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Shock damping entertainment mount for exercise equipmentRelated Patent Categories: Exercise Devices, Having Specific Electrical Feature, Monitors Exercise ParameterShock damping entertainment mount for exercise equipment description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070219055, Shock damping entertainment mount for exercise equipment. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] This disclosure relates to the field of shock damping mounts for use with exercise equipment. In particular, to shock damping mounts used to support electronic entertainment devices such as televisions. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] The benefits of regular aerobic exercise on individuals of any age is well documented in fitness science. Aerobic exercise can dramatically improve cardiac stamina and function, as well as leading to weight loss, increased metabolism and other benefits. At the same time, many people find the act of exercising tedious and time-consuming and will put off regular exercise because they simply don't enjoy it. [0005] In order to make exercise more interesting as an activity, exercise is often obtained as part of an athletic pursuit which is found enjoyable. This can comprise more solitary pursuits, such as running, biking, or skiing or can comprise more interactive pursuits like athletic games. Many people find this form of exercise to be sufficiently rewarding to engage in it on a regular basis. Often the activity is entertaining because of the nature of the interaction with others, the competitive nature of some of these activities, or simply because the athletic pursuit allows the user to be in a desirable location. [0006] These types of exercise, however, are often difficult to obtain and may not lend themselves to a regular exercise regimen. In particular, many of these pursuits require significant space to perform and others can only easily be performed outside. Therefore, weather and other factors beyond the control of the user can inhibit their ability to obtain the exercise. Other activities require scheduling with numerous other individuals which requires potentially complex coordination. To get around these problems, most individuals in today's society that are attempting to maintain an exercise regimen will utilize some form of exercise machine for at least some part of their exercise activity. [0007] Machines provide a number of benefits over interactive or outdoor activities. In the first instance, an exercise machine can allow the user to perform the exercise in a relatively small amount of space. This can allow the exercise to be performed in the home or can allow a large number of people to perform the exercise simultaneously in a community gym or health facility. Secondly, as these machines can be used indoors, the machines can be used at virtually any time desired by the user, for as long as they desire, and without having to rely on other's schedules, the weather, or other difficult to control factors to be able to exercise. Machines therefore make it much easier for the exercise regimen to be regular and habitual by allowing users to schedule their planned exercise time in advance. [0008] While working out on a machine has a number of benefits in both convenience and ease of use, it is often the case that exercising on an exercise machine is significantly less interesting than participating in an interactive athletic activity or exercising outside. The machine is static, solitary, and will generally only have a limited view. A user on a machine will, therefore, not necessarily find the exercise as rewarding, or as engaging, as they do when performing other forms of exercise. [0009] To try and make the exercise more interesting, most exercise machines and gyms provide various forms of distraction for the user while performing the exercise. This distraction is often visual entertainment providing the user something to focus on instead of simply thinking about the repetitive exercise motion. In its simplest form, the exercise machine can simply have a rack on which the user can place reading material to read while they are exercising. This often works well as a distraction, however, in many cases, the exercise is sufficiently rigorous that the exercise machine will shake while the exercise is being performed. The user may also be bouncing or otherwise moving sufficiently quickly to not be able to hold their head steady. This movement can make it difficult for a user to focus on the reading material during their exercising and can prevent them from using reading for entertainment. [0010] To try and provide for further entertainment alternatives, many gyms and some individuals in their home utilize electronic devices to provide entertainment. These can range from simple portable music devices, to complex television and DVD setups. Particularly in gyms, the more complex these systems, the less individualized they are generally. For instance, an individual is likely to have their own music system which they can bring with them but will often be forced to utilize the same television and DVD system as other users as the system will often be provided generally for all the gym users. [0011] While whole gym systems provide for a reasonably cost effective way to provide entertainment, they suffer from a number of problems. Firstly, each individual exerciser cannot select the content they wish to view, but instead are provided only the content that is made available. In the event that the user finds the content unengaging it will often not serve as the distraction that it is intended for. This can particularly be a problem because content selected usually needs to be acceptable to a wide range of people. Further, it may not always be easy to see or hear a television in a gym or other area where it is shared by a number of machines. [0012] The problem with providing content to each individual user has been two fold. In the first instance, electronic devices, such as televisions, were simply too large and heavy to be attached individually to exercise machines. The weight of the devices would make the machines unstable, or overly heavy and cumbersome. This problem, however, has recently been eliminated by the commercialization of so called "flat panel" TVs which do not require the traditional cathode ray tube. Further, miniaturization of recording and playback devices have also occurred in recent years. This has made the devices sufficiently small, and sufficiently inexpensive, that they can be mounted directly to individual exercise