DETERMINING A SPEED OF A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MOTION IN A GLOBAL COORDINATE SYSTEM

• US 20150360080A1
• Filed: 01/18/2013
• Published: 12/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Original Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Inventors: VON DER GRUEN, Thomas, HADASCHIK, Niels, KEMETH, Ferdinand, SCHAEFER, Matthias
• Granted Patent: US 10,188,903 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0006 Computerised comparison for qualitative assessment of motion sequences or the course of a movement
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/00 Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of optical techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 5/00 Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of mechanical techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/004 for measuring coordinates of points
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/00 Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/18 in two or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 7/00 Measuring speed by integrating acceleration measuring travelled distance by double integration of acceleration G01C21/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training

Abstract

Embodiments relate to determining a speed of a multidimensional motion of an athlete in a global coordinate system based on multidimensional acceleration data from a multidimensional accelerometer placed at a movable limb of the athlete, the movable limb being at least one of translatory and rotatable, and the movable limb defining a local coordinate system. Based on the multidimensional acceleration data, at least one correction quantity may be determined taking into account a rotation of the local coordinate system relative to the global coordinate system during the multidimensional motion. The speed of the multidimensional motion may be determined based on an integration of the multidimensional acceleration data and in consideration of the at least one correction quantity.

Claims

1. A method for determining a speed of a multidimensional motion of an athlete in a global coordinate system based on multidimensional acceleration data from a multidimensional accelerometer placed at a movable limb of the athlete, the movable limb being at least one of translatory and rotatable, and the movable limb defining a local coordinate system, the method comprising:

determining, based on the multidimensional acceleration data, at least one correction quantity taking into account a rotation of the local coordinate system relative to the global coordinate system during the multidimensional motion; and

determining the speed of the multidimensional motion based on an integration of the multidimensional acceleration data and in consideration of the at least one correction quantity.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the athlete is a boxer wearing at least one boxing glove, wherein the multidimensional motion is a multidimensional punch of the boxer, and wherein the multidimensional accelerometer is placed at the at least one boxing glove.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the at least one correction quantity comprises:

comparing a first speed of a predefined athlete'"'"'s motion against a second speed of the predefined athlete'"'"'s motion, the first speed of the predefined athlete'"'"'s motion being obtained based on an integration of the multidimensional acceleration data for the predefined athlete'"'"'s motion without the at least one correction quantity, and the second speed of the predefined athlete'"'"'s motion obtained based on reference motion data leading to more accurate speed results than the measured multidimensional acceleration data; and

determining a scalar correction quantity based on the comparison.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the reference motion data is obtained based on a video or real-time locating system based analysis of predefined motion of a reference athlete during an initial training phase of the method.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the determining the at least one correction quantity further comprises:

determining a scaling factor based on a relation of an actual anatomical size of the athlete to an anatomical size of the reference athlete.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the multidimensional accelerometer comprises three 3-axis-accelerometers spatially distributed at the movable limb;

and

the determining the at least one correction quantity comprises,

deter mining, based on the acceleration data of the three spatially distributed 3-axis-accelerometers, the rotation of the local coordinate system relative to the global coordinate system during the athlete'"'"'s movement in order to computationally compensate for the rotation by a corresponding coordinate transformation of the local coordinate system.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the rotation of the local coordinate system is determined via two-fold integration of a difference between first acceleration data from a first accelerometer and second acceleration data from a second accelerometer of the three 3-axis-accelerometers.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the athlete further comprises at least one spatially separated magnetic field sensor;

and

the determining the at least one correction quantity comprises

determining a spatial orientation of the movable limb via measuring a change of a static magnetic field surrounding the movable limb via the at least one magnetic field sensor; and

the measured change is due to the multidimensional motion in the static magnetic field.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the static magnetic field is an artificially generated homogeneous magnetic field.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the at least one correction quantity comprises:

considering a space-time correlation of the multidimensional acceleration data for blindly estimating the rotation of the local coordinate system.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

calibrating the multidimensional acceleration data by taking into account the acceleration due to gravity.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the calibrating the multidimensional acceleration data comprises:

selecting at least one multidimensional acceleration data vector of an inactivity period before a detected motion of the athlete; and

determining the speed of the multidimensional motion based on the integration of the multidimensional acceleration data taking into account said at least one multidimensional acceleration data vector or an average value thereof.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

detecting at least one of the motion and an inactivity period using the multidimensional acceleration data,

detecting an excess of an acceleration threshold;

detecting a saturation of one or more dimensions of the multidimensional acceleration data; and

detecting an oscillation of the acceleration data.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the detecting the multidimensional motion is based on the detecting the excess of the acceleration threshold for a predefined amount of time.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the detecting the multidimensional motion comprises:

determining an end of the multidimensional motion by detecting a point of saturation of one or more dimensions of the multidimensional acceleration data under the premise that the multidimensional acceleration data has not been in saturation or above a threshold for a predetermined time before said point of saturation; and

determining a beginning of said motion by performing a reverse search from the point of saturation until a minimum average value of acceleration is detected in the multidimensional acceleration data.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising;

storing at least one of the multidimensional acceleration data and the determined speed; and

post processing the stored data for motion analysis.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

displaying information indicative of the determined speed at at least one of a remote display and a display at the athlete himself.

18. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, wherein the computer readable program code, when loaded on a computer, a processor, or a programmable hardware component, causes the computer, processor or programmable hardware component to implement a method for determining a speed of a multidimensional motion of an athlete in a global coordinate system based on multidimensional acceleration data from a multidimensional accelerometer placed at a movable limb of the athlete, the movable limb being at least one of translatory and rotatable, and the movable limb defining a local coordinate system, the method comprising:

determining, based on the multidimensional acceleration data, at least one correction quantity taking into account a rotation of the local coordinate system relative to the global coordinate system during the multidimensional motion; and

determining the speed of the multidimensional motion based on an integration of the multidimensional acceleration data and in consideration of the at least one correction quantity.

19. An apparatus for determining a speed of a multidimensional motion of an athlete in a global coordinate system based on multidimensional acceleration data from a multidimensional accelerometer placed at a movable limb of the athlete, the movable limb being at least one of translatory and rotatable, and the movable limb defining a local coordinate system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor operable to determine, based on the multidimensional acceleration data, at least one correction quantity taking into account a rotation of the local coordinate system relative to the global coordinate system during the multidimensional object motion, and to determine the speed of the multidimensional object motion based on an integration of the multidimensional acceleration data and in consideration of the at least one correction quantity.

20. An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the athlete is a boxer wearing at least one boxing glove, wherein the multidimensional motion is a multidimensional punch of the boxer, and wherein the multidimensional accelerometer and the apparatus are placed at the at least one boxing glove.