Fatigue Indices and Uses Thereof

• US 20120271143A1
• Filed: 11/23/2011
• Published: 10/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Inventors: Aragones, Tesa, Chen, Annie, Guerrero, Adriana, Self, Christina S., Blahnik, Jay C., Winsper, Paul T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,223,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: A41D 1/002 adapted to accommodate electronic equipment patients' garments for medical monitoring A41D13/1281; luminous ornaments A41D27/085
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Example embodiments may relate to a system, method, apparatus, and computer readable media configured for monitoring a user performing an athletic movement and/or exercise and generating a fatigue value. Fatigue values may be determined for different groups. In one embodiment, a first value is determined for a muscle fatigue value and a second value is determined for a respiratory value. In another embodiment, a first value may pertain to a first muscle group and a second value may pertain to a second muscle group. A fatigue index may be created from values obtained during an athletic movement and/or a workout session. In further embodiments, a cumulative fatigue index may be determined. A cumulative fatigue index may consider values obtained during several workout sessions. Further, data obtained outside of workout sessions may be considered in determinations relating to fatigue values and/or indices.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing first instructions to a user to perform an athletic movement comprising predefined criteria at a first location during a first time period;

monitoring with at least a first sensor the user performing the athletic movement at the first location to obtain a form profile of the user as a function of time during the athletic movement;

determining the user'"'"'s performance of the predefined criteria, wherein the determining comprises comparing the obtained form profile against a first profile template for the athletic movement; and

based upon the user'"'"'s performance, estimating with a processor a muscle fatigue value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

based upon a determination that the estimated muscle fatigue value exceeded a threshold, determining second instructions to provide the user to promote muscle regeneration.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated muscle fatigue value comprises a first muscle group fatigue value for a first muscle group and a second muscle group fatigue value for a second muscle group.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

based upon the first muscle fatigue value, determining second instructions to provide the user to promote muscle regeneration of the first muscle group.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining third instructions to provide the user to promote muscle regeneration of the second muscle group.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein a plurality of muscle fatigue values are estimated during the first time period, the method further comprising:

constructing a fatigue index for the first period that associates at least a portion of the plurality of muscle fatigue values with a time stamp representative of a time of capture.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

based upon the fatigue index, determining second instructions to provide the user to promote muscle regeneration of the first muscle group, and determining third instructions to provide the user to promote muscle regeneration of the second muscle group.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first sensor comprises an image capture device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated muscle fatigue value is a first muscle fatigue value, the method further comprising:

providing second instructions to a user to perform an athletic movement comprising predefined criteria at the first location during a second time period that is at least a predetermined value of time after the first time period;

monitoring with at least the first sensor the user performing the athletic movement at the first location, wherein the monitoring comprises determining a form profile of the user as a function of time for the athletic movement during the second time period;

determining the user'"'"'s performance of the predefined criteria during the second time period, wherein the determining comprises comparing the form profile against a first profile template for the athletic movement; and

based upon the user'"'"'s performance during the first and the second time periods, estimating with a processor a second muscle fatigue value.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

constructing a fatigue index comprising at least the first and the second fatigue values.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a plurality of muscle fatigue values are estimated during both the first and the second time periods, the method further comprising:

constructing a fatigue index for the first period that associates at least a portion of the plurality of muscle fatigue values for the first time period with a time stamp representative of a time of capture;

constructing a second fatigue index for the second period that associates at least a portion of the plurality of muscle fatigue values for the second time period with a time stamp representative of a time of capture;

comparing the first fatigue index with the second fatigue index to estimate a cumulative fatigue index; and

based upon the cumulative fatigue index, determining second instructions to provide the user to promote muscle regeneration.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first time period and the second time period are separated by a value selected from the group consisting of:

at least 30 minutes, at least 1 hour, at least 6 hours, at least 12 hours, at least 18 hours, at least 1 day, at least 3 days, at least 1 week, at least 10 days, at least 15 days, at leastl month, and at least 1 year.

13. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving from a second sensor, movement data collected during the user'"'"'s performance of an athletic movement at a second location; and

utilizing at least a portion of movement data collected from the second location in estimating the fatigue value.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the of the user'"'"'s performance of the predefined criteria further comprises:

upon detecting a first variance from a form profile threshold, transmitting first instructions to the user providing motivation to complete the criteria; and

further detecting the user'"'"'s performance of the predefined criteria.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

detecting a second variance from a form profile threshold.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the fatigue value is weighted upon at least one of the first and the second variances.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing first instructions to a user to perform an athletic movement comprising predefined criteria at a first location during a first time period;

monitoring with at least a first sensor the user performing the athletic movement at the first location to obtain a form profile of the user as a function of time during the athletic movement;

determining that the user'"'"'s performance does not meet at least one of the predefined criteria, transmitting first instructions to the user providing motivation to complete the criteria;

further detecting the user'"'"'s performance of the predefined criteria, and estimating with a processor a muscle fatigue value based upon, at least in part, the user'"'"'s performance at the first location during the first time period.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the muscle fatigue value is a first muscle fatigue value and the method further comprising:

continuing to monitor the user at the first location during the first time; and

generating a second muscle fatigue value.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

based upon at least the first and the second muscle fatigue values, forming or modifying a fatigue index; and

determining, based upon the fatigue index, second instructions to provide the user to promote muscle regeneration.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the determining that the user'"'"'s performance does not meet at least one of the predefined criteria comprises:

processing subsections of at least one image from a plurality of images captured of the user'"'"'s performance to determine an amount of overlap between a virtual avatar and a virtual shadow within at least one of the subsections.