Method and system for measuring energy expenditure and foot incline in individuals

• US 8,375,784 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2011
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Utah Research Foundation (State of Utah)
• Original Assignee: University of Utah Research Foundation (State of Utah)
• Inventors: Bamberg, Stacy J. Morris, Fahlberg, Mark Allen
• Primary Examiner(s): THOMPSON, JEWEL VERGIE
• Application Number:
  US13/074,926
• Publication Number:
  US 20110178720A1
• Time in Patent Office: 693 Days
• Field of Search: 732/790.5, 731/72, 725/9, 702/160, 455/3.01, 709/231, 600/587, 600/592
• US Class Current: 73/379.05
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 17/00 Insoles for insertion, e.g. footbeds or inlays, for attachment to the shoe after the upper has been joined
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/34 with electrical or electronic arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 7/00 Footwear with health or hygienic arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1038 Measuring plantar pressure during gait
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/222 combined with detection or measurement of physiological parameters, e.g. heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4866 Evaluating metabolism A61B5/083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6807 Footwear
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 13/00 Indicating or recording presence, absence, or direction, of movement electric switches H01H; counting moving objects G06M7/00

Abstract

A method and system for measuring energy expenditure of individuals by measuring force from a plurality of foot-borne force sensitive resistors and calculating incline from a foot-borne tri-axial accelerometer.

Claims

1. A system for analyzing motion of a user, comprising:

a tri-axial accelerometer affixed to a user'"'"'s foot;

a processor coupled to the tri-axial accelerometer; and

a computer memory coupled to the processor, the computer memory comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the following;

a) collecting accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer;

b) determining incline during stance phase based on the accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer using an electronic processor;

c) determining stance phase based on the accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer using the electronic processor; and

d) determining an energy expenditure of the individual based on the inclination of the shoe with respect to the ground over a period of time using the electronic processor.

2. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

determining energy expenditure of the individual based on the accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer using the electronic processor.

3. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

affixing a plurality of force sensitive resistors with respect to the user'"'"'s foot;

collecting force data from the plurality of force sensitive resistors; and

determining stance phase based on the force data from the plurality of force sensitive resistors using the electronic processor.

4. The system in accordance with claim 3, further comprising:

determining an energy expenditure of the individual based on the force applied to the shoe and the inclination of the shoe with respect to the ground over a period of time using the electronic processor.

5. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein determining stance phase further includes determining a magnitude of acceleration vector utilizing the equation:

6. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

estimating incline utilizing the equation;

7. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

determining offset between the shoe and the sensor board when the system is initialized and the foot is on level ground utilizing the equation;

8. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

positioning a toe piece of an insole with at least one force sensitive resistor at a toe of the shoe;

positioning a heel piece of the insole with at least one force sensitive resistor at a heel of the shoe; and

positioning a middle piece of the insole with the tri-axial accelerometer in the shoe between the toe and heel pieces.

9. A system for measuring activity in an individual, comprising:

a multi-sensor insole disposed in a shoe including a plurality of force sensitive resistors and a tri-axial accelerometer;

a processor coupled to the tri-axial accelerometer; and

a computer memory coupled to the processor, the computer memory comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the following;

a) collecting data from the multi-sensor insole, including force data from the plurality of force sensitive resistors and accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer;

b) analyzing the data from the sensors of the multi-sensor insole with an electronic processor to determine the energy expenditure of the individual based on the force data and inclination of the shoe with respect to the ground during stance phase over a period of time; and

c) determining stance phase based on the force data from the plurality of force sensitive resistors.

10. The system in accordance with claim 9, further comprising:

estimating the inclination utilizing the equation;

11. The system in accordance with claim 10, further comprising:

determining offset between the shoe and the sensor board when the system is initialized and the foot is on level ground utilizing the equation;

12. The system in accordance with claim 11, further comprising:

determining stance phase based on the force data and the accelerometer data and utilizing the equations;

13. The system in accordance with claim 9, further comprising:

an insole disposable in the shoe and configured to contain and position the sensor array across a sole footprint of the shoe.

14. The system in accordance with claim 13, wherein the insole further comprises:

a toe piece with at least one force sensitive resistor configured to be positioned at a toe of the shoe;

a heel piece with at least one force sensitive resistor configured to be positioned at a heel of the shoe; and

a middle piece between the toe and heel pieces; and

the toe, heel and middle pieced being held together but movably positioned with respect to one another.

15. In a computing environment, a non transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions which, in a system including a tri-axial accelerometer affixed to a user'"'"'s foot and a processor coupled to the tri-axial accelerometer, when executed by a computing processor, implement the following acts:

a) collecting accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer;

b) determining incline during stance phase based on the accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer using an electronic processor;

c) determining stance phase based on the accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer; and

d) determining an energy expenditure of the individual based on the inclination of the shoe with respect to the ground over a period of time.

16. The computer readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, further comprising:

determining energy expenditure of the individual based on the accelerometer data from the tri-axial accelerometer using the electronic processor.

17. The computer readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, in the system including the tri-axial accelerometer affixed to the user'"'"'s foot and the processor coupled to the tri-axial accelerometer and including a plurality of force sensitive resistors affixed to the user'"'"'s foot, further comprising:

collecting force data from the plurality of force sensitive resistors; and

determining stance phase based on the force data from the plurality of force sensitive resistors using the electronic processor.

18. The computer readable storage medium in accordance with claim 17, further comprising:

determining an energy expenditure of the individual based on the force applied to the shoe and the inclination of the shoe with respect to the ground over a period of time using the electronic processor.

19. The computer readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein determining stance phase further includes determining a magnitude of acceleration vector utilizing the equation:

20. The computer readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, further comprising:

estimating incline utilizing the equation;

21. The computer readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, further comprising:

determining offset between the shoe and the sensor board when the system is initialized and the foot is on level ground utilizing the equation;