively connected to each other and/or connected to other means by cables or ribbons that are pulled between them by actuators on at least one end of the cable, etc. and effect motion upon and/or pressure upon and/or support of the joint(s) or limb(s) that are affected by the attitude of the element so moved and/or are connected by movable actuation rods or telescoping support means or a direct force actuation means that maintains and changes the relative positions and amounts of force upon the shells and the elements attached to or controlled by them by push and/or pull and/or twist-based support and/or connected by hinged connectors either passively stabilizing or actively effecting a force on the position of the joint whose position they affect, with at least those non-passive actuation means that require direction operatively connected to processing means; and
sensors, incorporated in the actuation means as is common in the many forms of precise positioning actuators such as stepper motors, servo motors, etc. and/or separately placed sensors to measure the angle and/or position and/or attitude of body parts operatively connected to processing means; and
processing means capable of determining, based on preset norms, tabular data, algorithmic and/or programmatic logic or other means, a desired joint-control point position or joint angle (or receiving said desired position or angle information from another means) and then directing joint manipulation means to achieve that/those positions or angles;
such thatthe limbs, despite the inherent difficulties of managing slippery surfaced, non-rectangular limbs with no handles for easy attachment and obtuse angle joints located below the surface on an axis that cannot be touched, are strategically grasped and effectively and precisely moved and/or firmly secured in a manner accurately reflecting the position(s) demanded by processing means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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10. A device for allowing the user to interface with external or remote equipment using the mouth consisting of:
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battery means operatively connected to user input means through wires or ribbon cable and operatively connected, normally by wire(s), to transmission means; and
user input means operatively connected to transmission means which can be any form of push-button, touch-sensitive pad, etc. located in the mouth and responsive to tongue or mouth contact; and
transmission means, powered by battery means also operatively connected to input means by wire or mini-wireless transmission, which transmits, using radio or any other practical signal transmission means, the user inputs from user input means and, optionally, sufficient processing means can be included with transmission means to otherwise format data, thus transmitting data reflective of the user'"'"'s input to receiving means; and
receiving means, located as near transmission means as is practical to permit low-intensity transmissions, which are capable of receiving the signal sent by transmission means and forwarding to the interfacing means, by conventional means including wire or subsequent wireless transmission to a second receiving means in or associated with interfacing means, the received data; and
interfacing means, operatively connected to the end receiver (the entity ultimately using the user input) with said interfacing means located in receiving means or separately for receiver size constraints, performing conversion, if any is required (if none is required the interfacing means is just a wire to the end receiver i.e. no interfacing means is required) and the data is thus sent to the end receiver; and
binding means which can be the adhesive or more permanent affixation of the above means, except the receiving means, to the teeth, or the affixation of the same elements to a convenient frame, such as one similar to an orthodontist'"'"'s retainer, that is easily secured in and removed from the mouth or, alternatively, a combination of all the elements into individual redundant elements such as touch, heat or other contact sensitive keys with embedded battery and transmission means in each key requiring only, at minimum, for transmission means the communication of a square wave or click with any required distinguishing between key signals provided by a tiny crystal or other frequency or other signal definitive means producing an unique signal, each unit of which can be affixed individually to the teeth or a frame;
such thatthe user, including those completely disabled outside of the mouth, can control hands-free any equipment connected to and compatible with or modified to become compatible with the data passed on by receiving means including but by no means limited to typing data to run a computer, directing a PC mouse, dialing a telephone number through tone generation means, and controlling the operation of the assistive clothing. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 22)
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14. A lens-less focusing mechanism for more effective focusing and better handling of close-quarters optics comprising:
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collimating film from any of the currently available sources of collimating films, which may, depending on the film chosen, also be multiple layers of film with potentially different alignments for more effectiveness; and
a concave mirror or, for other embodiments, a partially reflecting mirror (partially-reflecting/partially transmitting), optionally application-specifically warped to eliminate incident-angle distortion; and
an assembly positioning the center of the light coming through the collimating film(s) to occur near the center of the mirror but at an oblique angle such that the collimated light strikes the curved mirror and is reflected such that the reflected light, instead of returning to intersect (beyond some minor possible diffraction) the collimating layer(s), continues in a slightly convergent form with said convergence determined by the effective focal length of the mirror;
such thata light, inexpensive and exceptionally compact lens-less focusing assembly is effected which can also have an uncommonly short distance required for visibility (the eye can be very close to the assembly and still focus on it). - View Dependent Claims (13, 31, 32, 35, 36)
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15. A lens-less focusing mechanism for more effective focusing and better handling of close-quarters optics comprising:
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a concave-shaped LCD or other display means (looking like a planar slice of a basketball with a display on the inside); and
collimating film from any of the currently available sources of collimating films, which may, depending on the film chosen, also be multiple layers of film with potentially different alignments for more effectiveness in a concave shape, also shaped in a convex form and placed against the light-emitting side of the curved display;
such thata light, inexpensive and exceptionally compact lens-less focusing assembly is effected which can also have an uncommonly short distance required for visibility (the eye can be very close to the assembly and still focus on it).
