Impulse force estimating device, impulse force estimating method, and medium storing impulse force estimation program

• US 6,397,151 B1
• Filed: 02/04/1999
• Issued: 05/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited, Chikara Miyaji
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited, Chikara Miyagi
• Inventors: Yamagishi, Masakatsu, Miyaji, Chikara
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoff, Marc S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIM, PAUL L
• Application Number:
  US09/230,963
• Time in Patent Office: 1,209 Days
• Field of Search: 702/41,141 73/514.34,493,770,514.01,12.01,1.37 463/8 482/44,83,110 473/212,213
• US Class Current: 702/41
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0663 worn on the wrist, e.g. wrist bands
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/40 Acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/53 Force of an impact, e.g. blow or punch
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2244/102 Boxing
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2244/106 Karate
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/00 Electric or electronic controls for exercising apparatus of preceding groups; Controlling or monitoring of exercises, sportive games, training or athletic performances
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 5/0052 measuring forces due to impact G01L5/0061, G01L5/14 take precedence; impact testing of structures G01M7/08; impact testing of material G01N3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/0922 of the bending or flexing mode type

Abstract

When a person wearing the wristwatch device (11) on his or her dominant arm has struck a blow, an acceleration sensor (12) senses acceleration at regular intervals of time, extracts accelerations x1 to x20 sensed at 20 points in front of the hit point H at which the sensed acceleration changes from positive to negative, and stores them in a RAM (20). The impulse force is calculated by multiplying the accelerations x1 to x20 at the 20 points in front of the hit point H by the weighting coefficients determined on the basis of the accelerations sensed in a trial performance and the actually measured impulse force and stored in a ROM (19). Therefore, the impulse force can be estimated accurately without actually striking a secured object.

Claims

1. An impulse force estimating device comprising:

acceleration sensing means to be attached to a human body, for sensing an acceleration of movement of the human body; and

impulse force calculating means for calculating an impulse force based on more than one acceleration sensed by said acceleration sensing means prior to a reversal of a direction of the sensed accelerations.

2. The impulse force estimating device according to claim 1, wherein:

said acceleration sensing means senses the acceleration of movement of the human body at regular intervals of time, and

said impulse force calculating means includes;

judging means for judging an acceleration reverse time when the sensed accelerations change from positive to negative as a result of a striking action of the human body, based on the acceleration of movement of the human body sensed at the regular intervals of time,

extracting means for extracting more than one acceleration with a different timing before the acceleration reverse time judged by said judging means, and

calculating means for calculating the impulse force based on the more than one acceleration extracted by said extracting means.

3. The impulse force estimating device according to claim 1, wherein said impulse force calculating means comprises means for, using a weight regression equation based on predetermined weighting coefficients and a constant for the sensed accelerations, calculating the impulse force by multiplying each of the sensed accelerations by said coefficients and adding the resulting values together, and further adding said constant to the addition result.

4. The impulse force estimating device according to claim 1, wherein said impulse force calculating means includes:

judging means for judging a type of said striking action based on the accelerations sensed by said acceleration sensing means, and

calculating means for, using a weight regression equation based on predetermined weighting coefficients and a constant differing according to the type of said striking action judged by the judging means, calculating the impulse force by multiplying each of the sensed accelerations sensed by said coefficients corresponding to said type of striking action and adding the resulting values together, and further adding said constant to the addition result.

5. The impulse force estimating device according to claim 4, wherein said judging means judges the type of said striking action based on a shortest Mahalanobis distance for individual types of striking actions calculated based on a difference between more than one average acceleration previously obtained for each type of striking action and more than one acceleration sensed by said acceleration sensing means and an inverse matrix of a covariance matrix.

6. The impulse force estimating device according to claim 1, wherein said acceleration sensing means and said impulse force calculating means are housed in a case with a band adapted to be attached to the human body.

7. The impulse force estimating device according to claim 6, further comprising:

counting means for counting a present time, and

time display means for displaying the present time counted by the counting means.

8. The impulse force estimating device according to claim 1, further comprising:

impulse force display means for displaying the impulse force calculated by said impulse force calculating means.

