Training Tool With Variable-Length Grid Cells For Compact Folding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing training tools for motor and cognitive function improvement, such as PTL 1 and PTL 2, face issues with compact folding, limited difficulty setting, and inadequate training of higher mental functions due to uniform cell sizes and designs that prioritize balance over sight-based judgment.
Innovation Solution
The training tool features cells of varying lengths arranged in a grid with a predetermined width, allowing for regular folding and increased difficulty by introducing irregularities in cell size, requiring trainees to use sight-based judgment for movement and coordination, enhancing the activation of higher mental functions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If cells are uniformly shaped and identically sized, then the training tool is easy to manufacture, but the tool cannot be folded compactly and becomes entangled
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces cells with different lengths (short cells and long cells) arranged alternately in the grid. This asymmetric design allows the strips to fold neatly onto each other, preventing entanglement and enabling compact storage, while maintaining ease of manufacture through a regular alternating pattern
2Device complexity
If cells are uniformly shaped and identically sized, then the training tool structure is simple, but the difficulty setting is limited and higher mental functions cannot be sufficiently activated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent varies the length of cells at different positions in the grid (short cells versus long cells), creating local differences that require trainees to adjust their stepping patterns. This introduces variable difficulty levels and activates higher mental functions such as spatial awareness and adaptive planning, while maintaining overall structural simplicity
3Ease of operation
If cells are made slightly smaller than foot size to force tiptoe position, then coordination skills and balance are trained efficiently, but the tool increases in thickness and weight making it unsuitable for folded storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent maintains a thin, flat grid structure that can be folded compactly, avoiding the thickness and weight increase associated with raised cell structures. The coordination training is achieved through the two-dimensional cell pattern design rather than three-dimensional elevation, enabling both effective training and convenient storage
Data Source
AI summary
A tool for training and evaluating a motion control function through vision while the direction and range of motion is restricted by the tool, and a method for using the same, and to improve storage convenience. A training tool is configured such that lattices are formed by using a belt having a width (S) in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction to be spread out and placed on the floor or the ground. The training tool is formed from a plurality of lattices arranged in vertical and horizontal squares, and the length of a lattice in any one of the vertical and horizontal columns is the length of (L-S) that is shorter by the width of the belt than the length (L) of each of lattices in other columns, whereby the tool is foldable such that the tool is integrated to overlap with one lattice.