Last week the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of patent applications from Samsung revealing varying wearable computer concepts. Yesterday we posted a report titled "Samsung to Advance Smart Wearables to Hazard Suits." In today's report we cover Samsung's wearables patent relating to an exercise garment system that integrates bio-signal and motion sensors to measure a user's adherence to training video poses and posture. The system is to provide audio feedback to the user to assist them in achieving the correct exercise pose and warn them if they're blood pressure is peeking too quickly.
Samsung's Patent Background
A user plays content such as an instructional video teaching yoga, dances, and other exercises on a TV and then attempts to copy the poses shown in the video. However, it is difficult for the user to know whether they have exactly copied the pose that was on the video. In particular, when the user does yoga, the user is to take an exact pose in order to maximize an exercise effect. Therefore, when the user takes a wrong pose, the exercise effect may be reduced compared to an exercise time. Accordingly, a technology for exactly measuring and managing a pose of a user is required.
Samsung Invents an Exercise Wearable Device & Service
Samsung's invention generally relates to system that provides a wearable device and that works as a service with a display device like a TV, tablet, notebook, desktop and a smartphone. The wearable device is in the form of a garment that can sense motion and bio-signals which checks each pose of the user during exercise and provides direct feedback.
The wearable device may further include at least one body part which is formed of a flexible material and supports the motion sensor, the bio-signal sensor, the communicator, and the controller, and a plurality of vibrators which are distributed in the body part, the controller vibrating the plurality of vibrators according to a feedback signal transmitted from the display device to provide a feedback to the user.
The motion sensor may include a plurality of acceleration sensors and a plurality of electromyogram (EMG) sensors which are disposed in association with the plurality of vibration actuators. The instructional content may relate to yoga, Pilates, golf and dance. If the pose of the user disagrees with a reference pose stored in the content, the controller may vibrate one of the plurality of vibrators corresponding to a disagreeing portion of the user's pose to provide a feedback to the user.
Exemplary embodiments of Samsung's invention also provide a display device including a storage device to store a content, a display unit to display an execution screen if the content is executed, a communicator to receive a sensing signal and a bio-signal of a motion of a user from a wearable device worn on a body of the user, a controller to determine a pose of the user according to the sensing signal and the bio-signal, display the pose of the user on the execution screen, and compare the pose of the user with a reference pose stored in the content, and a voice output unit to output as a voice the comparison result between the pose of the user and the reference pose.
The voice output unit 240 of FIG. 4 above outputs various types of informing sounds or voice signals related to an exercise service. The controller #220 controls the voice output unit to output the comparison result between the pose of the user and the reference pose as a voice. In detail, if a right leg of the user is raised up at the back lower than the reference pose, the controller may generate a voice signal like "Raise the right leg further backwards" and output the voice signal through the voice output unit 240.
If the user breathes hard, the controller may generate a voice signal like "Adjust breathing with keeping the current pose" and output the voice signal through the voice output unit.
Alternatively, the controller may determine whether the user takes a pose by force or an exercise is dangerous, based on a bio-signal such as a temperature, a blood pressure, or the like of the user. In other words, if the temperature or the blood pressure rises or drops rapidly, the controller may output a warning message through via the display unit (TV) or the voice output unit and transmit a warning signal to the wearable device through the communicator.
The controller may generate a feedback signal indicating the comparison result between the pose of the user and the reference pose and transmit the feedback signal to the wearable device through the communicator.
Samsung filed their patent application back in Q4 2013. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.
To understand the make-up of the suit and battery system, see our report titled "Samsung to Advance Smart Wearables to Hazard Suits."
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