Oh, patents! Amazon VTON smart mirror (4)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

For a company that owes a large part of its success to inventions, or doing “crazy” things that become “normal”, according to former CEO Jeff Bezos (2021), perhaps that one day, in the near future, Amazon will get their smart mirror for Virtual Try-On (VTON) perfect enough, so that this invention might also become part of the everyday experience of shopping for clothes, at Amazon. In other words, perhaps that the Amazon VTON smart mirror invention might one day become a “yawn-worthy” invention, as Bezos (2021) further puts it for all the Amazon inventions that “got it right”.

The Amazon VTON smart mirror invention is recited in the US utility patent, US10621785, titled Blended reality systems and methods. A patented invention, just like the now- mainstream Amazon inventions, such as: “customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle [and] Alexa”, to name just a few, that Bezos (2021) listed in his farewell email to Amazon employees, on February 2, 2021. Hopefully also, and perhaps most importantly, an Amazon VTON smart mirror invention, in the future of online retail fashion, that might soon work by design, rather than of necessity, arising from further pandemic lockdown orders, or curfews.

Till then, the Amazon VTON smart mirror invention intends to make shopping online a lot easier, resolving issues such as garment fitting, and associated customer satisfaction. The patent discloses a shopping experience where the user can try on clothes virtually. The patent discloses a blended reality where systems and methods are used to blend both projected images (e.g., clothes or background scenery), and captured reflection (e.g.; the user or real objects in front of the mirror), into a single scene, so that users are able to see images of themselves, for example wearing a different outfit, in a real or different (projected) background. The blending of both projected images and captured reflection, without ghosting, is achieved by controlling the amounts of light transmitted to the user through the mirror, and reflected by the mirror to the user, resulting in the controlled superimposition of both projected image and reflection of the user. Thus, the means and methods of blending reality might selectively illuminate or darken portions of the user (see Figure 1B below), while selectively projecting an image on the darkened parts of the user, so that the user in front of the mirror sees a reflection of him- or herself, wearing a different item of clothing (e.g.; a shirt), corresponding to the superimposed reflection of the projected image (see Figure 1C below).

More specifically, the means and methods are those that fuel much artificial intelligence (AI) research in the domain of visual synthesizing, already variously applied in a host of different areas, ranging from fashion to architecture or engineering, and Deep Fakes (Lewis, et.al., 2021; Neuberger, et.al., 2020; Palermo, 2020; Sangkloy, et.al., 2016). Efforts in AI visual synthesizing that have precisely tackled the issues of mapping one high-resolution image onto another, in view of obtaining the photorealistic effects of a blended reality. 

In the domain of fashion design, for example, AI visual synthesizer programs allow designers to see how a new outfit might fit on one body or another, posing one way or another (e.g., using 3D Body Labs scans [1], [2]). Likewise, both image and sound synthesizing technologies are together invoked in the generation of Deep Fake videos, where fake images superimpose the real ones, together with fake speech, using the vocal characteristics of the speaker’s voice. Deep Fake research relying on visual synthesizers, whether it is for the purposes of developing countermeasures to control the generation of such materials, indistinguishable from the real ones (e.g., using video authentication signatures)—or not (Palermo, 2020).

In any event, such AI synthesizing technologies have already made waves, making it possible to virtually try on eyeglasses (e.g., Zenni), makeup (e.g., L'Oréal Makeup VTON),  haircolor (e.g.; L'Oréal Hair VTON) or hairstyles (e.g., L'Oréal style hair VTON), for example, via the generation of photorealistic images, involving the blending of virtual objects onto captured representations of the user.

The abstract of the Amazon VTON smart mirror invention is included below, together with the patent Figures 1A, 1B and 1C, showing the blended reality smart mirror, configured to generate a blended reality view to the user. Specifically, Figure 1A shows an example of the blended reality smart mirror apparatus 100, configured to generate a blended reality 116 to a user 105, in front of the apparatus 100, using light reflected by the mirror 120 blended with light generated from a display device 110 transmitted through the mirror 120. A plurality of projectors 130 on the mirror frame 125 are programed to selectively illuminate objects in front of the mirror. One or more of cameras 140, on the frame 125, are programmed to capture images of the user 105, and other objects in front of the mirror.

