Patent Application
20210370151
The present disclosure relates to methods, techniques, and systems for goal detection systems. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a goal detection system including an infrared transmitting hockey puck and infrared sensing goal detection system configured to communicate with each other and other devices and provide automatic tracking and notification.
The sport of hockey is a fast-paced game played using hockey sticks and a single ball or puck, which is passed between players for the purpose of placing the ball or puck into a hockey goal. The speed of the players and the small size of the puck make it difficult for spectators and viewers to watch the game and recognize the location of the puck during gameplay. Visual cues from the players' movements are generally used to locate the puck, however when in proximity to the goal locating the puck becomes even more difficult. Moreover, determining when the puck has passed over the threshold of the goal can sometimes be difficult if there are several players around the goal.
When watching televised hockey games, locating the puck can be particularly difficult for viewers at home. Not only does this make it difficult to follow the game at times, but it can also lead to an overall decreased interest in the gameplay. Similarly, camera crews, referees, coaches, players, and goalies may also lose sight of the puck, particularly when in close proximity to the goal. This can be frustrating for all involved and is especially problematic for referees when calling scored goals. The current methods for determining when a goal is scored involves video replay. This technique can be hampered if the goalie or other players crowd the goal area and block the field of view of the camera within the goal. This makes determination of a scored goal impossible, particularly when many players are scrambling around the goal and the goalie is covering the puck.
Embodiments described here provide improvements for automatically detecting and tracking hockey goal events during hockey play. Example embodiments provide an Automated Hockey Goal Detection System (“AHGDS” or “goal detection system”), which enables goal events during hockey play to be automatically and immediately (in real-time or near real-time) detected and notifications generated therefor and for automatically tracking and communicating attributes of such events such as puck speed and location. Automatically generated notifications may take various forms and thus may be indicated by audio, visual, and/or haptic mechanisms (e.g., announced, flashed, and the like) to an integrated device and/or to a device remote from the goal detection system. Further, event information may be automatically recorded and/or communicated to other devices, such as a remote computing device, for use in analyzing player or game effectiveness during coaching or game activities. In addition, the automatically recorded event activity may be used to produce reports or to communicate wirelessly with players, coaches, evaluators, and/or other personnel while play is ongoing. This allows for immediate feedback and possible corrective action.
For example, for athlete training purposes or during game play, it may be valuable to know how many times the puck has entered the frame, where and when the puck has entered the goal frame, and at what speed. Further, athletes often practice shooting the puck at multiple locations within the goal frame and feedback regarding effectiveness may be desired. For example, during training a coach may issue commands to shoot the puck at a particular location in the goal frame (upper left, upper right, center, etc.). Since the speed at which this happens is so fast and difficult to observe with the naked eye, a goal detection system such as example AHGDSes described here, which can automatically determine the puck location and speed when the puck crosses the goal, can provide valuable and more accurate information. Moreover, the automated nature of example AHGDS goal detection provides unbiased information regarding goal events which leads to greater accuracy for coaching and reporting purposes.
Using an example AHGDS, upon the puck entering the goal frame, the AHGDS can determine its location and perform some action as a result. The action might entail communicating the determined information or causing some indication of the goal event. For example, the puck location can be indicated by lighting up a specific section of the goal frame or the puck location may be transmitted wirelessly to a remote computing device (phone, tablet, etc.) for other purposes, such as to inform training software as to the puck location and speed.
An example goal detection system for performing such functions utilizes an infrared transmitting hockey puck and an infrared sensing goal frame with multiple infrared sensors arranged around the perimeter of the goal frame. The goal frame may include a control unit that determines the location of the puck within the goal frame by evaluation of the active sensors. For example, improvements to an infrared transmitting hockey puck and an infrared sensing goal frame such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 10,507,374, titled “INFRARED HOCKEY PUCK AND GOAL DETECTION SYSTEM, issued Dec. 17, 2019; U.S. Pat. No. 10,434,397, of the same title, issued Oct. 8, 2019; and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/864,116 of the same title, filed Apr. 30, 2020, which disclosures are incorporated herein in their entireties, may be used to implement the improved goal detection systems described here.
In brief operation, in an example AHGDS, when the infrared transmitting hockey puck crosses the goal line of the infrared sensing goal frame, the goal frame determines the location of the puck within the goal frame by evaluation of active sensors. In another example AHGDS, the goal detection system may communicate with a remote computing device to transmit notification of the goal event and puck location and/or puck speed to the remote computing device. The remote computing device may be wirelessly connected or wired to the goal detection system and may be any such computing device capable of accepting event information such as a phone, tablet, desktop, or other stationary or mobile computing device.