machines. [0013] While it is now cost effective to mount televisions to individual exercise machines, this mounting has brought a second issue to light. When exercise machines are used they will often bounce or move in response to the user's movement on them. This is particularly true on treadmills because the user's movement is not guided through a pattern with their feet or arms staying in relatively constant contact with an arm of the machine (such as on a stationary bicycle) but the user is actually running on top of the machine. Therefore, each foot strike produces an impact on the machine which jars the machine during its operation. [0014] While a lot of this impact can be absorbed by the structure of the machine, electronic devices mounted to a treadmill frame have traditionally been exposed to a rather large amount of shock and vibration. In order to place a television in an easily viewable position, it is generally the case that the television is mounted to the treadmill by either a relatively rigid connection, which will directly transfer shock and vibration from the treadmill to the television, or by an arm which will end up acting as a lever arm. This can both directly transfer impact, and can also provide for oscillatory movement. [0015] Regardless of which method is used, the television will generally experience significant vibration and abrupt motion transitions due to the impact type of motion from the user's feet. Further, these impacts will usually be directly translated through the rigid frame of the machine and the support to the television. [0016] Damage to devices generally occurs not because the device is moving, but is caused instead by the rate of acceleration or deceleration imposed on it (relative to its inertia). With regards to an electronic device, if the device is slowly and smoothly accelerated, it will rarely be damaged by the acceleration as the acceleration is translated relatively smoothly through its components. However, if the electronic device is sharply impacted or is otherwise suddenly accelerated or decelerated, their can be internal strain on electronic components as rigid internal structures attempt to transfer the motion. Because of this fact, many electronic components which are mounted directly to exercise devices, particularly to treadmills, have their useable life significantly decreased. The steady pounding impact of the user's feet into the treadmill is translated to the electronics which are literally shaken apart. SUMMARY [0017] Because of these and other problems in the art, described herein, among other things, is an entertainment system shock damping mount designed for use with an exercise machine. The mount serves to damp the sudden impact type of motion, as well as damping general motion, created when a user on the exercise machine exercises so as to provide for a smoother (and often decreased) motion of the entertainment system. This is designed to provide for less impact motion (causing sudden acceleration and deceleration) on electronic devices attached via the mount which will generally improve their usable life. [0018] Described herein, amongst other things, is a shock damping mount for attaching an entertainment device to an exercise machine, the mount comprising: a frame, the frame capable of supporting the entertainment device in a position whereby the entertainment device can be viewed by a user using the exercise machine; a mounting structure, the mounting structure serving to attach the entertainment device to the frame; a first connection plate, the first connection plate being rotationally connected to the exercise device about a generally horizontal axis of rotation, the first plate being capable of rotating about the generally horizontal axis of rotation; a second plate, the second plate being connected to the exercise device via at least one spring and the second plate being rigidly connected to the first connection plate; wherein, when the first connection plate rotates about the horizontal axis of rotation, the second connection plate rotates in a generally vertical arc; and wherein the spring is positioned so that at least a portion of the restoring force of the spring acts on the second connection plate when the second connection plate moves in the generally vertical arc. [0019] In various embodiments of the mount the second plate is generally perpendicular to the first plate, the entertainment device comprises a television and DVD player, the exercise machine is a treadmill, and the spring comprises a reliantly deformable material expressing spring behavior. [0020] In another embodiment of the mount the frame is generally Y-shaped and may attach to the exercise machine via two parallel vertical supports on the exercise machine which support a console for operation of the exercise machine. The first plate may attach to the inside surfaces of those supports. [0021] In another embodiment of the mount the second plate connects to the exercise machine via a compression structure, the compression structure comprising two rubber disks with the second plate arranged between the discs. The compression structure may be one of two compression structures connecting the second plate to the exercise machine. [0022] In another embodiment of the mount the at least one spring comprises two springs, the springs arranged so that one of the springs is compressed while the other is extended when the second plate moves in the generally vertical arc; the at least one spring comprises four springs, the springs being arranged so that two of the springs are compressed while the other two are extended when the second plate moves in the generally vertical arc; or the at least one spring comprises four springs, the springs being arranged so that all four of the springs are compressed when the second plate moves in the generally vertical arc. Continue reading about Shock damping entertainment mount for exercise equipment... Full patent description for Shock damping entertainment mount for exercise equipment Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Shock damping entertainment mount for exercise equipment patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Shock damping entertainment mount for exercise equipment or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Remote communication exercise training Next Patent Application: Sewing machine type stepping foot trainer Industry Class: Exercise devices ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Shock damping entertainment mount for exercise equipment patent info. 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