Virtual coaching based on respiration signals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10524696-B2
Application number	US-201816156586-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2018
Priority date	Jun 14, 2015
Publication date	Jan 7, 2020
Grant date	Jan 7, 2020

Abstract

Disclosed herein are embodiments of an athletic coaching system that includes at least one inward-facing head-mounted thermal camera (CAM) and a computer. Each CAM from among the at least one CAM is configured to take thermal measurements of a region below the nostrils (denoted TH RBN ) of a user. TH RBN are indicative of an exhale stream of the user (e.g., an exhale stream from a nostril and/or from the mouth). The computer is configured to: receive measurements of movements (M move ) involving the user; generate, based on TH RBN and M move , a coaching indication; and present, via a user interface, the coaching indication to the user. In one example, the coaching indication is indicative of a change the user should make to one or more of the following: cadence of movements, stride length, breathing rate, breathing type (mouth or nasal), and duration of exhales.

First claim

We claim:

1. An athletic coaching system, comprising:
at least one inward-facing head-mounted thermal camera (CAM) configured to take thermal measurements of a region below the nostrils (TH RBN ) of a user;
wherein TH RBN are indicative of an exhale stream of the user; and
a computer configured to:
receive measurements of movements (M move ) involving the user;
generate, based on TH RBN and M move a coaching indication; and
present, via a user interface, the coaching indication to the user.

2. The athletic coaching system of claim 1 , further comprising a frame configured to be worn on the user's head; wherein each CAM, from among the at least one CAM, is physically coupled to the frame and weighs below 10 g; and wherein the frame is further configured to hold each CAM, from among the at least one CAM, less than 15 cm from the user's face and above the user's upper lip.

3. The athletic coaching system of claim 1 , further comprising a frame configured to be worn on the user's head; wherein the at least one CAM comprises at least first and second inward-facing head-mounted thermal cameras (CAM1 and CAM2, respectively) that are physically coupled to the right and left sides of the frame, respectively, at a distance that is less than 15 cm from the user's face.

4. The athletic coaching system of claim 1 , further comprising an in-the-ear earbud comprising a microphone configured to measure sounds inside an ear canal (M ear ) of the user; wherein the computer is further configured to generate the coaching indication also based on M ear (in addition to TH RBN and M move ).

5. The athletic coaching system of claim 1 , wherein the coaching indication is indicative of a change the user should make to one or more of the following: cadence of movements, stride length, breathing rate, breathing type (mouth or nasal), and duration of exhales.

6. The athletic coaching system of claim 5 , wherein the computer is further configured to calculate the breathing rate of the user based on TH RBN , and to perform at least one of the following: (i) responsive to the breathing rate being below a first threshold, to include in the coaching indication an instruction to increase the breathing rate, and (ii) responsive to the breathing rate being above a second threshold, to include in the coaching indication an instruction to decrease the breathing rate.

7. The athletic coaching system of claim 5 , wherein the computer is further configured to calculate the cadence of the user based on M move , and to perform at least one of the following: (i) responsive to the cadence being below a first threshold, to include in the coaching indication an instruction to increase the cadence, and (ii) responsive to the cadence being above a second threshold, to include in the coaching indication an instruction to decrease the cadence.

8. The athletic coaching system of claim 5 , wherein the computer is further configured to calculate a value indicative of exhale durations of the user based on TH RBN , and to include in the coaching indication an instruction to increase the exhale durations responsive to determining that the exhale durations are below a threshold.

9. The athletic coaching system of claim 5 , wherein the computer is further configured to generate feature values based on data comprising TH RBN and M move , and to utilize a model to calculate, based on the feature values, a value indicative of whether the change is needed.

10. The athletic coaching system of claim 1 , wherein the computer is further configured to calculate a target breathing rate based on data comprising at least one of TH RBN and M move , and to include in the coaching indication breathing cues that correspond to the target breathing rate.

11. The athletic coaching system of claim 10 , wherein the computer is further configured to receive a value indicative of a heart rate (HR) of the user, and to calculate the target breathing rate based on HR (in addition to at least one of TH RBN and M move ).

12. The athletic coaching system of claim 10 , wherein the computer is further configured to calculate a current breathing rate based on TH RBN , and to calculate first and second thresholds; wherein the first threshold is below the target breathing rate and second threshold is above the target breathing rate, and responsive to the current breathing rate being below the first threshold or above the second threshold, the computer instructs the user interface to start providing the breathing cues or to increase intensity of provided breathing cues.

13. The athletic coaching system of claim 10 , wherein the breathing cues comprise auditory cues that have a frequency that corresponds to the target breathing rate.

14. The athletic coaching system of claim 1 , wherein the coaching indication is indicative of synchronization of a breathing pattern of the user with a sequence of movements of the user.

15. The athletic coaching system of claim 14 , wherein sequence of movements of the user corresponds to a pressing motion of weights or a barbell, and the coaching indication indicates to inhale in the concentric phase of the press and exhale in the eccentric phase of the press.

16. The athletic coaching system of claim 14 , wherein sequence of movements of the user corresponds to swinging a racket in order to hit a ball with the racket, and the coaching indication indicates to exhale while hitting the ball.

17. The athletic coaching system of claim 14 , wherein sequence of movements of the user corresponds to making a drive shot in golf, and the coaching indication indicates to: exhale at address, inhale during the backswing, and exhale again on the downswing.

18. The athletic coaching system of claim 14 , wherein the computer is further configured to determine whether the user did not breathe in an appropriate pattern while performing the certain movement sequence; and wherein responsive to determining that the user did not breathe in the appropriate pattern, the computer is further configured to notify the user thereof via a user interface.

19. The athletic coaching system of claim 14 , wherein the computer is further configured to generate feature values based on TH RBN and M move and to utilize a model to calculate, based on the feature values, a value indicative of whether the breathing pattern was synchronized with the sequence of movements; wherein the model was trained based on data comprising: a first set of previous TH RBN and M move of one or more users, taken while performing the sequence of movements and breathing in a pattern that is synchronized with the sequence of movements, and a second set of previous TH RBN and M move of the one or more users while performing the sequence of movements and breathing in a pattern that is not synchronized with the sequence of movements.

20. The athletic coaching system of claim 14 , wherein M move comprise values acquired with at least one of an accelerometer and a gyroscope, which are disposed in an object carried by the user or a garment worn by the user.

Assignees

• Facense Ltd

Inventors

• Tzvieli Arie
• Thieberger Gil
• Frank Ari M

Classifications

• A63B23/00

  Exercising apparatus specially adapted for particular parts of the body (A63B22/00 takes precedence; force-resisting aspects A63B21/00; electric or electronic controls therefor A63B24/00; devices for exercising or strengthening of fingers, or arms in teaching operation of keyboards G09B15/06) · CPC title

• A61B5/168

  Evaluating attention deficit, hyperactivity · CPC title

• A61B5/6803

  Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles · CPC title

• A61B5/163

  by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change · CPC title

• G16H50/20

  for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems · CPC title