In one example AHGDS, the infrared sensing goal frame comprises multiple sets of infrared sensors arranged around the perimeter of the goal frame. Each set of sensors is arranged in a plane and offset from other planes of sensors. By offsetting the sensor set planes, a control unit of the improved goal frame determines the puck velocity by measuring the difference in time between activation of each sensor plane. Other known systems measure puck speed differently, such as by detection of a puck obstructing infrared energy transmitted from one side of a goal frame to the other.
Although the AHGDS is described with respect to the sport of hockey and used with an improved hockey puck and improved goal frame, it is contemplated that the concepts described herein and similar techniques may be used for other purposes. For example, techniques for automatic speed and tracking detection of a moving object such as a puck passing within a constrained target space (such as defined by a hockey goal frame) may be employed in other types of sporting events and with other sporting equipment. Also, although the examples described herein refer to retrofitting or fitting a goal frame with sensors through assembly techniques such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 10,507,374, it is contemplated that other forms of producing such a goal frame may also be used as part of an AHGDS in order to enhance a goal frame with automated sensing and a controller for same. For example, a goal frame may be constructed and manufactured with integrated LEDs and an integrated controller, or partially integrated, or the like. Similarly, other forms for communication such as using radio frequency transmitters and receivers outside of the range infrared frequencies may also be used with example AHGDSes and still accomplish the automated detection, tracking, and reporting of goals as described here.
Also, although certain terms are used primarily herein, other terms could be used interchangeably to yield equivalent embodiments and examples. In addition, terms may have alternate spellings which may or may not be explicitly mentioned, and all such variations of terms are intended to be included.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth, such as data formats and code sequences, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the described techniques. The embodiments described also can be practiced without some of the specific details described herein, or with other specific details, such as changes with respect to the ordering of the logic, different logic, etc. Thus, the scope of the techniques and/or functions described are not limited by the particular order, selection, or decomposition of aspects described with reference to any particular routine, module, component, and the like.
As described above, an example Automated Hockey Goal Detection System utilizes an infrared transmitting hockey puck and an infrared sensing goal frame with multiple infrared sensors arranged around the perimeter of the goal frame such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 10,507,374. In some instances, the hockey puck and/or the goal frame are configured to communicate with a remote computing device.
Wireless puck charger 100 comprises a power supply 101, charge controller circuit 102 and inductive power transmitter 103. Power is converted from the supply into an electromagnetic field 150 to charge a battery 201 within the goal detection system's hockey puck 200
Hockey puck 200 radiates pulsed infrared light at a fixed frequency while in play. The puck 200 comprises a battery 201, battery charger 202, inductive power pickup 203 for wireless charging, motion sensor 204, control logic 205, pulse generator 206, LED power control circuit 207 and an array of LEDs (light emitting diodes) 211. The array of LEDs 211 are mounted on the top (LEDs 208), the bottom (LEDs 209) and about the perimeter (LEDs 210) of the puck as shown in
When the puck motion sensor 204 senses motion that indicates play (e.g., acceleration exceeding 1G) the control logic 205 activates a pulse generator 206 that commands a LED power control circuit 207 to send energy pulses to the array of LEDs 211 including the topside mounted LEDs 208, bottom side mounted LEDS 209, and perimeter LEDs 210. When the control logic 205 does not receive motion indications from the motion sensor 204 for longer than 20 seconds, the control logic 205 ceases to command the LED power control circuit 207 to send pulses energy to LEDs—this conserves battery energy for when the puck 200 is actively in play.
When the puck 200 is in proximity to the puck charger 100, an electromagnetic field couples the inductive power transmitter 103 of the puck charger 100 to the inductive power pickup 203 of the puck 200, enabling charging to occur.
In one example AHGDS, infrared sensors 310 (see
Each housing 312 for each sensor 310 comprises an infrared sensor element 314, one or more baffles 311, and a pulse frequency detector 313. Within the housing 312 are one or more baffles 311 that block rays of infrared energy that are not directly in line with the infrared sensor element 314. In the diagram, the infrared light 315 in line with the sensor 314 has an unobstructed path to the sensor 314 whereas infrared light 316 that is not in line with the sensor 314 absorbed by the baffles 311. Once the infrared sensor element 314 detects light, it converts infrared light energy (from path 315) into an electrically observable signal 318. When the infrared light is pulsed, the electrically observable signal 318 also pulses. The pulse frequency detector 313 processes the signal 318 from the infrared sensor element 314 and produces a digital signal 319 which is forwarded to the goal frame control logic (not shown) when the pulse frequency matches the frequency sent by the puck 200. For example, the goal frame control logic may be executed by a microcontroller unit affixed to or integrated with the improved goal frame, such as microcontroller unit 530 in U.S. Pat. No. 10,507,374.
