Motorized shoe with gesture control

{
  "publication_number": "US10568381B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Motorized shoe with gesture control",
  "abstract": "An article of footwear includes a motorized tensioning system, sensors, and a gesture control system. Based on information received from one or more sensors the gesture control system may detect a prompting gesture and enters an armed mode for receiving further instructions. In the armed mode the system may detect a variety of different control gestures that correspond to different tensioning commands.",
  "claims": [
    "1. An article of footwear, comprising: an upper comprising apertures to receive a lace; a sole structure; a tensioning device including a reel member and a motor, the tensioning device disposed in at least one of the upper and the sole structure, wherein a portion of the lace is joined to the reel member so that the lace can be wound and unwound from the reel member; a contact sensor; an angular velocity sensor configured to sense an angular velocity of at least one of the upper and the sole structure; and a control unit configured to: receive information from the contact sensor; enter an enabled mode when the information from the contact sensor corresponds to a prompting gesture indicative of a presence of a foot in the article of footwear; while in the enable mode, receive information from the angular velocity sensor; and control the tensioning device in response to the information received from the angular velocity sensor while in the enabled mode, the information received from the angular velocity sensor corresponding to detection of a control gesture involving angular movements of the article of footwear, the control unit performing an incremental winding of the lace on the reel if the control gesture is a contacting a heel of the article of footwear with a toe of the second article of footwear or unwinding of the lace on the reel member if the control gesture is contacting of the forefoot of the article of footwear by a sole structure of a second article of footwear.",
    "2. The article of footwear of claim 1, wherein the control gesture is a first control gesture and wherein the control unit is further configured to: control the tensioning device to tighten the lace based on the information received from the angular velocity sensor corresponding to the first control gesture; and control the tensioning device to loosen the lace based on the information received from the angular velocity sensor corresponding to a second control gesture different than the first control gesture.",
    "3. The article of footwear of claim 2, wherein the prompting gesture is the first control gesture.",
    "4. The article of footwear of claim 1, wherein the contact sensor is disposed in a heel of the article of footwear and the angular velocity sensor is disposed in a forefoot of the article of footwear.",
    "5. A footwear system, comprising: a first article of footwear and a second article of footwear, each comprising: an upper including apertures to receive a lace; a sole structure; a tensioning device including a reel member and a motor, the tensioning device disposed in at least one of the upper and the sole structure; wherein a portion of the lace is joined to the reel member so that the lace can be wound and unwound from the reel member; a contact sensor and an angular velocity sensor configured to sense an angular velocity of at least one of the upper and the sole structure; and a control unit configured to: receive information from the contact sensor; enter an enabled mode when the information from the contact sensor corresponds to a prompting gesture indicative of a presence of a foot in the article of footwear; while in the enabled mode, receive information from the angular velocity sensor; and control the tensioning device in response to the information received from the angular velocity sensor while in the enabled mode, the information received from the angular velocity sensor corresponding to detection of a control gesture involving angular movements of the article of footwear, the control unit performing an incremental winding of the lace on the reel if the control gesture is a contacting a heel of the article of footwear with a toe of the second article of footwear or unwinding of the lace on the reel member if the control gesture is contacting of the forefoot of the article of footwear by a sole structure of a second article of footwear.",
    "6. The footwear system of claim 5, wherein the control gesture is a first control gesture and wherein the control unit is further configured to: control the tensioning device to tighten the lace based on the information received from the angular velocity sensor corresponding to the first control gesture; and control the tensioning device to loosen the lace based on the information received from the angular velocity sensor corresponding to a second control gesture different than the first control gesture.",
    "7. The footwear system of claim 6, wherein the prompting gesture is the first control gesture.",
    "8. The footwear system of claim 5, wherein the contact sensor is disposed in a heel of the first and second articles of footwear and the angular velocity sensor is disposed in a forefoot of the first and second articles of footwear.",
    "9. A method, comprising: receiving, with a control unit of an article of footwear, information from a contact sensor of the article of footwear; entering, with the control unit, an enabled mode when the information from the contact sensor corresponds to a prompting gesture indicative of a presence of a foot in the article of footwear; while in the enabled mode, receiving, with the control unit, information from the angular velocity sensor; and controlling, with the control unit, a tensioning device in response to information received from an angular velocity sensor configured to sense an angular velocity of at least one of an upper and a sole structure of the article of footwear while in the enabled mode, the information corresponding to a control gesture of angular movements of the article of footwear; wherein the tensioning device includes a reel member and a motor, the tensioning device disposed in at least one of the upper and the sole structure of the article of footwear, wherein a portion of a lace is joined to the reel member so that the lace can be wound and unwound from the reel member; wherein the controlling the tensioning device includes rotating the reel member with the motor to tighten or loosen the lace; wherein controlling the tensioning device includes an incremental winding of the lace on the reel if the control gesture is a contacting a heel of the article of footwear with a toe of the second article of footwear or unwinding of the lace on the reel member if the control gesture is contacting of the forefoot of the article of footwear by a sole structure of a second article of footwear.",
    "10. The method of claim 9, wherein the control gesture is a first control gesture and further comprising: controlling, with the control unit, the tensioning device to tighten the lace based on the information received from the angular velocity sensor corresponding to the first control gesture; and controlling, with the control unit, the tensioning device to loosen the lace based on the information received from the angular velocity sensor corresponding to a second control gesture different than the first control gesture.",
    "11. The method of claim 10, wherein the prompting gesture is the first control gesture."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "The present embodiments generally relate to footwear having a sensor system and, more particularly, to a shoe having a force and/or pressure sensor assembly operably connected to a communication port located in the shoe.\n\nShoes having sensor systems incorporated therein are known. Sensor systems collect performance data wherein the data can be accessed for later use such as for analysis purposes. In certain systems, the sensor systems are complex or data can only be accessed or used with certain operating systems. Thus, uses for the collected data can be unnecessarily limited. Accordingly, while certain shoes having sensor systems provide a number of advantageous features, they nevertheless have certain limitations. The present invention seeks to overcome certain of these limitations and other drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide new features not heretofore available.\n\nIn one aspect, a method for controlling a tensioning device used for adjusting tension in a first article of footwear based on movements of the first article of footwear and a corresponding second article of footwear includes receiving a first set of information from a first sensor in the first article of footwear. The method also includes detecting a prompting gesture based on the first set of information and entering an armed mode. While in the armed mode, the system receives a second set of information from at least one sensor in the first article of footwear and detects a control gesture based on the second set of information.",
  "cpc": [
    "A43C 11/165",
    "A43B 13/12",
    "A43B 13/14",
    "A43B 13/203",
    "A43B 13/386",
    "A43B 3/0005",
    "A43B 3/34",
    "A43B 7/084",
    "A43B 7/088",
    "A61B 2503/10",
    "A61B 2560/045",
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    "A61B 2562/046",
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  "ipc": [
    "A43B 3/00",
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  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Nike Inc"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Steven H. Walker"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2017-09-05",
  "publication_date": "2020-02-25",
  "grant_date": "2020-02-25",
  "priority_date": "2012-02-22",
  "application_number": "US-201715695199-A",
  "family_id": "56887057",
  "cited_by_count": 13,
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