EP-3756738-B1 - ATHLETIC ACTIVITY HEADS UP DISPLAY SYSTEMS AND METHODS

Inventors

• Coza, Aurel
• DIBENEDETTO, CHRISTIAN
• WERNER, JON HARALD
• TOMLINSON, SCOTT
• LEE, Alan Russell
• VATERLAUS, AMY JONES
• VALENTI, Benjamin
• LEE, Katrina Francisco

Dates

Publication Date

20260506

Application Date

20150608

Claims (14)

1. A method of using an athletic activity heads up display system during an athletic activity, comprising: a heads up display unit (100) determining a position of a part of the body of an individual (10) wearing the heads up display unit during an athletic movement; and the heads up display unit displaying visual feedback to the individual about the position of the part of the body during the athletic movement; wherein displaying comprises footstep icons indicating a specific manner by which the individual should approach a sport ball, comprising one of a desired speed, timing and cadence of footsteps.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the position of the part of the body comprises determining an orientation of the part of the body.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the orientation of the part of the body comprises determining that the individual's head was oriented downward.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the position of the part of the body comprises determining a movement of the part of the body.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the movement of the part of the body comprises determining one of a dribbling motion, a passing kick motion, and a shot kick motion.
6. The method of one of claims 1 - 5, further comprising: displaying, by the heads up display unit, guidance on how to perform an athletic maneuver, wherein the guidance is provided in the form of icons and/or other visual indicia.
7. The method of one of claims 1 - 6, wherein the heads up display system comprises a video camera (118), and wherein the method further comprises performing a playback of a recorded video that is annotated with other visual images.
8. The method of one of claims 1 - 7, wherein the heads up display system comprises a video camera, and wherein the method further comprises using the video camera to determine an orientation of the individual's body to a ball (20) and/or determine an orientation of a foot (12) of the individual to the ball.
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises using the video camera to do at least one of: determine an orientation of the ball to a goal (30), in particular determine when a goal is scored based on a recorded video image of the ball entering the goal, determine a rotation rate or a speed of the ball, determine a number of ball touches by the individual, trigger the taking of a still photo or video clip by the heads up display system based on a determination of an impact between foot and ball.
10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the video camera is used to sample movements of a portion of the individual's body and/or of the ball many times per second, and wherein the resulting video data is mapped in a three dimensional model that replicates the motion of the portion of the individual's body and/or of the ball.
11. The method of one of claims 1 - 10, wherein the heads up display system comprises a sensor unit (122) which comprises at least one of: an acceleration sensor, a magnetic field sensor, an angular momentum sensor, a positioning system receiver; and wherein the method further comprises determining, by the sensor unit, at least one of: step count, approach speed, body alignment, form.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensor unit it part of a body-mounted device (206) that is in wireless communication with the heads up display unit.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the body-mounted device is adapted to be secured to the individual's chest.
14. A heads up display system for use during an athletic activity, the heads up display system comprising means adapted to perform the steps of the method according to one of the preceding claims 1 - 13.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to athletic activity heads up display systems and methods of using the same. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Athletic activity is important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and is a source of entertainment for many people. Some individuals prefer to engage in team athletic activities such as, for example, soccer or basketball, while other individuals prefer to engage in individual athletic activities such as, for example, running or skiing. Regardless of whether the activity is a team or individual activity, it is common for individuals to participate in both competitive sessions, such as a soccer match or a running race, and more informal training sessions such as conducting soccer drills or running interval sprints. Others who do not themselves regularly take part in athletic activities may nevertheless enjoy viewing athletic activities as a spectator. Athletic activity monitoring systems exist that are capable of recording information about an individual's performance during an athletic activity using sensors. Some portable fitness monitoring systems employ sensors attached to the individual's body, while other portable fitness monitoring systems rely on sensors attached to a piece of athletic equipment. Such sensors may be capable of measuring various physical and/or physiological parameters associated with the individual's athletic activity. Technology has resulted in the development of so-called "heads up displays" (HUDs) for presenting visual information to a user without requiring the user to look away from their usual viewpoint. The origin of the term stems from airplane pilots being able to view information (e.g. flight status or plane orientation information) with their heads still positioned "up" and looking forward, instead of angled down looking at lower instruments. HUDs typically include a projector for projecting information onto a transparent surface, such as a glass plate, that enables the background environment of the user's typical viewpoint to still be seen. Although HUDs were initially developed for military aviation, they can now be found in commercial aircraft, automobiles, and computer gaming applications. HUDs can be a useful tool for a variety of "augmented reality" applications. The basic idea of augmented reality is to present computer-generated sensory input to a user-superimposed graphics, audio, haptic feedback, or other sensory enhancements-that provide information about the environment and its objects in the context of a real-world environment. For example, fans of American football have become accustomed in recent years to the presence a super-imposed "first-down" line on televised American football games. An individual engaged in an athletic activity-or an interested observer such as a coach or fan-may desire to receive information about the athletic activity, including information about the individual's performance. But with respect to providing this information, existing athletic activity monitoring systems suffer from a number of drawbacks. Many existing systems do not provide the individual or interested observer with information about the athletic activity until after the activity has been completed. Other systems may present the information about the athletic activity during the activity, but in a way that distracts that individual or interested observer from focusing on the ongoing athletic activity itself. And many existing HUDs and augmented reality systems are not portable and are therefore not suitable for monitoring in many real world athletic competitive or training sessions. Finally, existing athletic activity monitoring systems often fail to provide the individual or interested observer with quick, accurate, insightful information that would enable them to easily compare past performances, develop strategies for improving future performances, or visualize performances. EP 2 724 755 A1 relates to a portable electronic processing device capable of being worn on an arm of an individual and comprising: a virtual trainer program that provides training feedback to the individual during a workout; and a satellite-based positioning system receiver. US 2013/0095924 A1 relates to technology for providing a personalized sport performance experience with three dimensional (3D) virtual data displayed by a near-eye, augmented reality display of a personal audiovisual (AN) apparatus. A physical movement recommendation is determined for the user performing a sport based on skills data for the user for the sport, physical characteristics of the user, and 3D space positions for at least one or more sport objects. 3D virtual data depicting one or more visual guides for assisting the user in performing the physical movement recommendation may be displayed from a user perspective associated with a display field of view of the near-eye AR display. An avatar may also be displayed by the near-eye AR displa