Control logic 320 receives digital signals from the infrared sensors indicating that the puck 200 is at the goal line 301 (
More specifically, the determination of whether a valid goal has transpired and the location of the puck, involves evaluating the duration(s) of active sensor signals of the activated sensors. If an activated sensor produces a signal for less time than the signal generated by a “fastest reasonable” puck, then the control logic 320 classifies this signal as spurious and not indicative of a valid goal. Alternatively, if the signal lasts equal to or longer than the fastest reasonable puck, the control logic 320 classifies this signal as a valid goal.
For example, if the active area of the sensor (detector) is about ¼ inch wide and a puck's speed can be as high as 105 miles per hour, then the duration of the active sensor signal should be at least 135.3 microseconds if it is to be considered a valid goal. (The computation changes for the active area of the sensor and the maximum puck speed.) Anything less than this duration is considered spurious.
This determination also involves evaluating the locations of the activated receivers to determine that the activation represents a valid goal and not noise. In at least one example AHGDS, the control logic 320 hosts or accesses a lookup table of valid sensor combinations. The lookup table contains all valid sensor combinations and the puck location indicated by the combination of sensors. Sensor combinations that are not producible by a single puck entering the goal frame 300 do not exists in the valid goal lookup table. For example, if the puck is seen simultaneously in opposite corners of the goal, and nowhere in between, this would exist in the lookup table. For example, it is not likely that a sensor on each of the two opposite vertical posts (sensors 302 and 303) can both be activated for a valid goal. Equivalents to the lookup table (such as a hash table, file, array, etc.) may also be incorporated.
For example, in
More specifically, improved goal frame 300 is shown in
As previously mentioned, the goal detection system may communicate with a remote computing device to transmit (forward, send, notify, etc.) notification of a goal event and puck location and/or puck speed. This notification may be used, for example, for player or game effectiveness analysis during coaching or game activities. In addition, an automatically recorded event activity (which may optionally include goal event location and puck speed) may be used to produce reports or to communicate wirelessly with players, coaches, evaluators, and/or other personnel while play is ongoing.
In operation, upon determining that the puck 200 has crossed the goal line 301, the control logic 320 (e.g., in the microcontroller not shown) activates a wireless transmitter 414 when it detects a goal event as described above. The wireless transmitter 414 sends wireless energy 450 to a remote computing device 600, which then processes the received information. For example, an application running on the remote computing device 600 may process received information by actions such as to report goal event information, track goal event and/or player statistics or information, produce reports, communicate with other devices (such as a remote annunciator device), and the like.
Note that one or more general purpose virtual or physical computing systems suitably instructed or a special purpose computing system may be used to implement a remote computer for use with AHGDS. However, just because it is possible to implement the remote computing system on a general purpose computing system does not mean that the techniques themselves or the operations required to implement the techniques are conventional or well known. Further, the remote computing system may be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, or in some combination to achieve the capabilities described herein.
The computing system 600 may comprise one or more server and/or client computing systems and may span distributed locations. In addition, each block shown may represent one or more such blocks as appropriate to a specific embodiment or may be combined with other blocks. Moreover, the various blocks of the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 may physically reside on one or more machines, which use standard (e.g., TCP/IP) or proprietary interprocess communication mechanisms to communicate with each other.
In the embodiment shown, computer system 600 comprises a computer memory (“memory”) 601, a display 602, one or more Central Processing Units (“CPU”) 603, Input/Output devices 604 (e.g., keyboard, mouse, CRT or LCD display, etc.), other computer-readable media 605, and one or more network connections 606. The AHGDS remote processing modules 610 are shown residing in memory 601. In other embodiments, some portion of the contents, some of, or all of the components of the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 may be stored on and/or transmitted over the other computer-readable media 605. The components of the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 preferably execute on one or more CPUs 603 and manage the processing, tracking, comparison, and other reporting of goal event data, as described herein. Other code or programs 630 and potentially other data repositories, such as data repository 606, also reside in the memory 601, and preferably execute on one or more CPUs 603. Of note, one or more of the components in
In a typical embodiment, the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 includes one or more goal processing or annunciators 611, one or more player analysis modules 612, and one or more reporting engines 613. In at least some embodiments, the reporting engines 613 is provided external to the AHGDS and is available, potentially, over one or more networks 650.
