Opinion ID: 2802190
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Voris

Text: Voris is directed to “a progressive resistance exercise device.” Voris, col. 1 ll. 6–7. Voris seeks to minimize injuries during resistance training by providing an exercise device which “gradually applies resistance, in accordance with a predefined resistance gradient, to the movement of a lifting mechanism by an exerciser in at least a first positive resistance direction, while reducing the resistance to substantially zero when the lifting mechanism is moved in a negative resistance direction.” Id. col. 3 ll. 6–12. According to Voris, “[a] preferred time threshold limit is about two seconds.” Id. col. 5 ll. 18–19. Therefore, when a user fails to move the bar in an upward or positive direction for more than two seconds, “the resistance mechanism [] functions to gradually reduce the supplied resistance opposing the movement of the bar [] to substantially zero.” Id. col. 5 ll. 18–24. The “resistance mechanism includes a brake, a torque converting transmission, a chain which is coupled to the transmission and attached to the bar, a position encoder and a microprocessor and display unit.” Id. col 6. ll. 32– 36 (patent figure numbers omitted). According to Voris, “the position encoder is a suitable mechanism which can determine the relative position of the bar by directly reading the rotational position of the primay shaft of either the brake or the torque converter . . . and develops an output signal corresponding to this positional movement.” Id. col. 5 ll. 61–67 (patent figure numbers omitted). The “position encoder” is an optical encoder that “determines the relative position of the bar by directly reading the rotational position of the primary axle of either the brake or the torque converting transmission in IN RE HOLNESS 5 incremental units sufficient to allow for the gradual movement of the bar.” Id. col. 7 ll. 30–36 (patent figure numbers omitted). The microprocessor “compares the position of the rotating shaft, by using the encoder output signal, to a resistance force gradient curve[3] to determine the amount of resistance [to be] applied to the rotating brake shaft at any given instance.” Id. col. 8 ll. 3–8 (patent figure numbers omitted). If the exerciser fails to continue moving the bar forward for greater than a predetermined amount of time, the microprocessor causes the brake to reduce the resistance substantially to zero.