FLIGHT TIME

• US 20150151160A1
• Filed: 12/02/2014
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Inventors: Balakrishnan, Santosh, Francis, Paul, Fraga, Justin, Bruce, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 9,529,011 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/34 with electrical or electronic arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0056 for statistical or strategic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/20 Distances or displacements
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/836 Sensors arranged on the body of the user
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0021 Tracking a path or terminating locations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0062 Monitoring athletic performances, e.g. for determining the work of a user on an exercise apparatus, the completed jogging or cycling distance
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 13/00 Indicating or recording presence, absence, or direction, of movement electric switches H01H; counting moving objects G06M7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/00 Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/00 Input or output devices integrated in time-pieces
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring athletic performances include determining “flight time,” e.g., the amount of time both feet are off the ground, and optionally “flight time” resulting from different types of activities, such as jogging, running, sprinting, jumping, etc. “Flight time” may help a player or coach better understand the effort the athlete is putting out, compare efforts of two or more players, gauge the athlete'"'"'s performance change over time, and/or identify conditioning needs and/or areas for improvement. Such systems and methods also may generate and display various athletic performance metrics, such as: instantaneous flight time; average flight time; cumulative flight time during an athletic performance or other time period; instantaneous jump height; average jump height; cumulative jump height during an athletic performance or other time period; and comparisons of any flight time and/or jump height metric(s) of one player against another player and/or against himself/herself; etc.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring an athletic performance, comprising:

an input system for;

(a) receiving right foot launch input data from a right foot sensor system relating to a plurality of right foot launch events, wherein the right foot launch input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each right foot launch event indicating a time that respective right foot launch event occurred;

(b) receiving left foot launch input data from a left foot sensor system relating to a plurality of left foot launch events, wherein the left foot launch input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each left foot launch event indicating a time that respective left foot launch event occurred;

(c) receiving right foot strike input data from the right foot sensor system relating to a plurality of right foot strike events, wherein the right foot strike input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each right foot strike event indicating a time that respective right foot strike event occurred; and

(d) receiving left foot strike input data from the left foot sensor system relating to a plurality of left foot strike events, wherein the left foot strike input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each left foot strike event indicating a time that respective left foot strike event occurred;

a processor system programmed and adapted to;

(a) identify a first set of timestamps, wherein the first set of timestamps includes temporally adjacent right foot launch, left foot launch, right foot strike, and left foot strike events; and

(b) determine a first flight time associated with the first set of timestamps, wherein the first flight time is based at least in part on a first time duration included by the first set of timestamps when both the left foot and the right foot are simultaneously not in contact with a surface; and

an output system for outputting output data including information containing or derived from the first flight time.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein, in determining the first flight time, the processor system is programmed and adapted to determine the first flight time as:

First Flight Time=T1−

T2,

wherein T1 corresponds to a time of a timestamp from the first set of timestamps associated with an earlier of the right foot strike event or the left foot strike event and T2 corresponds to a time of a timestamp from the first set of timestamps associated with a later of the right foot launch event or the left foot launch event.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to:

identify a second set of timestamps different from the first set of timestamps, wherein the second set of timestamps includes temporally adjacent right foot launch, left foot launch, right foot strike, and left foot strike events; and

determine a second flight time associated with the second set of timestamps, wherein the second flight time is determined as;

Second Flight Time=T3−

T4,

wherein T3 corresponds to a time of a timestamp associated with an earlier of the right foot strike event or the left foot strike event from the second set of timestamps and T4 corresponds to a time of a timestamp associated with a later of the right foot launch event or the left foot launch event from the second set of timestamps.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to:

determine a first jump height for an event associated with the first flight time based, at least in part, on the determined first flight time; and

determine a second jump height for an event associated with the second flight time based, at least in part, on the determined second flight time.

5. A system according to claim 3, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to determining a cumulative flight time based at least in part on the first flight time and the second flight time.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to determine a first jump height for an event associated with the first flight time based, at least in part, on the determined first flight time.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to:

identify a second set of timestamps different from the first set of timestamps, wherein the second set of timestamps includes temporally adjacent right foot launch, left foot launch, right foot strike, and left foot strike events; and

determine a second flight time associated with the second set of timestamps, wherein the second flight time is based at least in part on a second time duration included by the second set of timestamps when both the left foot and the right foot are simultaneously not in contact with a surface.

8. A system according to claim 7, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to determine a cumulative flight time based at least in part on the first time duration and the second time duration.

9. A system according to claim 7, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to:

determine a first jump height for an event associated with the first flight time based, at least in part, on the determined first flight time; and

determine a second jump height for an event associated with the second flight time based, at least in part, on the determined second flight time.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to determine a cumulative jump height based at least in part on the first jump height and the second jump height.

11. A system according to claim 7, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to determine a cumulative jump height based at least in part on the first flight time and the second flight time.

12. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a right foot sensor for measuring at least one of right foot acceleration, contact force between a right shoe and a contact surface, or change in contact force between the right shoe and the contact surface to identify the right foot launch events and the right foot strike events;

a left foot sensor for measuring at least one of left foot acceleration, contact force between a left shoe and a contact surface, or change in contact force between the left shoe and the contact surface to identify the left foot launch events and the left foot strike events; and

a transmission system for transmitting contact force data measured by the right foot sensor and the left foot sensor to the input system.

