Adaptable exercise system and method

Abstract

A system and method for correlating a video content presentation rate with an exercise machine operation rate is disclosed. A preferred embodiment of the apparatus is an interactive video system that adapts easily to use with a wide range of gym equipment utilizing a video presentation device that includes an accelerometer and/or camera. The camera embodiment utilizes vision algorithms to determine periodicity and motion orientation prior to modifying the input as a function of the type of exercise equipment is being utilized, in order to determine a cadence. In one embodiment the camera does not rely on seeing the limbs being exercised but utilizes the observation that even highly trained athletes have a degree of extraneous motion of their theoretically immobile body parts during exercise. A prerecorded video presentation is modulated by sensing proximate vibrational energy to determine cadence in the case of the accelerometer.

1 . A system to control a video content while the content is viewed during use of any of a plurality of different exercise machines comprising: a display device contained within a first housing including a first display in electronic communication with a processor, a sensor in electronic communication with the processor, and a set of machine code adapted for operation on said processor and implemented to modulate the presentation of video content at least in part as a function of cadence or intensity of user exercise, said cadence or user intensity, to be determined by data from the sensor wherein the sensor is adapted to measure displacement of an internal mass. 
     
     
         2 . The system in  claim 1  wherein the sensor is an accelerometer. 
     
     
         3 . The system in  claim 1  wherein the sensor is a gyroscope. 
     
     
         4 . The system in  claim 2  wherein the accelerometer is disposed at a distance from the first housing and the electronic communication is wireless. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4  wherein the accelerometer is disposed on a user. 
     
     
         6 . The system in  claim 2  wherein the accelerometer is disposed within a second housing adapted for attachment to a treadmill such that the accelerometer can detect footfalls. 
     
     
         7 . The system in  claim 1  where the first housing includes a harness adapted to attach the housing to a human head and further including at least one optical lens disposed between the display and the head. 
     
     
         8 . The system in  claim 7  where the sensor is a gyroscope. 
     
     
         9 . The system in  claim 7  where the sensor is an accelerometer. 
     
     
         10 . A method for analyzing a running step cycle of a user on a treadmill comprising: collecting camera frames from a camera pointing at the user's torso; determining a periodicity from motile pixels; measuring the treadmill belt speed; comparing the periodicity of motile pixels to the treadmill belt speed; and deriving the belt distance traveled of each running step cycle. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  further comprising: storing the distance traveled of each running step cycle in a memory module. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising: analyzing the database to derive statistical measures of recent running step cycles observed. 
     
     
         13 . An exercise monitoring system including: a first display, a memory module, and a camera, each in electronic communication with a processor, further including a set of machine code adapted for operation on said processor to store camera frames in a database, retrieve camera frames from the first database and to analyze a set of repetition patterns to enable a counting and a recording of repetitions of a user's exercise motions for a plurality of different exercise types. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13  where the set of repetition patterns are identified as a particular form of exercise by means of a trained classifier algorithm running in the machine code. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13  further including a speaker adapted to audibly enumerate the number of repetitions of the user's exercise motions in real time. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 13  wherein the database stores the number of discrete repetitive exercise motions identified by the machine code. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 13  wherein the counting is operable to control display rate of video content. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 13  further including a virtual user interface enabling captured sets of camera frames to be manually categorized. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 13  further including a component in which an identifying exercise motion pattern is derived from measured performance criteria of unspecified periodic motions in a larger sequence of still frames. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 13  further including a virtual user interface which displays a summary of the exercise motions comprised of camera frames retrieved from the database.