SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FLEXIBLE SENSORS FOR ELECTRONIC ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE DATA

Abstract

A light weight flexible sensor system having flexible packaging and rounded edges, and analytics package that delivers a professional athlete's routine, drill, and/or move to an end user. The sensor system includes a network of physical devices embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity to enable the sensors to connect and exchange data.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a non-provisional of, and claims the benefit of, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/592,337, filed Nov. 29, 2017, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/592,357, filed Nov. 29, 2017, which applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic sensors and more specifically, but not exclusively, to flexible sensors for combat sports.

BACKGROUND

A fan watching a sporting event often cannot fully appreciate the performance of their favorite professional athlete. For example, a combat sports fan often wonders how hard a fighter is actually punching. In order to obtain sensor data for subsequent analytics or content production, motion data from the hands of the fighters in combat sports, such as boxing or mixed martial arts need to be collected. However, conventional sensors used in striking sports have rigid packages, sharp corners, and are large, thick and heavy. All of these properties are undesirable, and compromise the suitability of a sensor to an application in striking sports. For example, these conventional sensors can injure the fighters.

In view of the foregoing, a need exists for an improved sensor system and method for measuring electronic data capturing the performance profile of professional athletes in an effort to overcome the aforementioned obstacles and deficiencies of conventional athletic sensor systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a performance management system for use with a flexible sensor assembly;

FIG. 2 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of the performance management system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a circuit board and battery system for use with the flexible sensor assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a flexible stress relief system for packaging the circuit board and battery system of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a protection system for packaging the flexible stress relief system of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of stress on the protection system of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a combat glove system for use with the flexible sensor system;

FIG. 8 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of the flexible sensor system; and

FIG. 9 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of the performance management system of FIG. 1 that includes a cloud service for processing the data received from the flexible sensor assembly of FIG. 1.

It should be noted that the figures are not drawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions are generally represented by like reference numerals for illustrative purposes throughout the figures. It also should be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the preferred embodiments. The figures do not illustrate every aspect of the described embodiments and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Since currently-available sensor systems are deficient because they fail to provide safety to athletes when measuring an athletic performance, a flexible sensor system that enables actions of the fighters to be collected for generating content can prove desirable and provide a basis for a wide range of applications, such as the ability to improve their suitability to applications in striking sports and for subsequent analytics and/or content production. This result can be achieved, according to one embodiment disclosed herein, by a performance management system 100.

Turning to FIG. 1, the performance management system 100 includes a sensor system 110. In some embodiments, the sensor system 110 has flexible packaging, rounded edges, and is small, thin, and light weight. The sensor system 110 can run for an extended period of time (e.g., several hours) on a single battery charge.

The sensors included into the flexible sensor system 110 can include, but are not limited to, one or more low-g accelerometers, high-g accelerometers, gyroscopes, biometric sensors, and magnetometers.

In a preferred embodiment, the sensors can communicate with a central server 120 using interfaces to a wireless communications network integrated into the flexible sensor system and include, but are not limited to, one or more of Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth 5 sensor systems. By way of example, the flexible sensor system can communicate with the central server 120 from a venue 130. Exemplary venues 130 include, but are not limited to, sporting arenas, combat cages, athletic stadiums, warehouses, and so on.

The wireless communication networks also can include any category of conventional wireless communications, for example, radio, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), cellular, satellite, and broadcasting. Exemplary suitable wireless communication technologies include, but are not limited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), CDMA2000, IMT Single Carrier, Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced, Time-Division LTE (TD-LTE), High Performance Radio Local Area Network (HiperLAN), High Performance Radio Wide Area Network (HiperWAN), High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HiperMAN), Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), ZigBee, Bluetooth, Flash Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (Flash-OFDM), High Capacity Spatial Division Multiple Access (HC-SDMA), iBurst, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), UMTS Time-Division Duplexing (UMTS-TDD), Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+), Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) and others.

