System and method for motion performance improvement

• US 20060204045A1
• Filed: 03/01/2006
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Paul Robert Angelo Antonucci
• Original Assignee: Paul Robert Angelo Antonucci
• Inventors: Antonucci, Paul Robert Angelo
• Application Number:
  US11/364,974
• Publication Number:
  US 20060204045A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training

Abstract

A system for improving performance and reducing injuries due to improper body mechanics in sports such as baseball, football, and tennis includes equipment for capturing visual images of the person'"'"'s physical motion over time and a computing device for receiving these visual images and converting them into a graphical representation of the person'"'"'s physical motion. The system also compares and displays this graphical representation of the person'"'"'s physical motion with a graphical representation of an ideal standard of the same physical motion in real time on a display screen and provides real time feedback instructions to the person for improving the physical motion performance based on the comparison results.

Claims

1. A system for improving a person'"'"'s physical motion performance comprising:

a first equipment for capturing a first set of visual images of said person'"'"'s physical motion over time;

a computing device for receiving a signal of said first set of visual images of said person'"'"'s physical motion, converting said first set of visual images into a graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion and displaying said graphical representation on a display screen in real time with said capturing of said first set of visual images;

means for comparing said graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion with a graphical representation of an ideal standard of said physical motion in real time on said display screen and means for displaying results of said comparison on said display screen; and

means for providing real time feedback instructions to said person for improving said physical motion performance based on said comparison results.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said person'"'"'s physical motion is selected from a group of physical motions consisting of whole body motion, motion of a body member and motion of a group of body members.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising an electronic sensor, wherein said electronic sensor is attached to a moving body member of said person, captures motion parameters of said moving body member and transmits said motion parameters to said computing device.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said electronic sensor is selected from a group consisting of accelerometers, RF-sensors, active optical sensors, passive optical sensors, and magnetic sensors.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said real time feedback is selected from a group consisting of spoken words and sentences and sound with varying pitch and volume.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion is selected from a group consisting of a position coordinate graph, a position versus said time graph, a three-dimensional position coordinate graph, a velocity versus time graph, an acceleration versus time graph and a position graph overlaid onto a live video image.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a second equipment for capturing a second set of visual images of said person'"'"'s physical motion over said time and wherein said computing device receives a signal of said second set of visual images and combines said second set visual image signal with said first set visual image signal and converts said combined first set and second set visual image signals into a graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion and displays said graphical representation on said display screen in real time with said capturing of said first set and second set of visual images.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said computing device converts said combined first set and second set visual image signals into a graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion via triangulation.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said first and said second equipment comprise a first and a second optical axis, respectively, and are arranged so that their corresponding first and second optical axes are at a known angle and said first and said second equipment are equidistant from said first and said second optical axes'"'"' intersection point.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein a three dimensional position coordinate graph comprises position coordinates of tracking points positioned on said person plotted in a three dimensional x-y-z Cartesian coordinate system and wherein said x-y-z Cartesian coordinate system comprises an origin located at said intersection point of said first and said second optical axes, an x-axis running parallel to a line joining said first and said second equipment, a y-axis running perpendicular to said line joining said first and said second equipment directly between said first and said second capturing equipment and a z-axis running vertical through said origin.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the length of said line joining said first and said second equipment is used to scale and calculate said position coordinates in true distance units.

12. The system of claim 1 further comprising a video controller for receiving a signal of said first set of visual images, locating tracking points on said person and transmitting signals of said tracking points locations to said computing device.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein said tracking points on said person comprise a bright color and said video controller locates said tracking points locations in said first set of visual images based on said bright color exceeding a set threshold level of brightness.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein said signals of said tracking points locations comprise average x-pixel position, average y-pixel position, average height, and average width.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein said computing device further comprises a tracking point locating algorithm for receiving said signal and locating said tracking points locations.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein said first set of visual images comprise motions of more than one person.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein said first capturing equipment is selected from a group consisting of a video camera, a video recorder, a NTSC camcorder, and a PAL camcorder.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein said computing device is selected from a group consisting of a personal computer, a notebook computer, a server, a computing circuit, and a personal digital assistant (PDA).

19. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for comparing comprise an application that displays simultaneously said physical motion graphical representation and said ideal standard of said physical motion and computes deviations between said physical motion graphical representation and said ideal standard of said physical motion.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for providing real-time feedback are selected from a group consisting of audible feedback, visual feedback and sensory feedback.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein said physical motion is selected from a group consisting of sport exercises, physical therapy exercises, motion analysis exercises, dance exercises, musical training exercises, gait analysis, therapeutic exercises and diagnostic exercises.

