EP0152995A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Muscle exercise and diagnostic apparatus and method
Assignee: Loredan Biomedical Inc
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Filing: 1985-01-03
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2005-01-03
Abstract
Abstract A muscle exercise and diagnostic apparatus includes a lever arm (11), an arrangement for mounting the lever arm for rotation about a fixed axis (12), and an arrangement (13,14) for connecting a selected portion of the human body to the lever arm for rotation with the lever arm about a selected anatomical axis of rotation. The connecting system includes a mounting arrangement establishing a fixed tangential mounting relation and a sliding radial mounting relation between the lever arm and the body portion. A velocity control system (19 etc.) is operatively associated with the lever arm (11) for limiting the maximum permitted rotational velocity of the arm (11) to a value predetermined in accordance with a preselected velocity control function which includes measured values of the distances from the point of attachment to the anatomical axis and to the fixed axis. Changes in distance from the point of attachment to the fixed axis are monitored (15) during the exercise motion and the maximum permitted rotational velocity of the lever arm (11) is varied to provide more accurate control of rotational velocity of the body portion relative to the anatomical axis of rotation.
Inventors
- 👤 Malcolm Lane Bond
- 👤 Philip Timsley Dempster
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-06 09:42
CPC Classifications
A; A63; A63B; A63B24/00; G; G16; G16H; G16H20/00; G16H20/30; A63B2220/00; A63B2220/10; A63B2220/16; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S482/00; Y10S482/901; Y10S482/902
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 16
Claim 1
Independent Claim
124 words
Muscle exercise and diagnostic apparatus comprising a lever arm; means mounting said lever arm for rotation about a fixed axis; connecting means for connecting a selected portion of the human body to said lever arm for rotation with said lever arm about a selected anatomical axis of rotation, including mounting means establishing a fixed tangential mounting relation and a sliding radial mounting relation between said lever arm and said body portion; and velocity control means operatively associated with said lever arm for limiting the maximum permitted rotational velocity of said arm to a value predetermined in accordance with a preselected velocity control function which includes measured values of the distances from said point of attachment to said anatomical axis and to said fixed axis.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
124 words
Muscle exercise and diagnostic apparatus comprising a lever arm; means mounting said lever arm for rotation about a fixed axis; connecting means for connecting a selected portion of the human body to said lever arm for rotation with said lever arm about a selected anatomical axis of rotation, including mounting means establishing a fixed tangential mounting relation and a sliding radial mounting relation between said lever arm and said body portion; and velocity control means operatively associated with said lever arm for limiting the maximum permitted rotational velocity of said arm to a value predetermined in accordance with a preselected velocity control function which includes measured values of the distances from said point of attachment to said anatomical axis and to said fixed axis.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
80 words
The apparatus of Claim 1, wherein said mounting means provides fixed connection to said body portion and a radially sliding connection to said lever arm, and further comprising means associated with said mounting means for registering the distance from said connection to said fixed axis and supplying said registered distance value to said velocity control means, and means for manually inputting into said velocity control means a measured value of the distance from said fixed connection to said anatomical axis.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
56 words
The apparatus of Claim 1, further comprising angle means for registering the angle of said lever arm and wherein said velocity control means further comprises motion limitation means responsive to an input angle limit value and said registered angle value to limit the angular rotation of said arm to be less than said angle limit value.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
85 words
The apparatus of Claim 2, further comprising means establishing an anatomical velocity demand function; said velocity control means including a rotational velocity governor system responsive to an input velocity control signal to limit the maximum permitted instantaneous rotational velocity of said lever arm; and velocity control computer means for supplying said velocity control signal as a prearranged function of said anatomical velocity demand function and said measured values of the distances from said point of attachment to said anatomical axis and to said fixed axis.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
44 words
The apparatus of Claim 4, further comprising velocity measuring means for determining the instantaneous actual rotational velocity of said lever arm and providing an actual velocity signal corresponding thereto; and said prearranged function of said velocity control computer means includes said actual velocity signal.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
60 words