The apparatus generates a blended reality view by combining the image projections from the display device 110, behind the mirror 120, with control on the illumination of the user 105 and surroundings, in front of the device, using projectors 130 (Fig 1B). The blended view 116 includes the combination of reflected light 122 of the user, and transmitted light, of the beach scene 112 or shirt 117 (Fig. 1C) projected by the display device 110. 

Systems and methods are provided for generating a blended reality view to a user, the blended reality view combining images reflected by a mirror with images transmitted from a screen behind the mirror. Systems for generating blended reality views can include a display device with a screen positioned behind a mirror. The display device can generate a pattern of illumination and non-illumination on the screen so that the illuminated portions of the screen substantially transmit through the mirror. Projectors can be used to illuminate objects in front of the mirror so that the illuminated objects are reflected by the mirror. In combination, the portions of the screen transmitted through the mirror and the illuminated objects reflected by the mirror can provide a blended reality view to a user viewing the mirror. [Abstract US10621785]

References

3D BodyLabs https://youtu.be/clfnTxM8nuM https://youtu.be/-ckn8YzroJA

Bezos, J. (Feb. 2, 2021) Email from Jeff Bezos to employees. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/email-from-jeff-bezos-to-employees

Boyle, A (Jan. 2, 2018) Amazon’s blended-reality mirror shows you wearing virtual clothes in virtual locales.Geekwire. https://www.geekwire.com/2018/amazon-patents-blended-reality-mirror-shows-wearing-virtual-clothes-virtual-locales/

Lewis, K. M. et. al. (Jan. 6, 2021) VOGUE: Try-On by StyleGAN Interpolation Optimization https://vogue-try-on.github.io/

Neuberger, A. et. Al. (2020) Image-based virtual tryon network from unpaired data. Amazon Lab126 Paper presented at The IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2020. https://assets.amazon.science/1a/2b/7a4dd8264ce19a959559da799aff/scipub-1281.pdf

Ong, T. (Jan. 3, 2018) Amazon patents a mirror that dresses you in virtual clothes. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/1/3/16844300/amazon-patent-mirror-virtual-clothes-fashion

L'Oréal  Makeup Virtual Try-On (VTON)  https://www.lorealparisusa.com/virtual-try-on/makeup.aspx

L'Oréal Haircolor Virtual Try-On (VTON)  https://www.lorealparisusa.com/virtual-try-on/hair.aspx

L'Oréal Style my Hair Virtual Try-On (VTON)  https://www.lorealprofessionnel.co.uk/hair-looks/style-my-hair

Palermo, J. (Feb. 12, 2020) TEDX Deepfakes: Why you can't believe everything you see. Engineer at Dessa. https://youtu.be/JXBBalHl_cI

Sangkloy, P. et. al. (2016) Scribbler: Controlling Deep Image Synthesis with Sketch and Color. Georgia Institue of Technology. http://scribbler.eye.gatech.edu/paper.pdf

Wiggers, K. (June 5, 2020) Amazon’s new AI technique lets users virtually try on outfits. https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/05/amazons-new-ai-technique-lets-users-virtually-try-on-outfits/

Zenni®  https://www.zennioptical.com/

Interlude - NASA's 2021 Mastcam-Z landing site views

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Sometimes, nothing could be farther from the truth than the old adage:  “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Consider, for example, the NASA 2021 MastCam-Z views of the landing site from the Perseverance Rover. In stark contrast to the clarity of the most recent images captured on Mars, and what appears like "a beautiful day on a very far away planet", it is impossible to imagine an environment as inhospitable as the one that actually exists on planet Mars. 

A beautiful sol: MARS 2021 wide-angle view of landing site from Rover Mastcam-Z

Succinctly, the temperature on Mars is extremely cold (on average -80^◦F, a temperature only suitable for storing Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines). Mars’ atmosphere is about 100 times thinner than Earth’s, made up mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2), argon (Ar) and nitrogen (N2), with very little oxygen, which means that it is not possible to breathe Martian air. Devoid of a magnetic field, the surface of Mars is constantly bombarded by solar and galactic radiation, which is lethal to humans. Martian soil is also unsuitable for plants. There are no minerals or water (except at the Martian south pole, and in small quantities, as vapor in the atmosphere). Any liquid water is extremely salty.  All of which is completely invisible in the mesmerizing images taken 300 million miles away, and beamed back to Earth (e.g., like the view included above).

