Patent ID: 11857029
Assignee: NIKE, INC.
Field: Other consumer goods (Other fields)
Classification: CPC A  G  Y | IPC A  G

Claim 15:
16. A footwear system comprising:
a lacing engine disposed in an article of footwear, the lacing engine configured to selectively tighten or relax the article of footwear about a foot in response to a control signal;
a foot presence sensor coupled to the article of footwear and configured to provide a capacitance-indicating sensor signal, wherein changes in the capacitance-indicating sensor signal correspond to changes in proximity of a foot to the foot presence sensor; and
a processor circuit coupled to the foot presence sensor and the lacing engine, the processor circuit configured to:
detect a donning event using the sensor signal, the donning event corresponding to a change in the capacitance-indicating sensor signal from a first reference value to a second reference value, wherein the first reference value corresponds to the article of footwear being unoccupied by the foot and the second reference value corresponds to the article of footwear being occupied by the foot;
following the donning event, detect fluctuations in the sensor signal, wherein the fluctuations include respective changes in magnitude of the sensor signal by an intermediate magnitude amount, wherein the intermediate magnitude amount is at least a specified threshold magnitude change amount and is less than a magnitude difference between the first and second reference values;
based on the fluctuations as detected, determine a step count or a step interval; and
provide the control signal to the lacing engine based on information from the foot presence sensor.