None.
The apparatuses and methods disclosed herein relate generally to billiards games, and more particularly, to analyzing the movement of a billiards cue and presenting information on said movement to the player.
The game of billiards is a very difficult and demanding game requiring extreme focus on subtle details, including but not limited to object ball aiming, foresight of the cue ball path, stroke speed, and billiards cue tip position at impact. Many of these details are either not obvious to a player, or the player is aware of them but still fails to execute them consistently.
There are a number of devices which have been developed to help billiards players to improve their sense of awareness about how certain fundamental movements should feel and to commit these movements to their muscle memory.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,876, issued for Baker, for ‘Training Aid-Guide Device for Pool Cue appears to disclose a handheld guide for a billiards cue that aids in forming a proper bridge with the bridge hand (the hand touching the table). The device gradually transitions a new player, once experience is gained, into holding the cue in a more advanced state, approaching the hand position of an experienced player who does not employ such a training aid.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,153, issued for Josenhans, for ‘Billard-Bridge and Stroke Trainer is another device designed to assist a billiard player in forming a bridge, but instead focuses in helping the player evaluate and improve upon the straightness of his stroke. It is also a handheld guide that conforms to the bridge hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,685, issued for Cannon, for ‘Billiard Cue Stroke Guidance Aid is similar.
There have also been electronic systems, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,450, issued for Meredith, for ‘Computerized Pool Cue. This device is held by the bridge hand similar to a track-ball mouse over which slides the billiards cue, and sends positional data to a screen. This device can be used to directly capture the characteristics of a player's stroke, or used as a simulator in communication with software to emulate a game of pool or billiards virtually.
The devices described above are generally designed to be held with the bridge hand and moved to different locations of the billiards table for each shot.
There are examples of devices which attempt to satisfy this need by attaching to the billiards cue and freeing up the bridge hand, such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,335,110, issued for Tucker, for ‘Billiards Shot Training Device. This device attaches to the ferrule of the billiards cue and includes two arms spaced by the width of a billiards ball, so that the arms will touch the cue ball and compromise the shot if the billiards cue is not precisely in line with the center of the cue ball. The intention is to teach the player through conditioning where the center of the cue ball spatially naps to their physiology and to develop muscle memory calibration to that spot.
Since the advent of microprocessors and accelerometers, there have been a number of training devices employing electronic systems with elements attached directly to the billiards cue. U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,783, issued for Matcovich, for ‘Sports Implement Swing Analyzer is a sports swing analyzer implementing accelerometers, a means for calculating characteristics for a swing, and displaying the characteristics on a remote display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,544 issued for Kobayashi, for ‘Swing Analyzing Device employs at least two accelerometers spaced a known distance to calculate swing velocity of appropriate athletic equipment, and outputs both an audible tone and data to a display.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,645,085, issued for Morris, for ‘System and Method for Simulating a Billiard Cue Stroke includes accelerometers, a microprocessor, a wireless transmitter, and a remote display system to display three-axis acceleration data of the billiards stroke.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 8,696,482, issued for Pedenko, for ‘Three Dimensional Golf Swing Analyzer is a device that attaches to a golf club, includes an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a multiple microprocessors, a wireless data transmitter and receiver, and metrics software used to help coach the player over many trials of golf swings.
As noted above, there have been prior attempts to improve sports performance using training devices, but none is fully satisfactory. A consistent and proper billiards stroke requires a linear movement, whereas the dynamic structure of the human body, specifically the arm is non-linear. Therefore, a proper billiards stroke is best learned through stroke training.
A second issue arises where a player has formed the habit of anticipating the strike. The result is that the player unknowingly tenses muscle groups immediately before the billiards cue strikes the cue ball, causing the billiards cue to deviate from its intended linear path immediately before impact. This issue is hard to self-diagnose and causes inconsistency and frustration.
A third issue arises when a player has formed the habit of prematurely standing up, moving their body before the entire stroke is complete, steering the cue after the strike, or otherwise failing to keep their body significantly still during or after the strike. Many players develop the habit of jumping up or steering the cue immediately after the strike due to the anticipation of the cue ball or object ball leaving their immediate view. As the player tires and loses focus, he may begin to jump up or steer the cue slightly before the strike, causing the billiards cue to deviate from its intended linear path immediately before impact. The result is an unpredictable cue ball path and possibly a miss. These issues are challenging for an observer to detect and are difficult to fix by oneself. However, the effort it takes to become aware of and improve on these issues can be relieved with the assistance of proper billiards training devices or tools.
According to certain disclosed embodiments, the present disclosure relates to certain embodiments of devices for analyzing a billiards shot. Certain of these embodiments comprise:
According to certain embodiments, the disclosed device may further comprise an impact detector for generating an impact signal when the billiards cue strikes a billiards ball. The impact detector may comprise a band pass filter centered at the resonant frequency of the accelerometer.