What might follow, considering what is already known about Mars’ extreme environmental conditions, is why continue exploring this planet?  Why, of all possible projects, defy the evidently, incredibly hostile, and terribly dangerous environment for a manned mission?  Perhaps more bluntly, why spend so much money on sending the most advanced technology to a place termed a “hellhole” (Stirone, 2021), when so much of planet Earth begs desperately for both financing and solutions?  Indeed, this is precisely how Jacqui Goddard, journalist from The Times of London posed the question, on behalf of her many non-scientific readers, on Feb. 22, 2021, during the NASA Press Conference, presenting recently edited Entry, Deployment and Landing (EDL) footage, and landing site images from Mars:

..what is the point of spending all this money to go to another planet and explore it? Sometimes that’s not even a question, it’s a statement. There are cynics out there. Can you say why we explore and how does humanity benefit from you finding out what you find out and doing what you do?  [NasaPress Conference Transcript 01-27-28]

Two of the NASA spokespersons responded quite graciously to this question: Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and Matt Wallace, Perseverance Deputy Project Manager. They both agreed on pointing out that 1. NASA’s far-out budget represents just a fraction of the budget spent on planet Earth, and 2. The scientific inquiry that drives NASA missions also has very practical consequences. The example cited was the Global Positioning System (GPS), which was developed by NASA within the context of satellite research, also under the auspices of the Space Agency. Intersections with the history of the wheel could also have been cited. Short of moving humanity backward a few steps, NASA research is precisely where many solutions are found, even humanitarian ones. In some forsaken places, for example, where there are no street names or addresses, GPS localization is the only way of delivering goods and services, or of finding people.

The images from Mars may not tell all the truth, but perhaps that this sort of omission might be completely forgiven, considering the beauty of the images, and most importantly, just the fact that they might be seen, at all–for free, in the name of inquiry.

 References

Goddard, J. (Feb. 25, 2021) Why the billions spent on the Mars Perseverance mission will pay off. The Times.  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-the-billions-spent-on-the-mars-perseverance-mission-will-pay-off-mcms8wq2w

NASA - Mars  https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/

NASA – Space Radiation elements (HRP)   https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/elements/radiation/miniseries

NASA Transcript for Press Conference on February 22, 2021.   https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/nasa-press-conference-transcript-february-22-perseverance-rover-searches-for-life-on-mars

Stirone, S. (Feb. 26, 2021) Mars is a Hellhole - The Atlantic.   https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/mars-is-no-earth/618133/  

Ten things to know about Mars.   https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/#otp_ten_things_to_know_about_mars

Tango Delta! Perseverance Rover touchdown

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

On February 18, 2021, the six-wheeled Perseverance Rover vehicle landed on the Jezero Crater, on planet Mars, within a few feet of the targeted spot, 330 million miles away from planet Earth, after departing, on July 30th, 2020, inside a cruise shell, attached to an Atlas V-451 rocket, launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida. The Perseverance Rover, affectionately called “Percy” is a 2,263-pound (1,026-kilogram), car-size, robotic geologist and astrobiologist, designed to investigate, for the next two years, the geology of the Jezero Crater, an ancient lakebed and river delta region, searching for signs of ancient microbial life (NASA Press Release 02-8-2021).

The Perseverance Rover is equipped with a payload of sophisticated instrument suites, together with an Advanced Sample Collection System. The instrumentation suites include:

• The MarsEntry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) sensor suite, which collected data on the atmosphere, during entry.
• The Terrain-Relative Navigation system, which guided the engine during its descent.
• The  Mastcam-Z, two zoomable science cameras on Perseverance’s remote sensing mast, designed to create high-resolution panoramas of the Martian landscape.
• The SuperCam, using a pulsed laser to study the chemistry of rocks and sediment, also equipped with its own microphone.
• The Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) used in  conjunction with Sherloc (below) to analyze the elementary composition of Martian rock samples 
• The Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument suite on board is designed to detect minerals and molecules in the search for ancient life.
• The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), designed to manufacture oxygen out of Mars thin air.
• The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument, with sensors on the mast and body of the Rover, is designed to provide key info on Mars weather, dust and climate.
• The Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX), designed to collect data to determine how the layers of soil on Mars stack up.
• The Mars Ingenuity Helicopter,  currently charging on the engine’s belly.  

