DETECTING AND PROVIDING PLAYER INFORMATION WITH SENSOR AT THE PLAYER SIDE

• US 20110269517A1
• Filed: 11/17/2009
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cairos Technologies Ag
• Original Assignee: Cairos Technologies Ag
• Inventors: Habel, Thorsten, Englert, Walter
• Granted Patent: US 8,678,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/7
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/34 with electrical or electronic arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 5/02 Football boots or shoes, i.e. for soccer, football or rugby
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2209/08 magnetic
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/36 Speed measurement by electric or magnetic parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/56 Pressure
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/58 Measurement of force related parameters by electric or magnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/62 Time or time measurement used for time reference, time stamp, master time or clock signal
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/801 Contact switches
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/89 Field sensors, e.g. radar systems
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/15 with identification means that can be read by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/54 Transponders, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2243/0025 Football American football A63B2243/007
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 43/00 Balls with special arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 43/004 electrically conductive, e.g. for automatic arbitration
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0605 Decision makers and devices using detection means facilitating arbitration

Abstract

A system for detecting and providing information assigned to soccer players, wherein the system contains a soccer ball (130) comprising a centrally arranged magnetic field generator (142) for generating an alternating magnetic field (150); a transceiver (148) for receiving radio signals (160) and for transmitting collected player information; a control unit (144) for evaluating received radio signals and assigning timestamps to IDs of received radio signals; a source of energy; and a memory for storing and reading out player information based on the IDs with assigned timestamps; and a device (120) for sensing the generated magnetic field in a soccer shoe and for transmitting an ID assigned to the device, comprising a magnetic field sensor (122) for sensing and measuring the magnetic filed (105); a control unit (124); and a transmitting unit (128) for transmitting a radio signal (160) which contains the ID assigned to the device (120), wherein the transmitting unit is actively supplied with energy, and wherein the radio signal is transmitted under control by the control unit.

Claims

1. A device (120) for detecting a magnetic field (150) in a playing device of a ball game, wherein the playing device can be assigned to a player, and for transmitting an ID assigned to the device, the device containing:

a magnetic field sensor (122) for sensing and measuring a magnetic field;

a control unit (124); and

a transmitting unit (128) for transmitting a radio signal (160) containing the ID assigned to the device (120),

wherein the radio signal is transmitted under control of the control unit.

2. The device according to claim 1, which further contains a source of energy (126) for actively supplying at least the transmitting unit with energy.

3. The device according to claim 1 or 2, which further contains a memory (121) for reading out the ID and for writing values of measured magnetic field strengths with associated timestamps.

4. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a magnetic field strength is periodically measured.

5. The device according to any one of claim 3 or 4, wherein at least one set of data of measured magnetic field strength and associated timestamp refers to the Earth'"'"'s magnetic field.

6. A game ball (130) for detecting and providing information assigned to players of a ball game, wherein the game ball contains:

a magnetic field generator (142) for generating an alternating magnetic field (150);

a transceiver (148) for receiving radio signals (160) which are transmitted in response to a detection of the generated alternating magnetic field and which contain an ID which can be assigned to a player, and for transmitting collected player information;

a control unit (144) for evaluating received radio signals and for assigning timestamps to IDs of received radio signals;

a source of energy (146); and

a memory for writing and reading out player information based on the IDs with assigned timestamps.

7. The game ball according to claim 6, which further contains a pressure sensor arrangement and an acceleration sensor.

8. The game ball according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the magnetic field generator contains at least three coils that are electrically actuated such that the resulting magnetic field vector rotates in three dimensions, wherein the rotary frequency is considerably higher than the rotation frequency of the game ball that is possible during the game.

9. A system for detecting and providing information assigned to soccer players, wherein the system contains:

a soccer ball (130) comprising

a centrally arranged magnetic field generator (142) for generating an alternating magnetic field (150);

a transceiver (148) for receiving radio signals (160) and for transmitting collected player information;

a control unit (144) for evaluating received radio signals and assigning timestamps to IDs of received radio signals;

a source of energy; and

a memory for storing and reading out player information based on the IDs with associated timestamps; and

a device (120) for sensing the generated magnetic field in a soccer shoe and for transmitting an ID assigned to the device, comprising

a magnetic field sensor (122) for sensing and measuring the magnetic field (150);

a control unit (124); and

a transmitting unit (128) for transmitting a radio signal (160) which contains the ID assigned to the device (120),

wherein the transmitting unit is actively supplied with energy, and wherein the radio signal is transmitted under control of the control unit.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the generated alternating magnetic field (150) has a frequency of 3 kHz and the radio signal (160) has a carrier frequency of 2.4 GHz.

11. The system according to claim 9 or 10, which further contains:

a readout device (610) with radio receiver (640) for receiving (660) the collected player information.

12. A method for detecting and providing player information using a sensor at the player side, the method comprising the steps of:

generating (410) a magnetic field in a game ball;

detecting (420) the magnetic field with a magnetic field sensor of a device (120) mounted in a playing device of a ball game, wherein the playing device can be assigned to a player;

transmitting (430) a radio signal by the device (120), wherein the radio signal contains an ID assigned to the device; and

receiving (440) the radio signal including the ID in the game ball.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

assigning a timestamp to the ID; and

storing (450) the ID with timestamp.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

measuring the magnetic field strength with the magnetic field sensor,

wherein transmitting a radio signal further comprises transmitting a radio signal by the device, wherein the radio signal contains an ID assigned to the device and the measured magnetic field strength;

analyzing (444) the radio signal, comprising comparing the measured magnetic field strength with measured magnetic field strengths contained in other radio signals which are received in a specific time frame around the reception of the radio signal, and determining a maximum magnetic field strength for the time frame; and

storing that ID with assigned timestamp that is assigned to the maximum magnetic field strength.

15. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 14, further comprising the steps of:

determining (510) a contact event by means of a pressure sensor included in the game ball;

transmitting (520) a measurement command by the game ball;

measuring a reference magnetic field strength by the magnetic field sensor in response to the reception of the measurement command;

determining a point in time at which the magnetic field strength measured by the magnetic field sensor has dropped to a specific fraction of the reference magnetic field strength; and

transmitting a radio signal to the game ball, including the ID and a timestamp corresponding to the determined point in time to the game ball.