System and method for determining loft time, speed, height and distance
DCFirst Claim
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1. A system for determining loft time of a moving vehicle off of a surface, the vehicle of the type which is ridden along the surface by a user of the vehicle, comprising:
- a loft sensor for sensing a first condition indicative of the vehicle leaving the surface, and a second condition indicative of the vehicle returning to the surface, the loft sensor being constructed and arranged so as to be substantially non-interfering with motion of the vehicle along the surface;
wherein the loft sensor senses a spectrum of information;
wherein the first and second conditions correspond to a change in the spectrum of information; and
a processor for determining a loft time that is based on the first and second conditions, wherein the processor interprets the change in the spectrum of information to determine the loft time.
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Abstract
The invention detects loft time and/or speed during activities of moving and jumping. A loft sensor utilizes a spectrum of information to detect leaving the ground and returning to the ground. A microprocessor subsystem converts the sensed information to determine a loft time. A display shows the recorded loft time to a user of the system. In addition, a speed sensor can detect the vehicle'"'"'s speed for selective display to the user, and height may also be determined during airtime.
95 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A system for determining loft time of a moving vehicle off of a surface, the vehicle of the type which is ridden along the surface by a user of the vehicle, comprising:
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a loft sensor for sensing a first condition indicative of the vehicle leaving the surface, and a second condition indicative of the vehicle returning to the surface, the loft sensor being constructed and arranged so as to be substantially non-interfering with motion of the vehicle along the surface;
wherein the loft sensor senses a spectrum of information;
wherein the first and second conditions correspond to a change in the spectrum of information; and
a processor for determining a loft time that is based on the first and second conditions, wherein the processor interprets the change in the spectrum of information to determine the loft time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
a master clock for providing a master time signal used to sequence the processor through processed instructions and for providing a quantitative measure of elapsed time;
read only memory for storing instructions that the processor may fetch in executing internal programming;
random access memory for storing temporary information;
conditioning electronics for conditioning analog signals generated by the loft sensor; and
interface electronics for converting the analog signals to digital signals suitable for processing by the processor.
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24. The method of determining speed of a human-powered sporting vehicle, comprising the steps of:
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attaching a sensor to the vehicle;
sensing a spectrum of information with the sensor; and
correlating the spectrum of information to stored information to determine speed, the spectrum of information comprising one or both of acceleration and sound data associated with movement of a human over a surface, the stored information comprising one or both of reference acceleration and sound data associated with movement of a human over the surface, wherein the step of correlating comprises correlating a pitch of the vehicle to a certain speed.
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25. The method of determining speed of a human-powered sporting vehicle, comprising the steps of:
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attaching a sensor to the vehicle;
sensing a spectrum of information with the sensor;
correlating the spectrum of information to stored information to determine speed, the spectrum of information comprising one or both of acceleration and sound data associated with movement of a human over a surface, the stored information comprising one or both of reference acceleration and sound data associated with movement of a human over the surface; and
further comprising the steps of selecting a vehicle from an array of vehicles and associating the selected vehicle with stored data unique to the selected vehicle so as to determine speed as a function of the selected vehicle.
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26. A method for determining loft time of a moving sportsman off of a surface, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a spectrum of information associated with movement of the sportsman;
processing the spectrum of information to detect a first condition indicative of the sportsman leaving the surface and a second condition indicative of the sportsman returning to the surface;
determining the loft time based upon an elapsed time between the first and second conditions; and
further comprising the steps of determining whether the elapsed time between the first condition and the second condition exceeds a threshold, and excluding a determination of loft time when the elapsed time exceeds the threshold. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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28. A method for determining loft time of a moving sportsman off of a surface, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a spectrum of information associated with movement of the sportsman;
processing the spectrum of information to detect a first condition indicative of the sportsman leaving the surface and a second condition indicative of the sportsman returning to the surface;
determining the loft time based upon an elapsed time between the first and second conditions; and
further comprising the steps of determining whether the elapsed time between the first condition and the second condition exceeds a threshold, and including a determination of loft time when the elapsed time exceeds the threshold. - View Dependent Claims (29)
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30. A method for determining loft time of a moving sportsman off of a surface, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a spectrum of information associated with movement of the sportsman;
processing the spectrum of information to detect a first condition indicative of the sportsman leaving the surface and a second condition indicative of the sportsman returning to the surface;
determining the loft time based upon an elapsed time between the first and second conditions; and
further comprising automatically excluding a determination of loft time upon the absence of the spectrum of information for a preselected time period.
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31. A method for determining loft time of a moving sportsman off of a surface, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a spectrum of information associated with movement of the sportsman;
processing the spectrum of information to detect a first condition indicative of the sportsman leaving the surface and a second condition indicative of the sportsman returning to the surface;
determining the loft time based upon an elapsed time between the first and second conditions; and
further comprising the step of selectively starting and stopping the step of processing.
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32. A method for determining loft time of a moving sportsman off of a surface, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a spectrum of information associated with movement of the sportsman;
processing the spectrum of information to detect a first condition indicative of the sportsman leaving the surface and a second condition indicative of the sportsman returning to the surface;
determining the loft time based upon an elapsed time between the first and second conditions; and
further comprising the step of displaying a peak loft time to the moving sportsman.
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33. A method for determining loft time of a moving sportsman off of a surface, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a spectrum of information associated with movement of the sportsman;
processing the spectrum of information to detect a first condition indicative of the sportsman leaving the surface and a second condition indicative of the sportsman returning to the surface;
determining the loft time based upon an elapsed time between the first and second conditions, wherein the step of sensing comprises utilizing a piezoelectric detector, attached to a vehicle ridden on by the moving sportsman, for detecting a noise spectrum of information.
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34. A method for determining loft time of a moving sportsman off of a surface, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a spectrum of information associated with movement of the sportsman;
processing the spectrum of information to detect a first condition indicative of the sportsman leaving the surface and a second condition indicative of the sportsman returning to the surface;
determining the loft time based upon an elapsed time between the first and second conditions; and
further comprising sensing gradual changes in the spectrum of information to detect stopping of the moving sportsman so as to exclude the stopping as loft time.
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Specification