In a known binding with force feelers emitting electric signals, the evaluation of the detected forces occurs exclusively in view of a meeting of release criteria, whereby upon reaching the release criteria, the jaw of the binding is released controlled by the evaluating circuit.
The skier becoming tired encounters an increased risk of injury during skiing. The skier's motions become rigid, thus the ligaments, joints and the muscles are increasingly stressed. Also a rigid skiing manner results in an increased stress on the binding.
The goal of the invention is to provide a device of the abovementioned type, which can receive information regarding the state of fatigue of the skier.
This is attained inventively by an integrator circuit being connected after the evaluating circuit, which integrator circuit is connected to an indicating device and which can be reset by means of a manually operable switching device. This measure makes it possible to indirectly determine the fatigue of the skier. It has been proven that the impacts occurring during skiing stress both the skier himself and also the binding, the summation of signals corresponding with the impacts estimating or determining the necessity of servicing of the binding.
The impacts, which during skiing load the human leg and thus must be absorbed by the leg, depend both on outer, that is objectively nonvariable, and also on inner, subjective factors influenced by the skier. They are thus an indicator of the degree of the fatigue of the skier. Even though inner tenseness and rigidness, for example, due to psychological moments of fear, or due to poor skiing skills, and others of course also contribute to fatigue and are not directly detected by the suggested measures, they are nevertheless indirectly detected, since such tenseness and rigidness do permit the outside influence factors, like slope condition etc. to penetrate the human leg and on into the body much more direct and noncushioned. The reason for this is that we are dealing here with a typical coupling problem between outer and inner influencing factors: the resulting impact course is in the case of such problems determined by both factor groups. Thus, a rigid, nonexperienced skier skiing over the same track irregularities will indicate narrow peaks with high amplitude, whereas a good, experienced skier will indicate only elongated impacts with small amplitude, from which only small stresses on the skier and the binding result.
According to a characteristic of the invention, it can be provided that the integrator circuit connected to the evaluating circuit is constructed as a counter, which counts the signals of the evaluating circuit, which signals correspond with the impacts acting onto the binding or the shoe, which impacts, if necessary, exceed an adjustable limit value. This measure results in structural respects in a very simple solution. Thus, impacts can be detected by uncomplicated evaluating circuits. Furthermore, an integrator with a simple design results therefrom. Reaching a specific, possibly adjustable value indicates then to the skier that his fatigue has already reached a dangerous stage.
Furthermore, it can be provided that the integrator circuit connected after the evaluating circuit is constructed as a counter, which counts the digital signals coming from the evaluating circuit and corresponding with the impacts having an energy content lying above an, if necessary, adjustable limit value. The signals corresponding with the affecting forces are thereby integrated over time in the evaluating circuit, whereby, if necessary, signals lying below a specific amplitude value are suppressed and the integrated signals are converted into digital signals. This permits a relatively precise detecting of the stresses acting onto the skier and the binding.
In order to be able to detect in particular those impacts which occur mainly in a not adjusted, rigid skiing method and which are distinguished through a rather needleshaped course of the signals corresponding with the acting forces, it can be provided that the integrator circuit connected after the evaluating circuit is constructed as a counter, which counts the signals of the evaluating circuit which correspond with those impacts, whose rising and dropping speed exceeds an, if necessary, adjustable limit value. The evaluating circuit can thereby either differentiate between the arriving signals and thus determine the steepness of the arriving signals or the evaluating circuit determines the width of the arriving signals at a specific magnitude of the amplitudes. This too permits a detecting of relatively sharp signals having a high amplitude.
A particularly preferred embodiment of the invention can provide that the integrator circuit connected after the evaluating circuit is formed by a divider and at least one counter connected after the divider, which counter can be connected to an indicating device and can be read into same, whereby preferably the divider is connected to two parallel connected counters, which can be connected selectively to the indicating device through a selector switch, whereby one of the counters can be reset by the manually operable switching device and the other counter is connected to a digital comparator, the second input of which is connected to a limit-value transmitter and the output of which is connected to a further indicating device. The latter measures accomplish a separation of the indications regarding the fatigue condition of the skier and the condition of the binding. This makes it also possible to provide only for one counter a resetting device operable by the user. Thus, it is possible to reset, for example daily, the counter related to the skier, whereas the counter related to the binding can be reset only during servicing of the binding with the necessity of servicing being indicated by a separate indicating device.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds