Pressure mapping and orientation sensing system

• US 9,488,538 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2013
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smart Skin Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: Smart Skin Technologies Inc.
• Inventors: Thillainadarajah, Kumaran, Kormendy, Arpad, MacDonald, Adam Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Noori, Max
• Application Number:
  US14/375,331
• Publication Number:
  US 20140366650A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,377 Days
• Field of Search: 738/623.91, 738/626.25, 738/629.46
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2060/464 Means for indicating or measuring the pressure on the grip
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/56 Pressure
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/833 Sensors arranged on the exercise apparatus or sports implement
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 49/08 with special construction of the handle
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/14 Handles
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 60/46 Measurement devices associated with golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like for measuring physical parameters relating to sporting activity, e.g. baseball bats with impact indicators or bracelets for measuring the golf swing
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/36 for golf
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 1/18 using properties of piezo-resistive materials, i.e. materials of which the ohmic resistance varies according to changes in magnitude or direction of force applied to the material
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 1/26 Auxiliary measures taken, or devices used, in connection with the measurement of force, e.g. for preventing influence of transverse components of force, for preventing overload
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 5/008 Force sensors integrated in an article or a dummy workpiece
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports

Abstract

This disclosure if directed to an improved pressure, force, and orientation sensing system, which may be applied to various industrial articles or sports equipment, fore remote performance analysis and user interface. Where applied to sports equipment, including a golf club, the sensor array of flexible and resilient piezo-resistive material permits collection of grip force data for an array of positions around and along the golf club grip handle; for the analysis, processing and communication of the data once collected, and a method of providing automated golf instruction using a force sensing golf grip of the present invention. Where applied to improved manufacturing lines and shipping of containers, force sensing packages may be equipped with the sensor arrays disclosed herein. The force sensing package is of similar shape to a standard sized package the ordinary forces on which are being tested and by the sampled force sensing package. Control and display software collects the force sensing data, and possibly other data (including motion and orientation data), and communicates it to analytics and display software remote from the device. The force sensing package is comprised of layers, at least two of the layers of which is a force sensing material and a related electrode array. Shapes disclosed are cylinders (cans), cylinders with conic portions (bottle), and parallelepipeds (boxes).

Claims

1. A pressure mapping system for measuring and analyzing forces applied to an object over time, the pressure mapping system comprising:

a pressure sensor comprising a plurality of electrode pads in an electrode array layer proximate to a pressure sensing material layer of piezo-resistive material, the plurality of electrode pads being formed upon a printed circuit board shaped for one or more exterior surfaces of the object, the plurality of electrode pads measuring forces on the pressure sensing material layer;

a plurality of multiplexers coupled to the plurality of electrode pads, wherein each electrode pad is coupled to only one multiplexer in the plurality of multiplexers;

an internal processor in communication with the plurality of multiplexers, the internal processor being configured to obtain measurements of the forces on the pressure sensing material layer from the printed circuit board, identify locations of the forces on the pressure sensing material layer, and transmit the measurements and the locations of the forces on the pressure sensing material layer as data over a network; and

an external processor configured to receive the data over the network, and analyze the data to generate diagnostic information relating to the measurements and the locations of the forces on the pressure sensing material layer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the internal processor further comprises one or more orientation sensors for obtaining orientation estimates of the object, and wherein the data comprises the orientation estimates, and the diagnostic information comprises estimated relative positions of the object over time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the piezo-resistive material is chosen from the set of piezo-resistive materials consisting of:

fabrics coated with one or more conductive materials;

conductive foams, nanotube based polymers, carbon black based polymers, and graphite doped plastics.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a common ground terminal is connected to the piezo-resistive material and wherein the electrode pads measure the forces on the pressure sensing material layer by measuring impedance across the piezo-resistive material.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein sets of the electrode pads are connected as rows, sets of the electrode pads are connected as columns, and sets of the electrode pads are connected as squares, and wherein each of the plurality of electrode pads cannot be part of more than one set, and each set of rows, columns and squares is coupled to only one multiplexer in the plurality of multiplexers.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein electrical connections to the electrode pads are also formed upon the printed circuit board, and wherein the printed circuit board is flexible.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more spacers are located upon the printed circuit board between the electrode pads so as to bias the pressure sensing material layer away from the electrode array layer.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more spacers are adhered to the pressure sensing material layer.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein tracings from eight groups of unconnected electrode pads form flexible leads on the flexible printed circuit board.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the internal processor and the plurality of multiplexers are designed to be disposed within the object and the flexible leads further pass through an opening to a cavity within the object to couple the plurality of electrode pads to the plurality of multiplexers.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more orientation sensors are sampled at a motion sampling rate of between 0 Hz and 2000 Hz, and the electrode pads within the pressure sensor are sampled at a dynamic pressure sampling rate depending on activity of sensors of between 0 Hz and 2000 Hz.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the external processor comprises a graphical user interface capable of displaying the estimated positions of the object over time and the estimated locations of forces on the pressure sensing layer on the object over time, as stills or video of a 3-dimensional representation of the object with the active pressure sensing layer upon it.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the object is a container sized to model an industrial article on a manufacturing line.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the object with the system applied to it has the same dimensions as a standard aluminum can, and the electrode array layer is adhered about the cylindrical surface of the can.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the object with the system applied to it has the same dimensions as a standard bottle, and the electrode array layer is adhered about the cylindrical surface of the bottle.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the object with the system applied to it has the same dimensions as a standard box, and the electrode array layer is adhered about all six surfaces of the box.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the object is a container sized to model a container for transportation.

18. A pressure sensor for use in a pressure mapping system configured to measure forces applied to an object over time, the pressure sensor comprising:

a plurality of electrode pads in an electrode array layer proximate to a pressure sensing material layer;

wherein the plurality of electrode pads are formed upon a flexible printed circuit board shaped for one or more exterior surfaces of the object;

wherein the plurality of electrode pads are configured to measure force on the pressure sensing material layer; and

wherein the plurality of electrode pads are coupled to a processor via a plurality of multiplexers, wherein each electrode pad is coupled to only one multiplexer in the plurality of multiplexers.

19. The pressure sensor of claim 18, wherein:

the pressure sensing material layer comprises piezo-resistive material;

a common ground terminal is connected to the piezo-resistive material; and

the electrode pads measure the forces on the pressure sensing material layer by measuring impedance across the piezo-resistive material.

20. The pressure sensor of claim 18, wherein:

a first set of electrode pads in the plurality of electrode pads are connected as a row;

a second set of electrode pads in the plurality of electrode pads are connected as a column;

a third get of the electrode pads in the plurality of electrode pads are connected as a square;

each electrode pad in the of the plurality of electrode pads cannot be part of more than one of the first set, second set, and third set; and

each of the first set, second set, and third set is coupled to only one multiplexer in the plurality of multiplexers.