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17. An enhancement to conventional actuators comprising:
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actuation means operatively connected to elastic means, which said actuation means can be any form of controlled motion actuation means with a few common examples being servo-motors, stepper motors, hydraulic actuators and hydraulically driven inflate-to-retract muscles; and
elastic means with common examples being springs and flexible cable; and
directing means, which is any device, smart or dumb including even a manual off/on or forwards/backwards switch or physical engagement lever, that makes use of the current invention disclosed in this clam, examples of which are computers, controller cards, switches, etc., operatively connected to actuating means;
such thatas the actuation means, as directed by directing means, rotates, pulls or pushes in one direction, the connected elastic means resists that motion increasing the burden of actuating means and increasing the stored potential energy of the elastic means and, when actuation means moves in the other direction, the elastic means releases potential energy increasing the effective thrust of actuator means in that current direction thus effecting a closed, two way actuating device with many applications;
withone example of which being the ability to replace existing actuation means and operate identically as they currently do but with significantly more power in a preferred direction thus increasing potential payload from the same power supply and a potentially smaller actuator and thus smaller footprint one example application being robotics applications whose actuators are bearing a heavy load in flexion (such as raising a body up a stair) but a very light load in extension, the return stroke (or vice versa); and
in new equipment and even more in older equipment where friction has increased actuator burden, the current invention extends the life and increases the power of equipment requiring more power in a preferred direction but having to operate off of the existing power supply and controlling means (such as a trash compactor motor replaced by the current invention using the same power supply and controller circuits, which, in the previously largely unburdened return cycle, when the compression arm is raised, elastic means now burdens that light cycle but, when in the compression phase, the elastic means provides a potentially almost double force from the same power source; and
the current invention of this claim also can be used to provide a single device that can be easily adjusted to provide, at one time, an exceptionally energy efficient actuation means where the elastic contribution is, for example, essentially equal to the gravitational overhead of a lift operation with no extra “
payback”
energy required on the return stroke making the lift essentially effortless and the actuator device exceptionally efficient, and, with adjustment, the same device serves as a much more powerful actuation device in a preferred direction by setting the elastic means closer to its most distended position which, although a return-stroke payback is now required, potentially almost twice the force of actuation means can be delivered thus providing a device tunable to easily provide a wide range of efficiency and power ratings. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. An apparatus and method for communicating the sensation of touch in a comprehensible form consisting of:
first transducing means operatively connected to communication means consisting of a logically mapped and located array of small transducers effective in the conversion of vibration to electrical signatures with a few examples being conventional micro-electret microphones, micro-machined silicon, silicon-nitride, carbon filament and printed carbon or advanced semiconducting dots, with the example chosen or other transducing means attached to a potentially curved shape in some manner with one example manner being the printing of the transducing means on a first non-conducting, semi-flexible medium which already has conducting micro-traces electrodeposited under each point that is so printed which is then covered, sandwiching the transducers, by a second medium layer also having, on the side contacting the transducer, conducting traces in a pattern or means such that the traces of the first layer do not overlap or short to the traces of the second layer, such that each transducer dot is contacted on one side by an unique micro-trace and on the other side an unique or shared end-point conductor common to all points on the second layer, thus establishing in this example manner one transducing array applicable to the current invention; and
communications means operatively connected to second transducing means carrying and, optionally, amplifying the signal from first transducing means although some embodiments of the second transducing means may include transistor or other miniature or micro-machine amplification means thus performing amplification on their own; and
second transducing means operatively connected to communications means and consisting of a logically mapped and located array of any small transducer technology effective in the conversion of electrical signatures to vibrations or skin stimulations with a couple of examples being miniature voice coils and simple contact electro-stimulation providing either a vibration produced by the conversion of the electronic signal to vibration or by the application of the optionally amplified signal by direct contact to the skin by in with either approach effected in a parallel manner with one example manner being an array of micro-voice coils or equivalent signal to vibration transducers effectively congruent to the pattern of the first transducing means such that a user wearing the second transducing array as applied to a potentially curved form, one example being to fit over a fingertip, receives vibrations at points on that fingertip specifically related to the points receiving vibrations on the first transducing means thus allowing the user to feel sensations through the second transducer array specifically relative to the vibrations sensed on the first transducing array; and
another example manner being like the just previous manner except that the second transducing array is located in another area of the body so that the user, potentially unable to feel touch in an area congruent to the area in which it was sensed, can learn to associate data responsive to contact, for example, on a remote fingertip, with vibrations or stimulations on any other area of the user'"'"'s body such as the back of the neck.
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42. A lens-less imaging mechanism for better handling of close-quarters optics comprising:
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an image source; and
collimating film from any of the currently available sources of collimating films, which may, depending on the film chosen, also be multiple layers of film with potentially different alignments for more effectiveness with said film(s) against or roughly perpendicular to the center of the desired viewing image; and
a mirror or, for other embodiments, a partially reflecting mirror (partially-reflecting/partially transmitting), optionally application-specifically warped to eliminate incident-angle distortion; and
an assembly positioning the center of the light coming through the collimating film(s) to occur near the center of the mirror but at an oblique angle such that the collimated light strikes the mirror and is reflected such that the reflected light, instead of returning to intersect (beyond some minor possible diffraction) the collimating layer(s), continues in another direction;
such thata light, inexpensive, lens-less and exceptionally compact close-up viewing means is effected which can also have an uncommonly short distance required for visibility (the eye can be very close to the assembly and still focus on it).
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Specification