WO2006031094A1 - System for improving repetitive swing movements for sports - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an electronic swing-training system consisting of an assembly which is positioned on a golf club, said assembly comprising a frame which is fixed to the club and which contains an electronic element. According to the invention, the electronic element contains: a power source, acceleration sensors, and analogue-to-digital signal converters which are connected to a microprocessor or a digital signal processor running a program which, in response to the signals received from the acceleration sensors, generates a signal that is transformed from a digital signal to an analogue signal by a digital-to-analogue signal converter which is in turn connected to a signal amplifier and a horn which produces the sound that enables the player to receive feedback from his/her swing.

Description

SYSTEM TO IMPROVE REPETITIVE AND BALANCED MOVEMENTS IN SPORTS

Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to equipment for improving repetitive and balanced "swing" movements. Particularly it describes a system that can be placed on a golf club and that contains sensors whose signals are processed by a microcontroller or digital signal processor to emit sounds that give feedback to the user depending on the swing he makes.

Background of the invention

The use of sounds is a familiar and natural way to receive information in our daily lives. For example: when we fill a bottle with water we can hear when the bottle is filling. Or when the car engine is failing we can detect the fault by means of sound, we can also realize events that happen in space such as when another person approaches. In general, information in textual form is more useful when the user is familiar with the subject, and visual and auditory information is more useful when the subject is new to the individual. For example: In the case of a Golf class, when the instructor says "you pulled the ball" it is very difficult for a beginner to know what he did wrong and much more difficult to correct the error. But it is easier to understand what the problem is when the student sees the instructor repeat the wrong movement.

The article "Positiv ^' and Effects of Sound Feedback during the Operation of a Plant Simulator" by Matthias Rauterberg and Erich Styger published in "In B. Blumenthal, J. Gomostaev & C. Unger (Eds.), Human Computer Interaction (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, VoI. 876, pp. 35-44). Berlin: Springer. " It aims to test the hypothesis that people in real situations It is monitoring multiple secondary activities through ambient noise, in this article the use of sound is evaluated to help plant operators monitor the status of processes and to diagnose and fix problems. In general, auditory interfaces are appropriate for transmitting information when the individual occupies their attention, hands and eyes in a main activity and requires real-time feedback. This is the case of a golf swing where the hands and eyes are occupied and it is necessary to obtain feedback when doing the swing. Another example of an application where the eyes and hands are busy and sound is used to transmit information is described by Marcus Watson and Penelope M. Snaderson in his article "INTELLIGIBILITY OF SONIFICATIONS FOR RESPIRATORY MONITORING IN ANESTHESIA""Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 8-12, 2001. "

The main lines of research in the transmission of information using sounds and music are: the use of ambient music for video games, the use of auditory icons and that of "earcons" that are small but important sounds that give information to users. Understand the importance of using sound as an interface, try to play video games without sound and see how your score goes down. As of 1999, researchers began to distinguish between earcons and auditory icons. Earcons are sounds that become familiar, for example, the exclamation point of Windows and the sound a car makes when the driver leaves the keys. Auditory icons consist of real or abstract sounds that are related to events and interactions at the interface. For example the sound that makes the engine of a car when accelerating. The doctoral thesis of Professor Sthepehn Brewster of the department of computer science at the University of Glasgow, in England entitled "Providing a stractured method for integrating non-speech audio into human-computer interfaces" describes the design of sounds for interfaces. The present invention describes an electronic system containing sensors that they are installed on the golf club and allow modeling the trajectory of the golf club and that feed a microprocessor that generates sounds depending on the trajectory of the golf club, the sounds are reproduced by means of a horn or headphones to give feedback to the player. This system can be used by a variety of players in a variety of circumstances. It can be appreciated by experts how this system can be used for other sports to help players in the training of any repetitive balanced swing or swing movement.

Brief description of the drawings Figure 1: It is a conventional perspective of the assembly installed on a golf club.

Figure 2: is a conventional perspective of the components of which the system is composed.

Detailed description of the invention

With reference to these figures, the electronic system for swing training comprises:

An electronic system for training the swing 1 that is placed on the golf club 2. The electronic system comprises a chassis 3 that is attached to the golf club 2 and which contains an electronic tablet 4 which in turn contains: a source of power 5 such as a battery, conventional acceleration and / or torsion sensors 6, which are connected to digital analog signal converters (not illustrated) which in turn are connected to a microprocessor or a digital signal processor 7 the which executes a program that in response to the signals it receives from the sensors 6 generates a signal that is transformed from a digital signal to an analog by a digital signal converter to analog (not illustrated) and which in turn is connected to a signal amplifier (not illustrated) and a horn 8 to produce the sound allowing the player to receive feedback from his swing. Alternatively, the converters Digital analogues can be part of the sensors or the microprocessor or digital signal processor.

This system can have several modalities, for example, the sensors can be in the golf club and the rest of the components can be in another tablet that receives the signals of the sensors by means of cables, of radio frequency signals or by means of infrared light, and this tablet can have speakers to generate the sounds or it can be integrated into stereo headphones for better feedback.

System Operation

When the player moves the golf club the acceleration sensors generate a signal that is received by the microcontroller or digital signal processor, the relationship between the sensor signals is processed by a program that runs in the microcontroller or in the processor. digital signals and that generates the sounds or music that provide the feedback.

Claims

Claims 1 A swing training system, which comprises: i) an electronic tablet, which in turn has: a conventional power source such as a battery, sensors connected to analog to digital signal converters connected to a microcontroller or a digital signal processor which runs a program that in response to the signals of the acceleration sensors generates a sound signal that is transformed by a digital to analog signal converter connected to an amplification circuit and one or more speakers for Produce the sound that gives feedback to the player. This card is inside; ii) a chassis which has a mechanism to be attached to; iii) a sports instrument. 2 A swing training system according to claim 1, characterized in that the components of the electronic tablet can be distributed in several separate electronic cards, which are interconnected by means of cables, radiofrequency signals or infrared light. An electronic system according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the sports instrument is any instrument that requires the user to make a repetitive and balanced movement (swing) such as a golf club, a baseball bat or a racket of tennis.