DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MONITORING SWIMMING PERFORMANCE

• US 20140277628A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Suunto Oy (Anta International Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Suunto Oy (Anta International Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kallio, Janne, Virtanen, Antti, Nieminen, Heikki, Kemetter, Markus
• Granted Patent: US 10,486,049 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/91
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/06 Indicating or scoring devices for games or players , or for other sports activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training

Abstract

The invention relates to a device and method for monitoring a swimming performance. The device comprises one or more motion-sensitive sensors for providing motion data characteristic to the motion of the swimmer during said swimming performance and a computing unit adapted to detect body motions from said motion data using predefined criteria. According to the invention the computing unit comprises means for calculating a plurality of correlation factors depicting correlation of motion data between successive body motions detected, means for storing the correlation factors as a time series, and means for determining one or more parameters characteristic to the swimming performance based on said correlation factors stored. The invention can be used for robust determination of swimmer'"'"'s turns, distance swum or swimming style, for example.

Claims

1. A device attachable to a body part of a swimmer for monitoring a swimming performance, the device comprising

one or more motion-sensitive sensors for providing motion data characteristic to the motion of the swimmer during said swimming performance,

a computing unit adapted to detect body motions from said motion data using predefined criteria,

wherein said computing unit comprises

means for calculating a plurality of correlation factors depicting correlation of motion data between successive body motions detected,

means for storing the correlation factors as a time series,

means for determining one or more parameters characteristic to the swimming performance based on said correlation factors stored.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device is attachable to a wrist of the swimmer and the computing unit is adapted to detect at least hand strokes of the user as said body motions.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein said means for calculating a plurality of correlation factors are adapted to multiply one or more first motion data values at predefined points of detected body motion by one or more second motion data values at corresponding points of a previous detected body motion, and optionally to sum the resulting values over said body motions to obtain a correlation factor depicting correlation between the two body motions.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein said means for determining one or more parameters are adapted to determine the number and/or temporal points of the swimmer'"'"'s turns in a swimming pool as said parameter characteristic to the swimming performance based on regions of temporal variations in the correlation factors in said time series.

5. The device according to claim 4, wherein said means for determining the number and/or temporal points of the swimmer'"'"'s turns are adapted to

analyze the time series of correlation factors so as to find its local minima, and

register the local minima as swimmer'"'"'s turns and/or store the time points of the local minima as temporal points of the swimmer'"'"'s turns provided that predefined criteria regarding the minima are fulfilled.

6. The device according to claim 4, wherein said means for determining one or more parameters are additionally adapted to register the start and/or end and/or determine the temporal points of the start and/or end of the swimming performance based on regions of temporal variations in the correlation factors in said time series.

7. The device according to claim 4, wherein the computing units is adapted to calculate the total distance swim based on the number and/or temporal points of the swimmer'"'"'s turns and a predefined information on the length of the swimming pool.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein said means for determining one or more parameters are adapted to determine the resting time of the swimmer during the performance as said parameter characteristic to the swimming performance based on regions of temporal variations in the correlation factors in said time series.

9. The device according to claim 1, wherein said means for determining one or more parameters are adapted to distinguish between swimming periods, turning periods and resting periods using only the measurement data from the one or more motion-sensitive sensors and said correlation factors without user-input data on the course of the performance.

10. The device according to claim 1, wherein comprising means for visualizing at least two of the following parameters for the user as said one or more parameters characteristic to the swimming performance:

swimming time, distance swum, lap count, lap time, inter-lap resting time, total resting time, swimming and resting total time, swimming style.

11. The device according to claim 1, wherein said motion data comprises data for three different dimensions of motion and said means for determining one or more parameters are adapted to determine the swimming style used in said swimming performance as said parameter characteristic to the swimming performance by

determining regions of high overall correlation in the time series of correlation factors,

determining dimension-specific correlation factors during said regions of high overall correlation, and

classifying the swimming style to one of a plurality of predefined swimming style classes based on the values of the dimension-specific correlation factors.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein said dimension-specific correlation factors are adapted to be determined as average correlation factors over said regions of high overall correlation.

13. The device according to claim 11, wherein said classifying is adapted to be made by comparing the dimension-specific correlation factors with predefined threshold values in three dimensions or by finding a closest predefined swimming style correlation factor for the dimension-specific correlation factors.

14. The device according to claim 1, wherein comprising

a first motion-sensitive sensor, and

a second motion-sensitive sensor of different type than the first motion-sensitive sensor,

and wherein the computing unit is adapted to use motion data provided by the first sensor for detecting said body motions and motion data provided by the second sensor for calculating said correlation factors.

15. The device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more motion-sensitive sensors comprise a three-dimensional magnetometer.

16. The device according to claim 15, wherein the computing unit is adapted to detect said body motions using motion data provided by the three-dimensional magnetometer.

17. The device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more motion-sensitive sensors comprise a three-dimensional accelerometer.

18. The device according to claim 17, wherein the computing unit is adapted to determine said correlation factors using motion data provided by the three-dimensional accelerometer.

19. The device according to claim 1, wherein the computing unit is adapted, in a swimming style teaching mode, to

measure and store representative correlation data value from more than one dimensions of motion,

assign a user-defined swimming style to each representative correlation data value stored,

and in a training mode to

compare measured correlation data values with stored representative correlation data value in order to distinguish between swimming styles of the swimmer.

20. The device according to claim 1, wherein said one or more swimming parameters characteristic to the swimming performance comprise one or more of the following:

stroke count, lap count, lap time, SWOLF, total distance swum, average speed, swimming style, resting time.

21. The device according to claim 20, wherein comprising means for displaying at least one of said one or more parameters characteristic to the swimming performance.

22. A method of determining at least one swimming performance parameter during a swimming performance, the method comprising

measuring movement of a swimmer using one or more motion-sensitive sensors attached to a body part of the swimmer for providing motion data,

analyzing said motion data for detecting body motions of the swimmer,

wherein

determining correlation of motion between successive body motions detected continuously during the swimming performance,

determining said at least one swimming performance parameter based on said correlation of motion.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein said at least one swimming performance parameter comprises the number and/or temporal points of swimmer'"'"'s turns at the ends of a swimming pool being determined based on temporal variations in the correlation of motion.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein

determining local minima of the correlation of motion,

storing the temporal points of the local minima as temporal points of the swimmer'"'"'s turns provided that predefined criteria are fulfilled.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein said at least one swimming performance parameter comprises resting time during the performance being determined based on temporal variations in the correlation of motion.

26. The method according to claim 22, wherein said at least one swimming performance parameter comprises the swimming style of the swimming performance being determined based on

measuring movement of the body part of the swimmer in three dimensions to provide three-dimensional motion data,

determining the correlation of motion separately in the three dimensions during the swimming performance,

determining the swimming style based on spatial distribution of the correlation of motion in the three dimensions.

27. The method according to claim 22, wherein the movement of the swimmer is measured using at least two different sensors, preferably a three-dimensional magnetometer and a three-dimensional accelerometer, and detecting the body motions of the swimmer using data provided by one of the sensors, preferably the magnetometer, and determining the correlation of motion using data provided by the other of the sensors, preferably the accelerometer.

28. (canceled)