 On February 22, 2021, NASA released an edited version (included below) of the extraordinarily clear, hi-definition color video footage, of the vehicle’s Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL). The 3-minute NASA Youtube video shows the deployment of the parachute in a bottom-up view from under the parachute, separation of the heat shield covering the spacecraft,  and the slow retro-rocket propelled descent guided by the descent stage, all the way to touchdown on Martian soil, in a top-down view. The Official NASA edited footage is amazingly clear, considering the distance. In comparison with previous mission footage from planet Mars, which used to be colored in the editing room, the Perseverance Rover mission footage is the first hi-definition full-color footage streamed from the Red planet.  Indeed the images are stunningly clear. (NASA Press release, 02-22-2021)

The EDL video cam system functioned upon entry into the Martian atmosphere, starting at about 7 miles (11 km) above the surface of Mars. One camera, on top of the backshell, protecting the Rover, was looking up at the parachute. One camera on the retrorocket decent stage was looking down. Two cameras were on the Rover: one camera was looking up at the descent stage, and one camera was looking down at Martian soil, once the heatshield had separated. The image  included (to the right) illustrates the Mars 2020 entry, descent and landing camera suite with camera position, respectively on the backshell, descent stage and Rover.

Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)

https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg  (released 22 -02-2021)

While the EDL camera suite was designed to give viewers multiple views of the EDL, it is perhaps much more difficult to fathom is the actual violence of the supersonic parachute deployment, that scientists report. The Perseverance Rover was traveling at approximately 12,500 mph (20,100 kph) upon entering the upper Mars atmosphere. Approximately 230 seconds later the parachute deployed almost instantaneously (in 1 second) from a compressed 18 x 26 inch (46 x 66 cm) cylinder, into a fully inflated 70.5 foot-wide (21.5 meter-wide) canopy, generating tens of thousands of pounds of force to slow the Rover’s speed. During the NASA press conference, presenting the EDL footage, NASA scientists noted that the parachute deployed with no tangled strings, which is amazing since the deployment happened in just 1 second, at supersonic speed (i.e.; at a speed exceeding the speed of sound). 

Stay tuned for more! The Perseverance Rover is powered by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or MMRTG, provided by the Department of Energy in partnership with NASA.  Safe landing on Mars is only the beginning of the Mars Perserverance mission, and all the discoveries it promises to offer.

References

Press Release  21-021 (Feb. 22, 2021) NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover provides front-row seat to landing, first audio recording of red planet.   https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-mars-perseverance-rover-provides-front-row-seat-to-landing-first-audio

Press Release 21-018 (Feb. 18, 2021) Touchdown! NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover Safely Lands on Red Planet.  https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/touchdown-nasas-mars-perseverance-rover-safely-lands-on-red-planet

NASA – Entry Descent and Landing (EDL).   https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/entry-descent-landing/#Terrain-Relative-Navigation

Simulated EDL https://youtu.be/tITni_HY1Bk

The Cameras on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/cameras/

NASA - Power and thermal systems (MMRTG).   https://rps.nasa.gov/power-and-thermal-systems/power-systems/

NASA – The Extraordinary Sample-Gathering System of NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover.   https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-extraordinary-sample-gathering-system-of-nasas-perseverance-mars-rover

Barnett, A (Oct. 8, 2020) NASA's Perseverance Rover Will Peer Beneath Mars' Surface (RIMFAX).  https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-perseverance-rover-will-peer-beneath-mars-surface

NASA (May 26,2020)- The Detective aboard  NASA’s Perseverance Rover (SHERLOC).   https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-detective-aboard-nasas-perseverance-rover

NASA (May 1, 2020) -  NASA’s Perseverance Rover will look at Mars through these eyes  (MastCamX).   https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8663/nasas-perseverance-rover-will-look-at-mars-through-these-eyes/

NASA (Sept. 22, 2020) - NASA's New Mars Rover Will Use X-Rays to Hunt Fossils (PIXL).   https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-new-mars-rover-will-use-x-rays-to-hunt-fossils

NASA  - MOXIE  https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/moxie/

NASA – MEDA  https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/meda/

NASA – Moxie for scientists.   https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/moxie/for-scientists/

