Exercise device integrally incorporating digital capabilities for music, light, video and still imagery, heart rate measurement and caloric consumption

Abstract

A fitness device integrally incorporating digital technology can include capabilities for providing music and auditory stimulus that can be heard through a headphone, Bluetooth; or speakers for ambient music. Further capabilities enable the device to record video and still imagery, play video to provide instruction, feedback; or for leisure viewing. Along with sound and video capability, the device can have light emitting capability for a visual dimension in use. For biofeedback, the device can include a heart rate calculator to provide feedback on the level of exercise intensity and caloric consumption. The light emitting capacity allows the user to create patterns in use. Thus, the device can be multi-faceted able to provide ambient music, recording and viewing video, enveloping the user in a “bath” of light, sound, very subtle electromagnetic fields. All of said baths are created at distances from the users body that correspond to the length of the users arms, degree of bend at the elbow joint and chosen pathway for the circular / orbital movements.

Description

[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 091,257, which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The embodiments disclosed herein relate to the advances in exercise equipment, improvements for better providing instructions for using exercise equipment and directing sound around the body of a user during exercise.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Certain known exercise devices, which can be referred to as a “sculpted exercise weights”, have been specifically designed to be well balanced for exercises in which the weight is moved in fluid, curving movements around the head and torso, as well as other fluid-movement exercises. These types of sculpted exercise weights feel more natural and are safer when used in conjunction with exercises involving fluid circular movements that are pervasive in natural human movements and a host of activities including dance, yoga, tai chi and what is called “functional fitness” in the fi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]An aspect of at least one of the inventions disclosed herein includes the realization that users can benefit in several ways by providing an accommodation for a media player on a sculpted exercise weight. For example, although exercises including fluid circular movements that are pervasive in natural human movements and a host of activities including dance, yoga, tai chi and what is called “functional fitness” in the fitness industry with a sculpted weight can provide unique benefits, they can be much more difficult to perform and difficult to describe in line drawings than classic dumbbell exercises. This is because some sculpted weights are designed to provide a certain feeling of balance during a movement, when performed at a certain minimum speeds. Users can have difficulty understanding how to perform such exercises when relying on line drawings or photographs of such movements. Thus, by providing a media player, such as a video player or audio player, on an inwardly facing surface of a sculpted exercise weight, a user can receive instructions for performing these more complex exercises while holding the exercise weight and media player in their hands. Another surprising use relates to therapies known as “sound bathing”.

[0007]Sound bathing therapies include techniques for directing sound at the body from many directions with a powerful sound system in an acoustically reflective room. Others include immersing the body in liquid and directing sound waves into the liquid, thereby conducting sound into the body with a liquid medium. However, including a media player into a hand-held exercise weight allows a user to perform fluid therapeutic movements, including Tai Chi type movements, and benefit from a form of sound bathing therapy.

[0008]For example, a user can activate a media player which is directed from the front surface of the sculpted exercise weight toward the user, and perform exercises with Tai Chi type, and other fluidic movements. Some of these movements can include moving the sculpted exercise weight along curved, circular or oblong paths around parts of the body, such as the head, torso, and legs. Thus, the media player can direct sound around the body of the user, eventually directing sound, at close range to the user, at the entire body of the user. This provides a convenient way to obtain the benefits of sound therapy without the need for immersion in water or a large and powerful sound systems designed to direct sound so as to surround a focused area in which the user must stand.

Problems solved by technology

For example, although exercises including fluid circular movements that are pervasive in natural human movements and a host of activities including dance, yoga, tai chi and what is called “functional fitness” in the fitness industry with a sculpted weight can provide unique benefits, they can be much more difficult to perform and difficult to describe in line drawings than classic dumbbell exercises.

Users can have difficulty understanding how to perform such exercises when relying on line drawings or photographs of such movements.

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