9. An impulse force estimating method comprising:

an acceleration sensing step of sensing an acceleration of movement of a human body as a result of a striking action of the human body, using acceleration sensing means attached to the human body; and

an impulse force calculating step of calculating an impulse force based on more than one acceleration sensed prior to a reversal of a direction of the sensed accelerations.

10. The impulse force estimating method according to claim 9, wherein:

said acceleration sensing step comprises a step of sensing the acceleration of movement of the human body at regular intervals of time, and

said impulse force calculating step includes;

a judging step of judging an acceleration reverse time when the sensed accelerations change from positive to negative as a result of the striking action of the human body, based on the acceleration of movement of the human body sensed at the regular intervals of time,

an extracting step of extracting more than one acceleration with a different timing before the acceleration reverse time, and

a calculating step of calculating the impulse force based on the more than one acceleration extracted in said extracting step.

11. The impulse force estimating method according to claim 9, wherein said impulse force calculating step is an impulse force calculating step which, using a weight regression equation based on predetermined weighting coefficients and a constant for the sensed accelerations, calculates said impulse force by multiplying each of the sensed accelerations by said coefficients and adding the resulting values together, and further adding said constant to the addition result.

12. The impulse force estimating method according to claim 9, wherein said impulse force calculating step includes:

a judging step of judging a type of said striking action based on the accelerations sensed in said acceleration sensing step, and

a calculating step which, using a weight regression equation based on predetermined weighting coefficients and a constant differing according to the type of said striking action judged in the judging step, calculates the impulse force by multiplying each of the accelerations sensed in said acceleration sensing step by said coefficients corresponding to said type of striking action and adding the resulting values together, and further adding said constant to the addition result.

13. The impulse force estimating method according to claim 12, wherein said judging step judges the type of said striking action based on a shortest Mahalanobis distance for individual types of striking actions calculated based on a difference between more than one average acceleration previously obtained for each type of striking action and more than one acceleration sensed in said acceleration sensing step and an inverse matrix of a covariance matrix.

14. The impulse force estimating method according to claim 9, further comprising a step of displaying said impulse force.

15. A program storage medium having program codes stored thereon that are readable by a computer for estimating an impulse force, comprising:

computer-readable program code means for enabling an acceleration of movement of a human body as a result of a striking action of the human body to be sensed with acceleration sensing means attached to the human body; and

computer-readable program code means for calculating an impulse force based on more than one acceleration sensed prior to a reversal of a direction of the sensed accelerations.

16. The program storage medium according to claim 15, wherein:

said acceleration sensing means comprises computer-readable program code means for sensing accelerations resulting from the striking action of the human body at regular intervals of time, and

said program storage medium further comprises;

computer-readable program code means for judging an acceleration reverse time when the sensed accelerations change from positive to negative as a result of the striking action of the human body, based on the acceleration of movement of the human body sensed at the regular intervals of time,

computer-readable program code means for extracting more than one acceleration with a different timing before the acceleration reverse time, and

computer-readable program code means for calculating the impulse force based on the extracted more than one acceleration.

17. The program storage medium according to claim 15, further comprising computer-readable code means for, using a weight regression equation based on predetermined weighing coefficients and a constant for the sensed accelerations, calculating the impulse force by multiplying each of the sensed accelerations by said coefficients and adding the resulting values together, and further adding said constant to the addition result.

18. The program storage medium according to claim 15, further comprising:

computer-readable program code means for judging the type of said striking action based on the sensed accelerations, and

computer-readable program code means for, using a weight regression equation based on predetermined weighting coefficients and a constant differing according to the type of said striking action, calculating the impulse force by multiplying each of the sensed accelerations by said coefficients corresponding to said type of striking action and adding the resulting values together, and further adding said constant to the addition result.

19. The program storage medium according to claim 18, further comprising computer-readable program code means for judging the type of said striking action based on a shortest Mahalanobis distance for individual types of striking actions calculated based on a difference between more than one average acceleration previously obtained for each type of striking action and more than one sensed acceleration and an inverse matrix of a covariance matrix.

20. The program storage medium according to claim 15, further comprising computer-readable program code means for causing said impulse force to be displayed.