NASA (April 29, 2020) - Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RQWv1ybsjM

NASA (Jan 27, 2021) -   NASA’s Perseverance 22 days from landing.   https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-perseverance-rover-22-days-from-mars-landing   

Oh, patents! Smart mirrors (3) Tonal

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

To sculpt your body, Tonal offers intelligent resistance training, also called weight lifting, right in your living room. Using a smart wall mirror, equipped with all the weight lifting apparatus of a gym in two mobile arms and legs that tuck away when idle, Tonal will provide customized resistance training programs. Programs that adjust to the user’s goals, as well as respond on the spot to the user’s performance, while also supplying the user with maximum control. The Tonal system is smarter than a gym, because it offers the precision of digital control on the resistance/tension applied to muscles during workouts. 

The Youtube video below introduces the Tonal Smart Home Gym, in use for resistance training. 

Traditional strength training relies on one of several systems: 1. Bodyweight, subsuming use of the body's own gravitation force to apply tension/resistance to muscles, without the use of apparatus (e.g., via push-ups or pull-ups); 2. Free weights (e.g.; dumbbells), subsuming use of the gravitation force of apparatus, in coordination with movement, to apply tension/resistance to muscles. 3. Fixed-track machines to apply even tension/resistance on muscles, using a stack of weights, coupled to a cable and cam, on a track. The user then adjusts the stack of weights to vary the repetition of a single tension/resistance path applied to muscles. 4. Cable machines, using a pulley system, considered a cross between free weights and fixed track machines, since they offer both varied load and movement paths to apply tension/resistance to muscles. Thus, cable machines are able to target different muscles for strengthening, depending on the load, angle and direction of the cabled tension/resistance path applied to muscles.

Beyond the amount of tension/resistance applied to muscles, as well as the path and direction of movement, strength training also depends on such variables as the number of repetitions, the tempo/speed of the repetitions and the amount of time between each repetition. Finally, tension/resistance placed on muscles in strength training is further described in terms concentric, eccentric and isometric loading. Concentric loading is when muscles contract under load. Isometric loading is when muscles hold, remaining stationary, under load. Eccentric loading is when muscles lengthen under load.

The selection of the right combination of tension/resistance and movement variables applied to muscles  (e.g., weight, path, direction, tempo, number of repetitions, concentric, eccentric or isometric loading) is the art and science of creating strength resistance protocols. Protocols, that also require customization, to meet individual needs and specifics. Most importantly, protocols that cause no injury to muscles, while building strength.  

The Tonal system invention is recited in a series of patents that precisely respond to the problematic situation of designing optimal strength training protocols, using the flexibility and precision of digital means, together with the electromechanical apparatus to carry out the protocols. In other words, the Tonal patents disclose the various components that enable electromechanical performance and control of strength training protocols. In particular, the Tonal system is recited in the US utility patent US10661112, titled Digital Strength training.

The Abstract of this invention is included below, together with the patent Figures 8 and 10, showing the asymmetrical plotting of concentric and eccentric loading on a range of motion that changes direction, for example in an arm curl.  The loading asymmetry is only possible via digital control, since it would be impossible to physically change the loading of weights on a machine, in the middle of an arm curl movement, for example. Plotting also shows the degree of control for loading, relative to each phase of a range of motion. 

In particular, Figure 8 shows concentric loading at 100 lbs on the full concentric range of motion from 0% to 100% and abrupt decrease in eccentric loading to 80 lbs on the full eccentric range of motion from 100% to 0%, when the movement changes direction, from contraction to extension (e.g.; in an arm curl). Figure 10 shows the reverse loading, from concentric loading at 80lbs on the full concentric range of movement from 0% to 100%, with an abrupt increase in eccentric loading to 100 lbs on the full eccentric range of movement from 100% to 0%, for the same movement from contraction to extension, (e.g., an arm curl). 

An information related to the position of an actuator coupled to a cable which is coupled to a motor is received. A filter is used to provide an input to a motor controller coupled to the motor, to adjust torque on the motor such that a strength curve is implemented relative to the position of the actuator.  [Abstract US10661112] 

References

Tonal Smart Home Gym -- https://www.tonal.com/

V-Day 2021

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

For V-Day 2021, one additional V-Day platform was appended to the vast global movement, to end violence against women and girls, initiated in 1998, by Eve Ensler, author, playwright and activist.  Indeed, V-Day (Voices) 2021 specifically targets the Voices of Black Women. 

