Movement Monitoring Device For Action Sports, And Associated Methods
A movement monitoring device (MMD) for action sports has a detector for sensing motion associated with action sports, a processor for processing data from the detector to determine one or more movement metrics, and a communications port for wirelessly relaying the movement metrics to a remote location. A method collects motion data within action sports, including: detecting motion of a person or object engaged in action sports; determining one or more events associated with the motion; and wirelessly relaying the events to a remote network. One MMD for action sports is formed within a cell phone having a detector for sensing motion associated with action sports and a processor for processing data from the detector to determine one or more movement metrics for (a) display to a person using carrying the cell phone during action sports or (b) relaying the movement metrics to an external network for review by others.
1 . A movement monitoring device (MMD) for action sports, comprising:
a detector for generating a signal in response to movement of the device;
a clock;
a processor for processing the signal to generate one or more movement events and for time-tagging the movement events with time information from the clock; and
a first communications port for communicating events, tagged with the time information, to a receiver remote from the device.
2 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising one of a rigid monolithic housing or a protective wrapper for holding the detector, processor and communications port.
3 . MMD of claim 2 , further comprising one of an adhesive, a mechanical pin, a magnetic element and a mechanical clip, for attaching the housing to (a) a vehicle used in the action sports or to (b) an individual engaged in the action sports.
4 . MMD of claim 1 , the action sports being selected from the group of skiing, snowboarding, wakeboarding, skateboarding, off-road biking, bmx, mountain biking and FMX.
5 . MMD of claim 1 , wherein the detector and processor are within a single ASIC.
6 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising a label with adhesive for attaching the detector, processor and communications port to a person or to objects used by the person in the action sports.
7 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising a plastic body formed in credit card size for housing the detector, processor and communications port, to be carried by the person involved in action sports.
8 . MMD of claim 7 , wherein the communications port is a transponder.
9 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising a battery for powering the detector, processor and communications port.
10 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising the receiver at the remote location.
11 . MMD of claim 10 , the remote receiver comprising one of a cell phone, an MP3 player, a pager, a watch and a PDA.
12 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising the remote receiver, the processor relaying event the movement events to the remote receiver.
13 . MMD of claim 12 , the remote receiver comprising one of a cell phone, an MP3 player, a pager, a watch and a PDA.
14 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising the remote receiver, the communications port relaying the movement events within set time intervals to the remote receiver, to reflect movement information of a moving sportsman involved in the action sports.
15 . MMD of claim 14 , the remote receiver comprising one of a cell phone, an MP3 player, a pager, a watch and a PDA.
16 . MMD of claim 14 , the set time intervals comprising one of a second, a half minute, a minute, a half hour or an hour.
17 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising a cellular network linked to data relayed by the communications port for providing movement metrics to at least one cell phone in the cellular network.
18 . MMD of claim 1 , wherein the communications port comprises one of an RFID tag, a transceiver and an infrared transmitter.
19 . MMD of claim 1 , wherein movement events at the remote receiver are time-tagged.
20 . MMD of claim 1 , the clock being a real time clock for time tagging movement events.
21 . MMD of claim 1 , the detector and processor formed with a printed circuit board having multilayers, including layers forming terminals for a battery to power the MMD.
22 . MMD of claim 1 , the detector and processor foamed with a printed circuit board having terminals on each side of the printed circuit board, to connect a battery to power the MMD.
23 . MMD of claim 22 , one of the terminals comprising a conductive force terminal to force a circuit between the battery and the printed circuit board.
24 . MMD of claim 1 , the communications port relaying movement metrics in batches or bursts.
25 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising adhesive bandage packaging to hold the detector, processor and communications port, such that the MMD may be attached to a person or object engaged in the action sports.
26 . MMD of claim 1 , the detector comprising at least one accelerometer, and wherein the movement events comprise free fall airtime.
27 . MMD of claim 1 , the movement events comprising one or more of airtime, speed, power, impact, drop distance, jarring and spin.
28 . MMD of claim 27 , wherein the detector comprises at least one accelerometer and wherein the processor determines one or more of the movement events as airtime, speed, power, drop or jump distance, vertical travel, jarring and spin for a moving person involved in board sports.