22. The system of claim 22 further comprising a training program for said exercises.

23. A system for improving a person'"'"'s physical motion performance comprising:

an electronic sensor, wherein said electronic sensor is attached to a moving body member of said person and captures motion parameters of said moving body member over time;

a computing device for receiving said motion parameters from said electronic sensor, converting said motion parameters into a graphical representation of said moving body member and displaying said graphical representation on a display screen in real time with said capturing of said motion parameters;

means for comparing said graphical representation of said moving body member with a graphical representation of an ideal standard of said physical motion in real time on said display screen and means for displaying results of said comparison on said display screen; and

means for providing real time feedback instructions to said person for improving said physical motion performance based on said comparison results.

24. A method for improving a person'"'"'s physical motion performance comprising:

capturing a first set of visual images of said person'"'"'s physical motion over time with a first equipment;

receiving a signal of said first set of visual images of said person'"'"'s physical motion by a computing device, converting said first set of visual images into a graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion and displaying said graphical representation on a display screen in real time with said capturing of said first set of visual images;

comparing said graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion with a graphical representation of an ideal standard of said physical motion in real time on said display screen and displaying results of said comparison on said display screen; and

providing real time feedback instructions to said person for improving said physical motion performance based on said comparison results.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein said person'"'"'s physical motion is selected from a group of physical motions consisting of whole body motion, motion of a body member and motion of a group of body members.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising attaching an electronic sensor to a moving body member of said person, capturing motion parameters of said moving body member with said electronic sensor and transmitting said motion parameters to said computing device.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said electronic sensors are selected from a group consisting of accelerometers, RF-sensors, active optical sensors, passive optical sensors, and magnetic sensors.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein said real time feedback is selected from a group consisting of spoken words and sentences, and sound with varying pitch and volume.

29. The method of claim 24 wherein said graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion is selected from a group consisting of a position coordinate graph, a position versus said time graph, a three-dimensional position coordinate graph, a velocity versus time graph, an acceleration versus time graph and a position graph overlaid onto a live video image.

30. The method of claim 24 further comprising capturing a second set of visual images of said person'"'"'s physical motion over said time with a second equipment and wherein said computing device receives a signal of said second set of visual images and combines said second set visual image signal with said first set visual image signal and converts said combined first set and second set visual image signals into a graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion and displays said graphical representation on said display screen in real time with said capturing of said first set and second set of visual images.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein said computing device converts said combined first set and second set visual image signals into a graphical representation of said person'"'"'s physical motion via triangulation.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein said first and said second equipment comprise a first and a second optical axis, respectively, and are arranged so that their corresponding first and second optical axes are at a known angle and said first and said second equipment are equidistant from said first and said second optical axes'"'"' intersection point.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein a three dimensional position coordinate graph comprises position coordinates of tracking points positioned on said person plotted in a three dimensional x-y-z Cartesian coordinate method and wherein said x-y-z Cartesian coordinate method comprises an origin located at said intersection point of said first and said second optical axes, an x-axis running parallel to a line joining said first and said second equipment, a y-axis running perpendicular to said line joining said first and said second equipment directly between said first and said second capturing equipment and a z-axis running vertical through said origin.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the length of said line joining said first and said second equipment is used to scale and calculate said position coordinates in true distance units.

35. The method of claim 24 further comprising receiving a signal of said first set of visual images by a video controller, locating tracking points on said person and transmitting signals of said tracking points locations to said computing device.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein said tracking points comprise a bright color and said video controller locates said tracking points locations in said first set of visual images based on said bright color exceeding a set threshold level of brightness.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein said signals of said tracking points locations comprises average x-pixel position, average y-pixel position, average height, and average width.

38. The method of claim 25 wherein said computing device further comprises a tracking point locating algorithm for receiving said signal and locating tracking points on said person.

39. The method of claim 24 wherein said first set of visual images comprise motions of more than one person.

40. The method of claim 24 wherein said first capturing equipment is selected from a group consisting of a video camera, a video recorder, a NTSC camcorder, and a PAL camcorder.

41. The method of claim 24 wherein said computing device is selected from a group consisting of a personal computer, a notebook computer, a server, a computing circuit, and a personal digital assistant (PDA).

42. The method of claim 24 wherein said comparing comprises an application that displays simultaneously said physical motion graphical representation and said ideal standard of said physical motion and computes deviations between said physical motion graphical representation and said ideal standard of said physical motion.

43. The method of claim 24 wherein said real-time feedback is selected from a group consisting of audible feedback, visual feedback and sensory feedback.

44. The method of claim 24 wherein said physical motion is selected from a group consisting of sport exercises, physical therapy exercises, motion analysis exercises, dance exercises, musical training exercises, gait analysis, therapeutic exercises and diagnostic exercises.

45. The method of claim 44 further comprising a training program for said exercises.