Method for Calibrating Exercise Apparatus

• US 20120253486A1
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Polar Electro Oy
• Original Assignee: Polar Electro Oy
• Inventors: Niemimaki, Mika
• Granted Patent: US 9,149,213 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/91
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/112 Gait analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 Pedometers

Abstract

A procedure for calibrating walking and/or running measurements in an exercise-related apparatus are provided. As a result of a user running and walking a given distance which may be the same or different for running and walking, respective running and walking motion metrics are obtained during a calibration phase. A relation between the obtained running and walking motion metrics are then used to compute a calibration value applied to calibrate one of running and walking measurements during an exercise.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor configured to cause the apparatus to;

acquire, during a calibration phase, at least one walking motion metric obtained from a measured local motion of a user under a condition where the user has walked a first real distance;

acquire, during the calibration phase, at least one running motion metric obtained from a measured local motion of the user under a condition where the user has run a second real distance which may be the same as or different from the first real distance;

compute a calibration value on the basis of a relation between the at least one walking motion metric and the at least one running motion metric; and

calibrate one of running and walking measurements with said calibration value during an exercise phase.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to determine which one of the walking motion metric and the running motion metric provides less accurate measurement results and to calibrate the less accurate motion metric with said calibration value during the exercise phase.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to determine by default that the running motion metric is less accurate.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein when the second real distance is different from the first real distance, the apparatus is provided with information on relation between the first real distance and the second real distance, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to scale at least one of the running motion metric and the walking motion metric according to said relation in order to make the running motion metric and the walking motion metric to represent the same real distance.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least one walking motion metric comprises time measured for the user to walk the first real distance and at least one of distance and speed measured from local motion of the user when walking the first real distance, and wherein said at least one running motion metric comprises time measured for the user to run the second real distance and at least one of distance and speed measured from local motion of the user when running the second real distance.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to compute a running speed calibration value by dividing a difference between a measured walking distance and a measured running distance by the time measured for the user to walk the first real distance and to calibrate, during the exercise phase, measured running speed with the speed calibration value.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to add the speed calibration value to the measured running speed during the exercise phase.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to further divide the speed calibration value by a measured running speed measured as a running motion metric and to multiply the measured running speed during the exercise phase by thus obtained divided speed calibration value.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to compute a running distance calibration value by dividing the difference between a measured walking distance and a measured running distance by the measured running distance and to calibrate, during the exercise phase, measured running distance with the running distance calibration value.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises a user interface, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus during the calibration phase to:

inform the user through the user interface about the start of the calibration phase;

detect the start of a walking stage and initiate measurement of the at least one walking motion metric;

detect the end of the walking stage and terminate measurement of the at least one walking motion metric;

detect the start of a running stage and initiate measurement of the at least one running motion metric;

detect the end of the running stage and terminate measurement of the at least one running motion metric; and

inform the user through the user interface about the end of the calibration phase.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus during the calibration phase to instruct the user to at least one of start and end the walking stage and the running stage.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus during the calibration phase to instruct the user to stand still at the beginning and end of the walking stage and the running stage so as to facilitate the detection of the walking stage and the running stage.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to display the calibrated measurement results to the user during and/or after the exercise through a user interface.

14. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform a method comprising:

acquiring, during a calibration phase, at least one walking motion metric obtained from a measured local motion of a user under a condition where the user has walked a first real distance;

acquiring, during the calibration phase, at least one running motion metric obtained from a measured local motion of the user under a condition where the user has run a second real distance which may be the same as or different from the first real distance;

computing a calibration value on the basis of a relation between the at least one walking motion metric and the at least one running motion metric; and

calibrating one of running and walking measurements with said calibration value during an exercise phase.