Adjustable Balance Platform With Plug-Tuned Instability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing balance training devices lack adjustability and stability variability, failing to provide a dynamic challenge for users to improve balance skills effectively.
Innovation Solution
A balance training aid with a base member and a standing platform, featuring a lower base component made of unstable or deformable material and an upper platform, where the base component includes adjustability features such as removable and reinsertable plugs to adjust instability levels, allowing users to vary the stability from a most stable to a most unstable configuration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the base component uses unstable or deformable material to provide balance challenge, then the balance training effectiveness is improved, but the device complexity increases due to adjustability features
Solution Approach 1:
The base component is designed with deformable material that dynamically changes its stability characteristics based on user weight and position. The adjustability features allow the stability to be dynamically modified by users through simple plug insertion/removal actions, creating a dynamic training experience without complex mechanical systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The device changes the stability parameter of the base component by allowing users to insert or remove plugs from the deformable material. This simple parameter change (plug presence/absence) directly alters the balance challenge level, enabling versatility without requiring complex adjustment mechanisms.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the base component is made completely unstable to maximize balance challenge, then the training effectiveness improves, but the device becomes unsafe and unusable
Solution Approach 1:
The base component provides dynamically adjustable stability rather than fixed extreme instability. Users can adjust the level of challenge to match their skill level, ensuring safety while maintaining training effectiveness. The deformable material naturally provides some stability recovery, preventing complete instability.
Solution Approach 2:
The stability parameter is changed in controlled increments through plug insertion/removal rather than allowing complete instability. This graded parameter adjustment ensures the device remains safe and usable across different skill levels while still providing effective balance training.
3Reliability
If the base component uses rigid material to ensure stability, then the device safety improves, but the balance training effectiveness decreases due to lack of challenge
Solution Approach 1:
The base component uses deformable material whose stability parameter can be adjusted through plug insertion/removal. This allows the same component to provide both safety (when plugs are inserted) and training challenge (when plugs are removed), eliminating the need to choose between rigid safety and flexible challenge.
Solution Approach 2:
The base component combines deformable material with structural support elements to create a composite system that can provide both safety and challenge. The deformable outer layer provides training challenge while the internal structure ensures safety, allowing both requirements to be met simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
Balance training aids are disclosed. Example embodiments disclose a user placing all or part of their body weight on a top surface of a platform that is sitting atop an unstable base member and attempts to balance or complete a balance challenge. In example embodiments, the user places at least a portion of one foot atop the platform during the balance challenge. Adjustability features can be provided so as to provide a varying degree of adjustability to the unstable base member, and thus, provide a varying degree of balance challenges or levels of difficulty.