V-Day (Voices) 2021 is a project curated by the poet Ajat Monet, who sent out a call for submissions, addressed to Black women worldwide, interested in sharing pieces, speaking out against violence directed at women. Poems, monologues and other pieces will then be compiled into one showcase piece, in the Fall of 2021.  

V-Day (Voices) has thus become part of the 2021 V-Day action that includes One-BillionRising-Garden Rising campaigns and events (1); City of Joy, a shelter, serving up to 90 women at once, escaping violence in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo; and all the V-Day-inspired local USA events, where women gather (or tune-in on a pandemic year), to read and/or watch performances of Eve Ensler’s earth-shaking play The Vagina Monogues (2001).

Below, a 2021 YouTube video of a fabulous animated version of the V-day-One Billion Rising anthem Break the Chain, a song written by Tena Clark, with music by Tena Clark and Tim Heintz, choreographed by Debbie Allen. In non-pandemic years, since 2013, Break the Chain has spread like wildfire worldwide, on V-Day, complete with hundreds of scheduled Flash Mob events each year, such as the Shake Toronto event, V-Girls in South Africa, or the One Billion Rising, 5000-people event at Pariser Platz, in Berlin Germany on Feb 14 2013.  

One Billion rising 2021 - Rising Gardens

---------

(1) One billion corresponds to the  staggering figure, representing the number of women victims of violence worldwide 

References

City of Joy  https://www.cityofjoycongo.org/splash/

Ensler, E. (2001) Vagina Monologues. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.

Ensler, E. (2004) The Good Body. New York, NY: Villard Books (Random House).

Ensler, E. (2005) Vagina Warriors. New York, NY: Bulfinch Press (Hachette Book Group).

Ensler, E. (2010) Emotional Creature. New York, NY: Villard Books Random House).

Ensler, E. (2013) In the Body of the World. London, UK: Metropolitan Books (Macmillan Publishers).

Ensler, E. (2014) In the Body of the World. London, UK: Picador Paper. (Macmillan Publishers).

Ensler, E. (2019) The Apology. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Ensler,E. (Jan. 7 2020) The profound power of an authentic apology – TED Talk https://youtu.be/gQ-0oR3C1UM

One-Billion Rising 2021: Garden Rising Campaign.  https://www.onebillionrising.org/about/campaign/

V-Day.org (Eve Ensler) https://vday.org/news-alerts/press/eveensler.html  

V-Day.org Staff (nov. 19, 2012) V-Day's One Billion Rising Campaign Unveils New Song and Music Video: "Break the Chain". https://www.vday.org/node/2996.html

V-Day.org – What is One-Billion Rising? https://www.vday.org/one-billion-rising/what-is-one-billion-rising/

V-Spot - https://vspot.vday.org/

Voices. https://voices.vday.org/

Ensler, E. (website) https://www.eveensler.org/ 

Oh, patents! Smart mirrors (2) Forme Life

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Forme Life Personal Strength Studio for Body and Mind comprises a smart mirror, fitness machine, specially designed for strength and resistance training. The smart mirror home fitness machine includes tuck-away mechanical exercise arms, equipped with adjustable resistance applied to graspable handles, a pressure sensor mat, and externally connected workout equipment, such as weights, bars and bells. The brand name of the personal strength home studio,  “Forme Life” (spelt with an extra “e’), is borrowed from the French term “la forme”, meaning “in shape”. A meaning that extends, for this invention, to the health of body shaping and sculpting that can be achieved, using such a smart mirror, home fitness studio

The YouTube video below shows the Forme Life smart mirror, home fitness machine, in use for strength and resistance training. 

The Forme Life home studio fitness machine is a patented invention, disclosed in the US utility patent application US20200047030, titled  Interactive exercise machine system with mirror display. The patent application discloses a smart mirror, combined with connected video and audio output means, together with mechanical apparatus for resistance training, and means to continuously 3D-record, monitor and process movement and biometric data from the user. Biometric data includes, for example heart rate, and calories burnt. Recorded movement data, for example, might be used to generate skeletal and joint data, in view of providing posture and position feedback to the user.

