Patent Publication Number: US-2012029388-A1

Title: Force bearing monitor apparatus for sports shoes

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to footwear having a sole changed in softness and hardness in response to external conditions and particularly to a force bearing monitor apparatus to generate a control factor to adjust softness and hardness of a sole. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Shoes provide protection for wearer&#39;s feet and knees. A shoe has a sole at the bottom to absorb impact to prevent a wearer&#39;s knee from directly receiving reacting forces from the ground to avoid injury. It is an important feature of the shoe. To allow a pair of shoes to be suited to different grounds and exercises in varying environments, U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,439 discloses a pair of shoes equipped with a cushion pad adjustable automatically. The cushion pad can detect deformation amounts of a sole to automatically change the softness and hardness thereof to meet requirements of varying grounds and exercises of different occasions. 
     The aforesaid prior art adjusts the softness and hardness of the cushion pad by simply detecting the deformation amounts of the cushion pad. It relies on a simplified control factor and often results in unsuitable change of the softness and hardness. For instance, if a wearer steps lightly, smaller deformation amounts take place. Thus a misinterpretation of exercising on a softer ground is made and the cushion pad is adjusted to make the sole harder. This could result in injury to the wearer&#39;s knee. On the other hand, if the wearer steps heavier, it could be misinterpreted exercising on a harder ground and the cushion pad is adjusted too soft. Hence it is difficult to control within a constant range and cannot fully meet actual requirements. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The primary object of the present invention is to generate a control factor to adjust the softness and hardness of a sole within a constant range to meet requirements. 
     To achieve the foregoing object, the invention provides a force bearing monitor apparatus to generate a control factor to adjust softness and hardness of a sole. The apparatus comprises a first accelerometer module, a second accelerometer module, a first signal processing unit and an interrelation processing unit. The first accelerometer module is located at a rear end of a sole, and the second accelerometer module is located at a front end of the sole. The first and second accelerometer modules detect alterations of a first acceleration and a second acceleration when the shoe is stridden forwards and stepped. The first signal processing unit and interrelation processing unit process the alterations of the first and second accelerations and calculate a first reacting force and a second reacting force borne by the shoe, and their ratio also can be derived to generate the control factor, thereby to get an exercise mode. 
     In short, the invention provides many advantages, notably: by measuring the ratio of the first and second reacting forces to determine the control factor and obtain the exercise mode, and the influence of a user&#39;s artificial heavy or light footstep can be excluded to determine the control factor through the actual ground and exercise mode to fully meet requirements. 
     The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to an embodiment and the accompanying drawings. The embodiment serves merely for illustrative purpose and is not the limitation of the invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a system block diagram of the invention. 
         FIG. 2A  is a schematic view of measuring the first reacting force according to the invention. 
         FIG. 2B  is a schematic view of measuring the second reacting force according to the invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic view of an embodiment of the invention adopted on a shoe. 
         FIG. 4  is a system block diagram of the invention adopted on a shoe equipped with a control module. 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic view of the invention in a use condition. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 ,  2 A,  2 B, and  3 , the invention includes a measuring device  30  which is linked wirelessly to a host device  40  equipped with a second signal wireless transceiver  41  through a first signal wireless transceiver  35 . The measuring device  30  comprises a first accelerometer module  31 , a second accelerometer module  32 , a first signal processing unit  33  linked to the first signal wireless transceiver  35  and an interrelation processing unit  34 . The first accelerometer module  31  is located at a rear end of the sole of a shoe  10  to measure alterations of a first acceleration borne by the rear heel when the shoe  10  is stridden and stepped (referring to  FIG. 2A ). The second accelerometer module  32  is located at a front end of the sole of the shoe  10  to measure alterations of a second acceleration borne by the front heel when the shoe  10  is stridden and stepped (referring to  FIG. 2B ). The first signal processing unit  33  and interrelation processing unit  34  are linked to the first accelerometer module  31  and second accelerometer module  32 , and process the alterations of the first acceleration and second acceleration against time to calculate a first reacting force RF 1  (referring to  FIG. 2A ) and a second reacting force RF 2  (referring to  FIG. 2B ) borne by the shoe  10 , and the ratio of the first reacting force RF 1  and second reacting force RF 2  is obtained to generate a control factor. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , the measuring device  30  of the invention aims to generate the control factor, and can be incorporated with a host device  40  and a control device  50  when in use. The host device  40  includes a second signal wireless transceiver  41 , a second signal processing unit  42 , an input/output interface  43 , a data access unit  45  and a multimedia output medium  46 . The control device  50  includes a third signal wireless transceiver  51 , a third signal processing unit  52 , a driving control unit  53  and a controlled system module  54 . The measuring device  30 , host device  40  and control device  50  are interconnected wirelessly through the first, second and third signal wireless transceivers  35 ,  41  and  51 . The host device  40  is linked to the second signal wireless transceiver  41  through the second signal processing unit  42  to control the measuring device  30  and control device  50 , linked to the input/output interface  43  to input/output a control parameter, connected to the data access unit  45  to access data, and linked to the multimedia output medium  46  to output multimedia information. 
     The control device  50  is linked to the third signal wireless transceiver  51  and driving control unit  53  through the third signal processing unit  52  to receive control signals from the host device  40 , and linked to the controlled system module  54  through the driving control unit  53  to enable the controlled system module  54  to change the softness and hardness of the sole according to the control factor. 
     Refer to  FIGS. 4 and 5  for an embodiment of the invention. The host device  40  can be installed on a wristwatch  70 . The control device  50  is installed on a shoe  10 . Through the controlled system module  54 , the softness and hardness of the sole can be changed. When a user  60  wears the shoe  10 , the wristwatch  70  and exercises, setting can be made through the input/output interface  43  of the host device  40  so that the controlled system module  54  can change the softness and hardness of the sole according to the control factor, namely the user  60  can set an exercise mode according to his/her own requirement to make the sole in a desired softness and hardness to meet his/her requirement. Thus, through the host device  40  on the wristwatch  70 , the control factor of the measuring device  30  can be obtained, and the user  60  can instantly get the impact force (first reacting force RF 1  and second reacting force RF 2 ) borne by the shoe  10  through the wristwatch  70 . 
     As a conclusion, the present invention determines the control factor through the ratio of the first and second reacting forces RF 1  and RF 2 , hence can filter out artificial influence of heavy and light footsteps. Moreover, through the ratio of the first and second reacting forces RF 1  and RF 2  and generation sequence thereof, the user&#39;s exercise mode can be obtained, such as uphill or downhill movement. Thus the control factor of the invention can be used to determine the actual ground and exercise mode to adjust and control the softness and hardness of the sole to meet user&#39;s actual requirements.