With reference to FIG. 2, another exemplary embodiment of the performance management system 100 is shown in further detail. As illustrated, the flexible sensor 110 can include a glove sensor that establishes a near-field communication, such as a Bluetooth communication, with a near-field communication dongle 111 (e.g., a patch antenna or a Bluetooth dongle). In a preferred embodiment, the flexible sensor 110 will only establish the near-field communication with the communication dongle 111 that has been established as a preprogrammed and whitelisted endpoint.

The communication dongle 111 communicates via wired and/or wireless communication with a gateway 112, such as a Bluetooth gateway shown in FIG. 2. In a preferred embodiment, the communication dongle 111 is directly coupled to the gateway 112 via wired communication, such as using a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable. A data portion (not shown) of the data transmission from the flexible sensor 110 to a network switch 113 can be encoded for additional security. By way of example, any symmetric key, private key, or public key encryption can be used to encode the data portion of the data transmission from the flexible sensor 110. In some embodiments, the network switch 113 is coupled to the gateway 112 using an Ethernet cable. The data transmitted from the flexible sensor 110 can include a sensor identification (ID). Additionally and/or alternatively, the data can include an athlete name or other metadata (e.g., athlete birthday, athlete height, athlete age, a timestamp, venue, a fight identifier, a round number, temperature, humidity, and so on) for local data collection.

As also shown in FIG. 2, the data from the venue 130 can be provided to the central server 120 via a network interface 121, such as over a wired or wireless network. In a preferred embodiment, a wireless network such as a fiber optic network is used. The network interface 121 communicates with a local data collection 122, such as using an Ethernet cable. In alternative embodiments, the local data collection 122 communicates with the network switch wirelessly, using any wireless network described herein.

The flexible sensor system 110 can include any number of subcomponents, such as shown in FIGS. 3-7. Turning to FIG. 3, the flexible sensor system 110 can include a sensor circuit board 430 (shown in FIGS. 4-5) and battery assembly 310. The flexible sensor system 110 advantageously combines the circuit board 430 and the battery 310.

With reference to FIG. 4, the sensor circuit board 430 and battery assembly can be connected by a flexible metallic conductor 410. The metallic conductor 410 can be fabricated with meanders, for increased flexibility and decreased stress. This is advantageous for increasing lifetime under severe mechanical stresses. As an additional advantage, meanders achieve both flexibility and elasticity during use, in the event that the substrate is strained. In some embodiments, other flexible fabric substrates can be used.

In a preferred embodiment, during the fabrication process, each of the sensor circuit board 430 and battery assembly 310 is attached to a flexible fiberglass substrate 420, such as shown in FIG. 4. This allows bending in the plane of the substrate, while eliminating any compliance within this plane. By eliminating compliance, stretching of the substrate is prevented, which eliminates excessive tension on the metallic conductors. As can be seen in FIG. 4, the flexible fiberglass substrate 420 is added as a mechanical stress relief layer. Although shown and described as a flexible substrate comprising fiberglass, any non-elastic substrate can be used.

Conventionally, integration of a circuit board, flexible metallic conductors, and a battery can expose the metallic conductors to failure during prolonged mechanical stress.

The flexible sensor package discussed herein advantageously combines the circuit board 430, the flexible metallic conductor 410 (e.g., metallic ribbon conductors), and battery 310 directly into a flexible enclosure. To prevent mechanical failure due to the stresses imposed during use, the flexible fiberglass substrate 420 can be introduced beneath all three components, preventing the stretching of the assembly in its plane of assembly.

In a preferred embodiment, the entire assembly shown in FIG. 4 can be packaged into a flexible silicone rubber enclosure 510, such as shown in FIG. 5. Turning to FIG. 5, a silicon rubber enclosure 510 can be seen. In a preferred embodiment, the flexible silicone rubber enclosure 510 is form fitted to enclose the flexible fiberglass substrate 420, the flexible metallic conductor 410 with the circuit board 430, and the battery assembly 310.

The entire assembly is flexible and can be free of harmful mechanical stresses, as shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 illustrates the packaged assembly undergoing substantial and sufficient flexibility for use in combat athletics. As shown, the packaged assembly can flex in a longitudinal axis of the package, for example, when an external load is applied perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis (e.g., when a combat glove makes contact with another athlete).