 Interestingly, the Forme Life interactive exercise machine, with smart mirror display, was originally designed to customize machine configuration and workouts, using expert algorithms, generated by the machine. For example, algorithms to skillfully adjust the resistance of mechanical workout means, in view of assisting users in their goals, without injury or personal trainers. It is both incidental, and unspecified in the disclosure of the invention, that this exercise machine might be so well suited to the pandemic situation, because of the workout safety it offers, under shelter-at-home orders. 

The patent application abstract, together with the patent application Figure 1, are included below.

 

An interactive exercise system includes a mechanical support system and a display module held by the mechanical support system. A mirror element is attached to at least partially cover the display module. At least one movable arm is connected to the support system and at least one force-controlled component is connected to the mechanical support system. The force-controlled component can be graspable by a user and allows for a range of exercise types and programs.[Abstract US20200047030]

The included patent application Figure 1 shows the interactive exercise machine 100 with personalized training capabilities, and a user 101. The machine includes a display 102 held by a mechanical support 104. The display is designed for viewing videos 105 or information 207. The display is also partially covered with reflective “mirror” material, enabling to view a reflection 103 of the user 101.  Movable arms 106 and legs 208 are connected to the mechanical support 104. Engageable components such as graspable handles 110 are connected to a force sensor 114, attached to a cord that extends through the movable arms 106. A camera 112 monitors user position, which may be used to adjust the resistance of the handles 110. Additional sensors 116 might include audio, microphone, light, geo-positioning, accelerometer, yaw, pitch and roll, carbon monoxide and temperature sensing devices. A pressure sensor mat 124 is also depicted, as well as other workout equipment 126, such as weights, balls, bars, tubes, balance systems, movable or stationary. User data might be stored locally, or sent via connected data cloud 120, for processing at a remote data storage and analytics service 122.  The network cloud might include connected smartphones, computers or servers, for ubiquitous and on-demand access to a host of computing resources. Computing resources enabling, for example, both video and augmented reality output.

References

Forme Life https://formelife.com/

FuseProeject – Forme Life https://www.fuseproject.com/work/forme-life  

Oh, patents! Smart mirrors (1) Mirror.com

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Need a workout in the safety of your own home? Pilates, sculpt, post-natal exerices, kickboxing, weight training, ballet, dance cardio, hip-hop, tai-chi, yoga flow, boxing, kettlebell?  Mirror.com offers more than 50 different sorts of workouts, on-demand, from beginning to expert levels, in 5 to 60-minute, private or live, group sessions with certified trainers, or using a library of tapes. Each workout is brought to you directly in your living room, via a smart mirror. With a monthly subscription for up to six different family members, users can tune-in to the (smart) Mirror, both for access to workouts and live feedback. Feedback on such items as posture, position and performance, using monitored heart rate data that the Mirror records via Bluetooth, and data on every user-move, collected via proprietary camera algorithms.

Considering that the coronavirus was found to also spread via airborne transmission, even outdoor exercising might appear risky. In other words, transmission via droplets >5 µm that are expelled via sneezing, coughing, talking or singing loudly, are believed to drop to the ground within about 3 feet, whereas airborne transmission is suspected to occur via suspended droplets <5 µm, containing the virus (Ming Hui Chua, et al., 2020). Smaller particles that stay suspended in the air for longer periods of time, traveling greater distances, depending on wind for example. Thus, the Mirror workouts probably appear as safe as you will ever get. Not to mention the fact that the Mirror workouts might also be more social, to the extent that it is possible to connect with friends, to work out with them, in a live, trainer-led, (Zoom-type) session, in contrast to working out, while maintaining at least 6 feet of distance, in the open air.

Master-minded in 2018 by CEO Brynn Putman, originally a professional ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet, and then founder of the Refine Method Fitness Studio, the Mirror.com start-up was sold to the Canadian athletic apparel retail company LuluLemon Athletica Inc., in the summer of 2020, for 500 million USD  (O'Brian, June 29, 2020, Terlep, S. June 30, 2020; Riley Moffat, Sept. 17, 2020). The concept no doubt appeared potent, since the Mirror not only brings professional boutique fitness right into people’s living rooms, it also brings safety in the midst of state-mandated lockdowns, caused by a virus transmitted largely via the respiratory route.