In an example AHGDS, the goal processing or annunciators 611 may provide additional mechanisms for automatically announcing detected goals such as by auditory, haptic, and/or visual means. The player analysis modules 612 may provide indicators of puck location and speed for each goal event and/or may provide comparison information with other players or other teams. Reporting engines 613 may provide statistical reports or other types of visual reports. In addition, other processing such as applications that compare statistics or trends of players (for example, relative to known professional players) may be provided.
Other and/or different modules may be implemented. In addition, the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 may interact via a network 650 with application or client code 655 that e.g. uses results computed by the AHGDS remote processing modules 610, one or more client computing systems 660, and/or one or more third-party information provider systems 665, such as purveyors of hockey data used in AGHDS data repository 615. Also, of note, the AGHDS data repository 615 may be provided external to the AGHDS as well, for example in a knowledge base accessible over one or more networks 650.
In an example embodiment, components/modules of the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 are implemented using standard programming techniques. For example, the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 may be implemented as a “native” executable running on the CPU 103, along with one or more static or dynamic libraries. In other embodiments, the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 may be implemented as instructions processed by a virtual machine. In general, a range of programming languages known in the art may be employed for implementing such example embodiments, including representative implementations of various programming language paradigms, including but not limited to, object-oriented, functional, procedural, scripting, and declarative.
The embodiments described above may also use well-known or proprietary, synchronous or asynchronous client-server computing techniques. Also, the various components may be implemented using more monolithic programming techniques, for example, as an executable running on a single CPU computer system, or alternatively decomposed using a variety of structuring techniques known in the art, including but not limited to, multiprogramming, multithreading, client-server, or peer-to-peer, running on one or more computer systems each having one or more CPUs. Some embodiments may execute concurrently and asynchronously and communicate using message passing techniques. Equivalent synchronous embodiments are also supported. Also, other functions could be implemented and/or performed by each component/module, and in different orders, and in different components/modules, yet still achieve the described functions.
In addition, programming interfaces to the data stored as part of the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 (e.g., in the data repositories 615) can be available by standard mechanisms such as through C, C++, C#, and Java APIs; libraries for accessing files, databases, or other data repositories; through scripting languages such as XML; or through Web servers, FTP servers, or other types of servers providing access to stored data. The AHGDS data repository 615, which stores goal, player, team, and/or other hockey data may be implemented as one or more database systems, file systems, or any other technique for storing such information, or any combination of the above, including implementations using distributed computing techniques.
Also the example AHGDS remote processing modules 610 may be implemented in a distributed environment comprising multiple, even heterogeneous, computer systems and networks. Different configurations and locations of programs and data are contemplated for use with techniques of described herein. In addition, the server and/or client may be physical or virtual computing systems and may reside on the same physical system. Also, one or more of the modules may themselves be distributed, pooled or otherwise grouped, such as for load balancing, reliability or security reasons. A variety of distributed computing techniques are appropriate for implementing the components of the illustrated embodiments in a distributed manner including but not limited to TCP/IP sockets, RPC, RMI, HTTP, Web Services (XML-RPC, JAX-RPC, SOAP, etc.) and the like. Other variations are possible. Also, other functionality could be provided by each component/module, or existing functionality could be distributed amongst the components/modules in different ways, yet still achieve the functions of an AHGDS remote processing modules.
Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of the components of the AHGDS remote processing modules 610 may be implemented or provided in other manners, such as at least partially in firmware and/or hardware, including, but not limited to one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), standard integrated circuits, controllers executing appropriate instructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embedded controllers, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), and the like. Some or all of the system components and/or data structures may also be stored as contents (e.g., as executable or other machine-readable software instructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium (e.g., a hard disk; memory; network; other computer-readable medium; or other portable media article to be read by an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection, such as a DVD or flash memory device) to enable the computer-readable medium to execute or otherwise use or provide the contents to perform at least some of the described techniques. Some or all of the components and/or data structures may be stored on tangible, non-transitory storage mediums. Some or all of the system components and data structures may also be stored as data signals (e.g., by being encoded as part of a carrier wave or included as part of an analog or digital propagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission mediums, which are then transmitted, including across wireless-based and wired/cable-based mediums, and may take a variety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analog signal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Such computer program products may also take other forms in other embodiments. Accordingly, embodiments of this disclosure may be practiced with other computer system configurations.
From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the methods, techniques, and systems for performing automated goal discussed herein are applicable to other architectures. Also, the methods and systems discussed herein are applicable to differing protocols, communication media (optical, wireless, cable, etc.) and devices (such as wireless handsets, electronic organizers, personal digital assistants, portable email machines, game machines, pagers, navigation devices such as GPS receivers, etc.).
