Muscle-Sensing Garment With Visual Feedback for Exercise Form
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Solution Overview
Problem
Individuals performing exercises often perform them incorrectly due to lack of knowledge or difficulty, which reduces effectiveness and can lead to injury, and it is challenging for trainers or physiotherapists to monitor correct muscle usage without direct assistance.
Innovation Solution
A garment equipped with muscle activity sensors and electrical visual indicators that provide real-time feedback on muscle activity, allowing users to assess and correct their exercise performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a second person (trainer or physiotherapist) assists the exercise performer, then the risk of incorrect performance is reduced, but it remains difficult to be certain of proper muscle usage and exercise execution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies feedback by using muscle activity sensors to detect muscle activation and providing real-time visual feedback through indicator devices. The system continuously monitors muscle activity during exercise and provides immediate visual feedback about which muscles are being activated, allowing the performer to self-correct and ensuring proper exercise execution without requiring constant external supervision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables self-service by allowing the exercise performer to independently monitor their own muscle activation patterns through the visual feedback system. The wearer can see which muscles are being activated in real-time and self-correct their form without requiring a trainer or physiotherapist to physically observe and guide them, making the monitoring system autonomous and self-sufficient.
2Measurement precision
If muscle activity sensors are integrated into the garment, then real-time muscle activity detection is enabled, but the garment complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing a garment that serves multiple functions: it provides standard clothing coverage while simultaneously integrating muscle activity sensing capabilities. The same garment fabric or attached components serve both as wearable clothing and as a platform for embedding electrodes and sensors, eliminating the need for separate monitoring equipment and simplifying the overall system integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses flexible shells and thin films by incorporating flexible electrodes and thin-film sensor components directly into the garment structure. These flexible components can be seamlessly integrated into the fabric layers, maintaining garment comfort and wearability while enabling accurate muscle activity detection through direct skin contact via the flexible sensor elements.
3Ease of operation
If visual indicator devices are used to provide real-time feedback, then exercise form correction is improved, but energy consumption and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color changes by using visual indicator devices that change color or illuminate in different colors to indicate various muscle activation states. This provides intuitive, easily interpretable feedback about exercise form and muscle engagement levels, allowing quick understanding of proper technique without requiring complex displays or multiple indicators, thus minimizing energy consumption while maximizing ease of operation.
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 users to accurately identify and correct muscle activation during exercises, reducing the risk of injury and improving exercise effectiveness by providing intuitive visual feedback.
Implementation Method 1
The muscle activity sensor may comprise an electromyography (EMG) sensor
Implementation Method 2
The at least one electrical visual indicator device may comprise one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs)
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus (1) comprising a garment (2), the garment comprising: at least one muscle activity sensor (4, 34) for detecting activity of a muscle at least partially covered by the garment; at least one electrical visual indicator device (14); and a controller (11) configured to: receive an activity signal indicative of detected activity of the muscle from the at least one muscle activity sensor; and cause the at least one electrical visual indicator device to output a visual indication of the detected activity of the muscle in dependence on the received activity signal.