The (smart) Mirror personal home fitness system is an invention with many different patented aspects, such as the following, all of which might be licensed and used:

• continuous acquisition of biometric and movement data via camera and sensor, during a workout session
• reality-blending aspects of 3D video output on a display screen, together with mirroring functions displaying the user’s reflection
• embodied, fitness expert-system that enables to customize and adjust an exercise program, based on acquired biometric data and user motion, while providing real-time feedback on performance (e.g., calories burned and heart rate.)

The US utility patent, US10845511B2, titled Smart Mirror, filed by Hewlett Packard in 2016, for example, recites a blended reality aspect of smart mirror inventions. In other words, how both the display of data (collected from the user and/or imported) and mirror reflection of the user are processed for presentation to a user, facing the smart mirror. Specifically, the patent recites visualization of both interface data and user reflection, relative to the user’s captured eye focal distance. Eye focal distance is measured, using binocular cameras, as the convergence point of the user’s left and right eye gaze. 

Thus, the invention discloses a highly visible (bright) mirror reflection and less visible (dimmed) interface data, when the user’s captured eye focal distance is on the mirror image. Conversely, when the user’s captured eye focal distance is on the display, then the mirror image presented is less visible (dimmed), while the interface data becomes highly visible (brighter).  Consequently, users are able to use their gaze on specific objects of the user interface, as an input method to control the smart mirror, while the mirror uses biometric information (the eye focal distance of the user’s gaze) to determine which information to present on screen. Finally, hands free operation of the information displayed, in turn, is disclosed as extending the usefulness of the mirror. Although, considering the invention was filed several years prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, it is quite incidental that such a “contactless” feature of the invention would become especially significant.

The abstract of this invention is included below, together with Figures 5A and 5B, showing the smart mirror’s differential response to the captured eye focal distance of a user 505, facing the display .  

Figure 5a illustrates the smart mirror 500, with the user 505 focusing his gaze 520A on his reflection 540A, whereas Figure 5b illustrates the smart mirror’s appearance, with the user  505 focusing his gaze  520B on interface objects 530B of the display. The user’s eye focal distance is measured with a binocular eye sensor 510, located on top of the mirror frame. Measurement is restricted to the user’s reach.

 Small screen areas, 550A on Figure 5BA, and 550B on Figure 5B, respectively show an overlap of the user reflection 540A and the interface objects 530B. However, according to the inventive determination of eye focal distance, the user reflection 540A is more prominently visible in Figure 5A, whereas the interface objects are more prominently visible in the Figure 5B.

In one example, a smart mirror. The smart mirror includes a display adjacent one side of a half-mirror, sensors to acquire biometric information of a user facing an opposite side of the half-mirror, and a controller coupled to the sensors and the display. The controller determines from the biometric information a focal distance of the user. If the focal distance corresponds to the display, the controller presents a user interface on the smart mirror in a highly-visible manner and a reflection of the user in a less-visible manner. If the focal distance corresponds to the reflection of the user, the controller presents the user interface on the smart mirror in a less-visible manner and the reflection of the user in a highly-visible manner.  [Abstract US10845511B2]

The YouTube video below shows the elegant Mirror, in use, for several sorts of living room workouts.

References

Lululemon Athletica Inc. https://info.lululemon.com/about

Ming Hui Chua, et al.(Aug 7, 2020) Face Masks in the New COVID-19 Normal: Materials, Testing, and Perspectives. Research (Wash D C). 2020; 2020: 7286735. Published online 2020 Aug 7. doi: 10.34133/2020/7286735    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32832908/ 

Mirror.com https://www.mirror.co/

Refine Method Fitness Studio  http://www.refinemethod.com/

O’Brian S.A. (June 29, 2020) Lululemon to buy mirror at-home fitness startup for 500 million. CNN.com. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/tech/lululemon-mirror-fitness-startup-acquisition/index.html

Riley Moffat, A. (Sept. 17, 2020) Lululemon’s Mirror Workout Tool Doesn’t Sell Sports Bras -- Yet. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-17/lululemon-s-mirror-workout-tool-doesn-t-sell-sports-bras-yet

Terlep, S. (June 30, 2020) Lululemon Buys Mirror, an At-Home Fitness Startup, for $500 Million. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/lululemon-to-buy-at-home-fitness-company-mirror-for-500-million-11593465981