Cruise control for runners
Mark Snaterse, 778.782.4986; msa71@sfu.ca
Max Donelan, 778.782.7100; mdonelan@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.3210; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Photos are available. Donelan will give a presentation on his earlier invention, the Bionic Energy Harvester, as well as the lab’s latest invention later today, Friday, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. at Robson Square, as part of the provincial government’s Year of Science events. Both he and Snaterse will be on hand with the Cruise Control prototype, available from about 3 p.m. Both are available on the Burnaby campus next week.
Automatically controlling your car’s speed is easy – choose your speed, hit the cruise control button and away you go. But pacing speed while running has proven far from simple. A pair of Simon Fraser University inventors is about to change that.
Biomedical physiologists Max Donelan and Mark Snaterse have figured out how to apply the cruise control philosophy to runners of all levels, enabling them to select and then converge on their desired running speed.
“To attain an optimum pace, practicing athletes are typically forced to measure their split times, while road racers depend on pace runners,” says Snaterse.
“The advent of wearable speed sensors has improved things, but they still require runners to consciously monitor their speed and try to adjust it to meet their goals. At best, these methods are inconvenient and imprecise.”
The idea behind Cruise Control for Runners comes from the discovery that sound tempo can be used to control running speed. “This works much like cruise control in a car, where sound takes the throttle’s role,” says Snaterse. “You can set the preferred speed for your run – say, 10 km in 50 minutes – before you head out.“During the run you just need to synchronize your steps with the sound, almost like you’re dancing. The tempo of the sound is automatically adjusted so that you reach your running goal. Given that you can keep up, of course.”
The large backpack-size prototype currently being used for testing would end up much smaller as a product, possibly even an iPhone app, researchers say.
The prototype allows runners to converge to their preferred speed by using a speed dependent metronome – a device similar to that used in music to set tempo.
“We know that for higher running speeds humans prefer higher step frequencies,” says Snaterse. “This relationship can be inverted – for higher step frequencies, humans prefer higher speeds. The cruise control for runners uses this principle.”
Researchers determine the actual running speed and compare it to a desired speed. If the actual speed drops, a carefully designed control system ensures that the metronome frequency increases, and as a result the running speed will increase. The metronome frequency will continue to change until the runner converges on the desired running speed.
“When designed properly, this happens automatically, and quickly,” Snaterse adds. The metronome beep could eventually be replaced with music with a sliding tempo to control speed.”
“Running cruise control could be used to set the same speed for the whole run, or it could be used to gradually increase speed over the run or continuously change the speed throughout the run, much like interval training,” adds Donelan, who was earlier instrumental in the invention of the Bionic Energy Harvester, which produces energy from walking.
Cruise control could also be used as an adaptive mechanism, giving the runner rest periods and compensating for slower periods whenever it can.
And if you prefer to walk rather than run, rest assured, the researchers say, it works for walking too.
The SFU Innovation Office (IO) has reviewed the technology and filed a U.S. provisional patent, says Rob Patterson, IO technology manager. “We’re excited with the preliminary results and hope to help commercialize the technology,” he adds.