Fitness Exercise Apparatus with Real-Time Visual Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users performing fitness exercises often lack proper supervision, leading to incorrect postures and reduced benefits or increased risk of muscle damage, as existing monitoring systems fail to provide real-time corrective feedback and are often cumbersome or ineffective.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus equipped with sensing means to capture user movement, a processor for real-time comparison with a reference pattern, and feedback means to provide users with immediate guidance on correcting their exercises, using a screen to display both their movements and an ideal pattern, allowing for optimal exercise performance without the need for trainers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a trainer supervises fitness equipment users during exercise sessions, then exercise correctness is improved, but cost and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables users to self-monitor their exercise form through visual feedback from cameras and mirrors, eliminating the need for external trainer supervision. Users can see their own movements and compare them against correct form, allowing autonomous correction of exercise technique.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides real-time visual feedback through cameras positioned to capture user movements and mirrors that display correct exercise form. This continuous visual feedback loop allows users to immediately see and correct their posture and technique during exercise execution.
2Reliability
If multiple trainers supervise fitness equipment users, then exercise correctness is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses cameras to create visual copies of user movements and displays them through mirrors and screens. This allows multiple users to simultaneously access supervision capabilities without requiring multiple physical trainers, as the visual feedback system can serve numerous users concurrently.
Solution Approach 2:
The camera and mirror system serves multiple functions: it monitors exercise form, provides visual feedback, displays correct technique, and can potentially track multiple users simultaneously. This single infrastructure replaces the need for multiple specialized trainers.
3Reliability
If visual monitoring with mirrors is provided, then exercise correctness is improved, but measurement precision is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The camera acts as an intermediary between the user's physical movement and the visual feedback displayed in mirrors. The camera captures precise movement data and translates it into visual representations that can be compared against correct form, providing more accurate measurement than direct mirror reflection alone.
Data Source
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Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
An apparatus (1) for the assisted performance of a fitness exercise, equipped with a fitness tool (2) configured to interact with the user (3) to enable the user to perform a movement along a preset path overcoming the force of a resistant load (7), comprises: sensing means (4) set up to provide a signal representing the movement of the user (3); feedback means (5) for transmitting a signal to the user (3) during performance of the exercise; a processor (6) connected to the sensing means (4) and to the feedback means (5) to provide the user (3) with feedback in real time on the correctness of performance of the exercise, based on a comparison between the signal representing the movement of the user and a predetermined reference pattern representing an ideal pattern for the movement of the user (3) corresponding to the exercise performed correctly.