Movable Handlebar Input for Interactive Pedaled Exercise
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pedaled exercise devices lack the ability to provide immersive and interactive experiences by integrating directional inputs from users, limiting their capacity to simulate varied environments and enhance user engagement through real-time feedback and dynamic adjustments.
Innovation Solution
An exercise device with movable handlebars and a drivetrain, equipped with sensors and biasing elements, communicates with a computing device to receive directional inputs and generate visual feedback, allowing for dynamic simulation of inclines, resistance changes, and immersive experiences by altering the exercise device's behavior based on user inputs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If pedaled exercise devices use fixed handlebars and basic resistance mechanisms, then device simplicity is maintained, but user engagement and immersive experience are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The handlebars are transformed from a fixed structure to a dynamic one with degrees of freedom, allowing movement in multiple directions (fore-aft, lateral, vertical) while maintaining structural integrity through biasing elements and sensors that track positional changes
Solution Approach 2:
The handlebar assembly serves multiple functions: providing structural support, enabling directional input through movement, offering tactile feedback through biasing elements, and generating data for virtual environment interaction through integrated sensors
2Adaptability or versatility
If exercise devices lack directional input capabilities, then device complexity is reduced, but ability to simulate varied environments and provide real-time feedback is limited
Solution Approach 1:
Sensors in the handlebars detect movement in multiple directions and provide real-time feedback to the control system, which adjusts the virtual environment display and provides haptic feedback through the biasing elements, creating a closed-loop interactive system
Solution Approach 2:
The handlebar movement serves as an intermediary between the user's physical actions and the virtual environment representation, translating mechanical displacement into directional input data that controls the simulated scene orientation and camera angle
3Ease of operation
If handlebars are made movable with sensors and biasing elements, then directional input and interactive capability are improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The handlebar system is divided into modular components including the handlebar assembly, biasing elements, sensor modules, and mounting structures, allowing independent manufacturing and assembly of each subsystem to simplify production
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables an immersive and interactive exercise experience by simulating real-world conditions, providing real-time feedback, and allowing users to engage with virtual or mixed reality environments, enhancing user engagement and exercise simulation.
Implementation Method 1
a biasing element positioned between the yoke and the frame
Data Source
AI summary
An exercise device includes a frame, handlebars supported by the frame, and a computing device. The handlebars include a yoke that is movable relative to the frame, a biasing element positioned between the yoke and the frame, and a sensor configured to measure a movement of the yoke.