The impact detector tray further comprise at least one rectifier. The statistical data may further comprise at least one value that represents the time since the billiards cue last struck the billiards ball. The billiards ball may be a cue ball. The axis of the accelerometer may be aligned in parallel with the axial orientation of the billiards cue so that the acceleration data substantially coincides with the longitudinal acceleration of the billiards cue. The accelerometer may comprise three axes of acceleration. The indication system may comprise at least one light-emitting diode. The indication system may further comprise at least one audible tone generator. The indication system may further comprise at least one vibrating indicator. The statistical data may be compared to a threshold value. The housing is formed from a flexible material. The housing may be attached to the butt of the billiards cue. The device may further comprise a billiards cue. A recessed section of the billiards cue is used as the housing. According to certain embodiments, the device is of negligible weight.
According to certain embodiments, the device does not interfere with the billiard player's line-of-sight view. According to certain embodiments, the device does not interfere with the billiard player's range of motion during his stroke.
According to certain embodiments, the disclosure relates to a method for analyzing a billiards shot. The method comprises the steps of:
A device capable of detecting excess body movement and billiards cue steering is valuable because it frees the player from needing a third party or professional coach to indicate when he or she is potentially comprising their stroke with excess movement, and also validates any suspicions the player might have had about their stroke that were undetectable beforehand. Further, since the device helps the player learn to keep the billiards cue still after the strike, a secondary effect is that it also helps the player learn to keep his head and eyes still as well. When the head and eyes are still, the player will appreciate a higher level of visual focus and mental connection to the object ball than they did beforehand.
The present disclosure addresses certain challenges encountered in billiards, specifically the problem of detecting excess billiards cue movement. Particularly, a device that measures the acceleration of the billiards cue after impact with the cue ball, calculates statistics on the acceleration data, and presents a statistical value of that motion to the player alerting them to excess billiards cue movement.
Since it is very difficult to keep a billiards cue from moving in space while changing the position of one's body, the measure of movement of a billiards cue is a good measure of body movement. The device provides immediate feedback, freeing the player from needing a third party or professional coach to indicate when he or she is potentially compromising their stroke with excess movement, and also validates any suspicions the player might have had about their stroke that were difficult to detect beforehand.
Further, since the device helps the player learn to keep the billiards cue still after the strike, a secondary effect is to help the player learn to keep his head and eyes still as well. When the head and eyes are still, the player will appreciate a higher level of visual focus and mental connection to the object ball than they did beforehand.
The disclosure will now be more particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings. Novel features believed characteristic of the disclosed embodiments are set forth in the claims. For the purpose of illustrating the disclosure, certain embodiments are shown and described as examples. It should be understood, however, that the concepts disclosed herein are not limited to the precise arrangement and instrumentalities shown.
The described embodiment is a billiards device that attaches to a billiards cue and detects whether or not a player has kept his cue significantly still for a finite period of time after striking a ball. A typical billiards cue 2 is shown in
The housing 20 includes a bumper 29 which is a thick half-sphere of rubber designed to protect the component board 18 and billiards cue 2 from damage if the butt end of the billiards cue impacts the floor, and an aperture window 28 through which the player can see the display 24 when the component board 18 is fully inserted into the housing. An alternative embodiment may also include an audible tone generator or speaker.
The vibrational motor shall vibrate if a statistical value representing the amount of movement the billiards cue has undergone after it has impacted the cue ball exceeds a predetermined threshold. The vibrational motor may also vibrate if the amount of time since the billiards cue has last impacted the billiards ball has exceeds a predetermined threshold. Further, an alternative embodiment may exclude the vibrational motor.
The display 24 may consist of an array of colored LEDs, an LED numerical display, or other appropriate means of presenting to the player a statistical value representing the amount of movement the billiards cue has undergone after it has impacted the cue ball. The display 24 may also indicate the amount of time that has elapsed since the billiards cue last impacted the billiards ball. Further, an alternative embodiment may exclude the display 24 and aperture window 28. Alternative embodiments may include any other means of presenting statistical data to the player.
Details of one embodiment of the signal conditioning circuit 100 are shown in
Waveforms resulting from a simulation of the signal conditioning circuit 100 are shown in
The impact detection event causes microprocessor to acquire acceleration data, process the acceleration data, generate statistical data, and output the statistical data to the indication system. Specifically for this embodiment, the microprocessor causes the vibrational motor to vibrate, and LED display to illuminate, if the movement of the billiards cue after impact with the cue ball exceeds a predetermined value fixed in the software. The microprocessor also causes the vibrational motor to vibrate if the time since the billiards cue last impacted the cue ball does not exceed a different predetermined value fixed in software.