29 . MMD of claim 27 , wherein the detector comprises a pressure sensor, and wherein the processor determines one or more of the movement events as vertical travel or jump distance.
30 . MMD of claim 27 , wherein the detector comprises at least one of a magnetorestrive element, a hall effect detector, a gyroscope, an electrolytic tilt device and a rotational accelerometer, and wherein the processor determines the movement event of spin.
31 . MMD of claim 1 , the communications port time sequentially relaying movement events to the remote location such that a person's movement in the action sports is tracked in real time.
32 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising a shoe to house the detector, processor and communications port, wherein the shoe, worn by a user engaged in board sports as the action sports, relays the movement events to the remote location.
33 . MMD of claim 32 , the movement events comprising weight of the person.
34 . MMD of claim 1 , wherein the detector comprises at least one accelerometer and wherein the movement events comprise g's.
35 . MMD of claim 34 , wherein the g's are reported as movement events in intervals of 1, 5 or 10 g's.
36 . MMD of claim 1 , wherein the detector comprises tension or compression load cells, such that the movement events comprise an event exceeding, or alternatively not exceeding, a preselected threshold.
37 . MMD of claim 1 , the processor further determining caloric burn for relay to the receiver.
38 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising interne or television networks to capture data from the remote receiver.
39 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising sensors for determining one or more of temperature, humidity, chemicals, heart rate, pulse, pressure, stress and weight, to be relayed with the movement events to the remote receiver.
40 . MMD of claim 1 , wherein the detector, processor and communications port are constructed and arranged in packaging for single use.
41 . MMD of claim 1 , further comprising a GPS sensor to determine position to be relayed with the movement events.
42 . MMD of claim 1 , wherein the detector comprises at least one accelerometer and wherein the processor processes data from the accelerometer using an airtime detection algorithm involving two pseudo-power level signals, to determine movement events of airtime.
43 . MMD of claim 1 , wherein the detector comprises at least one accelerometer and wherein the processor processes data from the accelerometer using state machine logic to determine airtime as one movement event.
44 . A method for collecting motion data within action sports, comprising:
detecting motion of a person or object engaged in action sports;
determining one or more events associated with the motion;
wirelessly relaying the events to a remote network, and time-tagging the events.
45 . The method of claim 44 , the remote network comprising at least one mobile phone.
46 . The method of claim 44 , the events comprising one or more of g's, airtime, spin, drop distance, impact, power, speed and jarring, the action sports comprising one of skiing, snowboarding, wakeboarding, skateboarding, off-road biking, bmx, mountain biking and FMX.
47 . The method of claim 44 , wherein detecting motion comprises utilizing one or more of at least one accelerometer, a magnetorestrictive element, a gyroscope, a pressure sensor, a hall effect sensor and a tilt device.
48 . The method of claim 44 , wherein detecting motion comprises utilizing at least one accelerometer, and further comprising processing data from the accelerometer through an airtime detection algorithm involving two pseudo-power level signals and state machine logic dependent upon confidence of take-off and landings of a vehicle used in the action sports.
49 . The method of claim 48 , the vehicle comprising one of a skateboard, a snowboard, a ski and a wakeboard.
50 . The method of claim 44 , further comprising providing data to computer software such that limitations are placed on participant movements within the computer software based upon actual events relayed to the remote network.
51 . A movement monitoring device (MMD) for board sports, comprising:
a cell phone having a detector for sensing motion associated with board sports, and
a processor for processing data from the detector to determine, and time-tag, one or more movement metrics for display to a person using or carrying the cell phone while involved in board sports.
52 . MMD of claim 51 , the cell phone optionally relaying movement metrics to a remote location through a cellular network, for access by others through the internet.
53 . MMD of claim 51 , the board sports comprising one of skiing, snowboarding, wakeboarding and skateboarding.
54 . MMD of claim 51 , wherein the detector and processor are within a single ASIC.
55 . MMD of claim 51 , wherein the detector comprises at least one accelerometer for sensing acceleration, and wherein the processor processes the acceleration to determine one or more of g's, airtime, spin, drop distance, impact, power, speed and jarring as the movement metrics.