The apparatus of Claim 4, further comprising angle measuring means for registering the angle of said lever arm; and said velocity control computer means includes limit detecting means for detecting when said measured angle value is equal to a preset angle limit value and thereupon supplying a prearranged braking function signal; and said prearranged function includes said braking function signal.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
34 words
The apparatus of Claim 4, wherein said velocity computer means supplies said velocity control signal as a prearranged acceleration limit function during initial acceleration of said lever arm toward said maximum permitted instantaneous velocity.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
147 words
The apparatus of Claim 4, wherein said means establishing an anatomical velocity demand function comprises a potentiometer for setting a preselected constant maximum angular velocity of said body portion about said anatomical axis; said velocity control means includes a first variable resistance with a resistance control knob setting calibrated to the distance from said point of attachment to said anatomical axis; a second variable resistance having a control coupled to said connecting means and calibrated to register the instantaneous distance from said point of attachment to said fixed axis of rotation; a ratio circuit coupled to said first and second variable resistances for supplying an output electrical signal having a value corresponding to the ratio of said lever arm length to said anatomical lever length, said output signal being supplied to said potentiometer to produce a demand velocity control signal which varies with said lever arm length.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
69 words
The apparatus of Claim 8, further comprising an angle potentiometer coupled to said mounting means for registering the angle of said lever arm; and said velocity control computer means further comprises velocity circuit means for deriving an actual velocity signal from said angle potentiometer; and combining circuit means for producing a velocity control signal as a combined function of said demand velocity control signal and said actual velocity signal.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
73 words
The apparatus of Claim 9, further comprising a minimum value circuit at the output of said combining circuit and an acceleration limit circuit receiving said actual velocity signal and supplying to said minimum value circuit an acceleration control signal having a value incrementally larger than said actual velocity signal so that initial acceleration of said lever arm is limited and accommodating resistance to acceleration is perceived from the start of lever arm motion.
Claim 12
Independent Claim
140 words
A method for controlled accommodating resistance exercise , comprising the steps of mounting a lever arm for rotation about a fixed axis; disposing a human body attachment device on said lever arm in a tangentially fixed and radially movable mounting relation;. contacting said attachment device with a selected portion of the human body for rotation of said attachment device and lever arm with said body portion about an anatomical axis of rotation; measuring the lever arm radius from said attachment device to said fixed axis of rotation; measuring the anatomical radius from said attachment device to said anatomical axis of rotation; and restraining rotation of said lever arm to an angular velocity less than or equal to a value predetermined in accordance with a preselected velocity control function which includes the measured lever arm radius and the measured anatomical radius.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
140 words
A method for controlled accommodating resistance exercise , comprising the steps of mounting a lever arm for rotation about a fixed axis; disposing a human body attachment device on said lever arm in a tangentially fixed and radially movable mounting relation;. contacting said attachment device with a selected portion of the human body for rotation of said attachment device and lever arm with said body portion about an anatomical axis of rotation; measuring the lever arm radius from said attachment device to said fixed axis of rotation; measuring the anatomical radius from said attachment device to said anatomical axis of rotation; and restraining rotation of said lever arm to an angular velocity less than or equal to a value predetermined in accordance with a preselected velocity control function which includes the measured lever arm radius and the measured anatomical radius.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
58 words
The method of Claim 11, wherein said step of measuring the lever arm radius comprises constantly monitoring the lever arm radius value as body portion traverses a rotational exercise path; and said step of restraining rotation of said lever arm is performed in accordance with a time varying velocity control function which includes the time-varying lever arm radius.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of Claim 11, wherein said preselected velocity control function is prearranged to provide a substantially constant maximum angular velocity of rotation of said body portion about said anatomical axis of rotation.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
57 words
The method of Claim 13, wherein said preselected velocity control function provides a substantially constant maximum angular velocity of rotation of said body portion about said anatomical axis of rotation by adjusting the maximum permitted angular velocity of rotation of said lever arm about said fixed axis in response to changes in said monitored lever arm length.
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