In an exemplary embodiment, the sensor packaging includes a flexible enclosure having a maximum physical dimension of 60×25×5 mm, a maximum weight 9 g, a minimum operating shock threshold 200 g's (1,960 m/s2), a long battery life, and an uninterrupted Bluetooth network communication.

Turning to FIG. 7, exemplary fighting gloves 700, such as used by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) organization, are shown. As illustrated, the gloves 700 can include a strap 701 that cinches around the fighter's wrist.

The packaged sensor can be installed onto the glove, beneath the cinch strap 701, such as shown in FIG. 8. Alternatively, the packages sensor can be inserted into a pouch (not shown) sewn into the glove 700.

Additionally and/or alternatively, the data from the local data collection 122 can communicate via wired and/or wireless communication with a cloud service 900, such as provided by Amazon Web Services. Turning to FIG. 9, the cloud service 900 can host an analytics platform 910 that provides content to one or more client devices 950 through a content and user platform 920. The cloud service 900 advantageously provides network isolation, security, and encryption of the received sensor data.

The described embodiments are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, and specific examples thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the described embodiments are not to be limited to the particular forms or methods disclosed, but to the contrary, the present disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives.

Claims

1. A performance management system for use with athletic equipment, comprising:

a flexible sensor assembly; and

a flexible non-elastic substrate for receiving the flexible sensor assembly within the athletic equipment.

2. The performance management system of claim 1, wherein the flexible sensor assembly comprises a sensor circuit board and a battery assembly.

3. The performance management system of claim 2, further comprising a flexible metallic conductor that couples the sensor circuit board and the battery assembly.

4. The performance management system of claim 3, wherein the flexible metallic conductor is fabricated with meanders.

5. The performance management system of claim 1, wherein the flexible non-elastic substrate enables the flexible sensor assembly to flex in a longitudinal axis of the flexible non-elastic substrate when an external load is applied perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis.

6. The performance management system of claim 1, further comprising a flexible silicon rubber enclosure for housing both the flexible sensor assembly and the flexible non-elastic substrate.

7. The performance management system of claim 1, wherein the flexible sensor assembly communicates via near-field communication with a network switch.

8. The performance management system of claim 1, wherein the flexible sensor assembly includes at least one of a low-g accelerometer, a high-g accelerometer, a gyroscope, a biometric sensor, and a magnetometer.

9. The performance management system of claim 1, wherein the athletic equipment comprises combat gloves.

10. The performance management system of claim 1, further comprising a communication dongle in operable communication with the flexible sensor assembly.

11. The performance management system of claim 1, further comprising a central server for receiving data metrics from the flexible sensor assembly.

12. A performance management system for obtaining electronic performance metrics of an athletic performance, comprising:

a sporting venue; and

a server comprising a local data collection system in communication with the venue via a network switch,

wherein the sporting venue enables communication between the server and a sensor system disposed in athletic equipment at the venue, the sensor system comprising: a flexible sensor assembly, a flexible non-elastic substrate for receiving the flexible sensor assembly within the athletic equipment.

13. The performance management system of claim 12, wherein the flexible sensor assembly comprises a sensor circuit board and a battery assembly.

14. The performance management system of claim 13, further comprising a flexible metallic conductor that couples the sensor circuit board and the battery assembly.

15. The performance management system of claim 14, wherein the flexible metallic conductor is fabricated with meanders.

16. The performance management system of claim 12, further comprising a flexible silicon rubber enclosure for housing both the flexible sensor assembly and the flexible non-elastic substrate.

17. The performance management system of claim 12, wherein the flexible sensor assembly includes at least one of a low-g accelerometer, a high-g accelerometer, a gyroscope, a biometric sensor, and a magnetometer.

18. The performance management system of claim 12, wherein the athletic equipment comprises combat gloves.

19. The performance management system of claim 12, further comprising a communication dongle in operable communication with the flexible sensor assembly.

20. The performance management system of claim 12, wherein the central server receives data metrics from the flexible sensor assembly via near-field communication.