13. A system for monitoring an athletic performance, comprising:

an input system for;

(a) receiving right foot launch input data from a right foot sensor system relating to a plurality of right foot launch events, wherein the right foot launch input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each right foot launch event indicating a time that respective right foot launch event occurred;

(b) receiving left foot launch input data from a left foot sensor system relating to a plurality of left foot launch events, wherein the left foot launch input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each left foot launch event indicating a time that respective left foot launch event occurred;

(c) receiving right foot strike input data from the right foot sensor system relating to a plurality of right foot strike events, wherein the right foot strike input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each right foot strike event indicating a time that respective right foot strike event occurred; and

(d) receiving left foot strike input data from the left foot sensor system relating to a plurality of left foot strike events, wherein the left foot strike input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each left foot strike event indicating a time that respective left foot strike event occurred;

a processor system programmed and adapted to;

(a) identify a plurality of sets of event timestamps, wherein the sets of event timestamps include temporally adjacent right foot launch, left foot launch, right foot strike, and left foot strike events; and

(b) determine flight times associated with at least some of the plurality of sets of event timestamps, wherein each flight time is based at least in part on a time duration included by a corresponding set of timestamps when both the left foot and the right foot are simultaneously not in contact with a surface; and

an output system for outputting output data including information containing or derived from the flight times.

14. A system according to claim 13, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to determine a cumulative flight time for at least a portion of the athletic performance based on the flight times associated with the plurality of sets of event timestamps.

15. A system according to claim 14, wherein the output data includes information containing or derived from the cumulative flight time.

16. A system according to claim 14, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to determine a cumulative jump height based on the cumulative flight time or the flight times associated with the plurality of sets of event timestamps.

17. A system according to claim 16, wherein the output data includes information containing or derived from the cumulative jump height.

18. A system according to claim 17, wherein the output includes information sufficient to enable display of cumulative flight time over a course of the athletic performance.

19. A system according to claim 13, wherein the processor system is further programmed and adapted to determine a cumulative jump height based on the flight times associated with the plurality of sets of event timestamps.

20. A system according to claim 13, further comprising:

a display device for generating a human perceptible display based on the output data, wherein the display includes information containing or derived from the determined flight times associated with at least some of the plurality of sets of event timestamps, and wherein the display includes at least one of;

instantaneous flight time over at least a portion of the athletic performance, a comparison of the instantaneous flight time with instantaneous flight time data of a different athletic performance, an average flight time over at least a portion of the athletic performance, a comparison of the average flight time with average flight time data of a different athletic performance, a cumulative flight time over at least a portion of the athletic performance, and a comparison of the cumulative flight time with cumulative flight time data of a different athletic performance.

21. A system according to claim 13, wherein, in determining the flight time, the processor system is programmed and adapted to determine the flight time for at least some individual sets of event timestamps of the plurality of sets of event timestamps as a time duration for that individual set of event time stamps between:

(a) a time of a timestamp from the that individual set of timestamps associated with an earlier of the right foot strike event or the left foot strike event and (b) a time of a timestamp from that individual set of timestamps associated with a later of the right foot launch event or the left foot launch event.

22. A method for analyzing an athletic performance, comprising:

receiving right foot launch input data from a right foot sensor system relating to a plurality of right foot launch events, wherein the right foot launch input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each right foot launch event indicating a time that respective right foot launch event occurred;

receiving left foot launch input data from a left foot sensor system relating to a plurality of left foot launch events, wherein the left foot launch input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each left foot launch event indicating a time that respective left foot launch event occurred;

receiving right foot strike input data from the right foot sensor system relating to a plurality of right foot strike events, wherein the right foot strike input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each right foot strike event indicating a time that respective right foot strike event occurred;

receiving left foot strike input data from the left foot sensor system relating to a plurality of left foot strike events, wherein the left foot strike input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each left foot strike event indicating a time that respective left foot strike event occurred;

identifying a first set of timestamps, wherein the first set of timestamps includes temporally adjacent right foot launch, left foot launch, right foot strike, and left foot strike events; and

determining a first flight time associated with the first set of timestamps, wherein the first flight time is based at least in part on a first time duration included by the first set of timestamps when both the left foot and the right foot are simultaneously not in contact with a surface.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer executable instruction stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the function according to claim 22.

24. A method for analyzing an athletic performance, comprising:

receiving right foot launch input data from a right foot sensor system relating to a plurality of right foot launch events, wherein the right foot launch input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each right foot launch event indicating a time that respective right foot launch event occurred;

receiving left foot launch input data from a left foot sensor system relating to a plurality of left foot launch events, wherein the left foot launch input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each left foot launch event indicating a time that respective left foot launch event occurred;

receiving right foot strike input data from the right foot sensor system relating to a plurality of right foot strike events, wherein the right foot strike input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each right foot strike event indicating a time that respective right foot strike event occurred;

receiving left foot strike input data from the left foot sensor system relating to a plurality of left foot strike events, wherein the left foot strike input data includes at least a timestamp associated with each left foot strike event indicating a time that respective left foot strike event occurred;

identifying a plurality of sets of event timestamps, wherein the sets of event timestamps include temporally adjacent right foot launch, left foot launch, right foot strike, and left foot strike events; and

determining flight times associated with at least some of the plurality of sets of event timestamps, wherein each flight time is based at least in part on a time duration included by a corresponding set of timestamps when both the left foot and the right foot are simultaneously not in contact with a surface.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer executable instruction stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the function according to claim 24.