Patent Application
20070032318
In many sports, various types of equipment are used. This equipment can be categorized into three wide classes. The first class of equipment includes equipment that serves as a marker or symbol of possession. Typical examples of such markers of possession include balls or disks.
The second class of equipment includes extensions to the athlete. Typical examples of such extensions of the athlete include a club, a bat or a racket. The success a person achieves as an athlete is often determined by skillful use of extensions and by controlling skillful interactions between an extension and a marker or symbol of possession.
The third class of sports equipment is equipment that monitors sports activity. This includes equipment such as speedometers, pedometers, stopwatches and so on.
For example, in the game of golf, a golfer holds a golf club, and swings the golf club through impact striking a golf ball and causing the golf ball to move in an intended direction. When the golf ball is far away from the intended hole destination, for example when a golfer is striking the golf ball from a teeing area, it is often desirable for the golfer to strike the golf ball with a golf club with a sufficient force to impart substantial velocity to the golf ball while still as accurately as possible controlling the direction and distance the golf ball ultimately travels. Several factors, including golf club speed at impact, the location of the clubface that comes into contact with the golf ball, and the orientation of the clubface with respect to the target at impact, have a significant effect in determining the final resting place of the golf ball. The ability to monitor these factors is important feedback in training a golfer to strike the golf ball with efficiency and accuracy and in evaluating golf equipment.
Golf balls are dimpled, but not solely for aesthetic reasons. Golf balls are dimpled primarily for the purpose of imparting desirable aerodynamic qualities to the flight of the golf ball. For example, appropriately placed dimples allow a golf ball to fly an optimal distance for a given initial velocity. The addition of spin to the golf ball, imparted to the golf ball at impact by the golf club, interacts with aerodynamic forces and affects the height, the distance and the direction of flight of the golf ball. The ability to impart a desired spin to a golf ball is a very important ability to those highly skilled in the game of golf.
When a highly skilled golfer practices, the golfer often watches the flight of the golf ball for clues as to impact conditions of the golf club with the golf ball. In addition, for the very devoted analyst of golf equipment and golf swing mechanics, additional monitoring tools can be used, such as high-speed video, speed guns, digital cameras, high-speed strobes, and image analysis equipment. Properly used, these tools can provide additional information about impact and launch conditions of the golf ball.
Golf is not the only sport where spin imparted to a ball is important. In fact, for any sport that involves projectiles traveling through air, control of spin rate and direction of travel are very important factors in success in competition. For example, in baseball, highly skilled pitchers of baseballs are able to impart a specific type of spin to the baseball. The interaction of the spin of the baseball with the non-uniform surface of the baseball and air currents cause the baseball's trajectory to vary as it moves from the pitcher hand towards the vicinity of a baseball batter. The ability to throw a baseball that has various curved trajectories is possible by controlling the spin on a baseball. Feedback on the actual spin placed on a baseball at a pitching release point can thus be very helpful feedback to a pitcher. Similarly, launch information for footballs, Frisbee flying disks, and other similar sporting equipment can be very useful in the design, evaluation and use of sporting equipment.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, sports equipment includes an embedded optical sensor. The embedded optical sensor includes an image array and a navigation engine. The navigation engine receives image information originating from the image array and performs a correlation on the image information to calculate overlap of images and to determine shift between images in order to detect motion.
An automatic gain control (AGC) 23 evaluates digital data received from ADC 22 and controls shutter speed and gain adjust within image array 21. This is done, for example, to prevent saturation or underexposure of images captured by image array 21.
A navigation engine 24 evaluates the digital data from ADC 22 and performs a correlation to calculate overlap of images and to determine shift between images in order to detect motion. For example, the correlation is performed using an image processing algorithm such as a convolution, or can be performed in another way to detect image shift. Navigation engine 24 determines a delta x value placed on an output 25 and determines a delta y value placed on an output 26. Image array 21, ADC 22 and navigation engine 24 together form a tracking device that tracks motion of ball 10.
A controller 28 receives the delta x value placed on output 25 and the delta y value placed on an output 26. Controller 28, through a transceiver 29, forwards representatives of these values to a host system. The representatives of the delta x values placed on output 25 and the delta y values placed on an output 26 can be transmitted immediately and continuously to the host system, or, alternatively, can be stored for later transmission in response to a query from the host system.
In general, it is noted that only fairly rudimentary images are required for many applications. For example, an optical motion sensor located on the equator of a spinning golf ball, would typically see an alternative pattern of “sky” and “land”. The frequency of this detected pattern is indicative of the rotational velocity of the golf ball. For this reason, dependent upon a particular implementation and application, sophisticated imaging capability is often not required to obtain the desired information.
For example, optical motion sensor technology within existing optical mice can be directly adapted to implement image array 21, ADC 22, AGC 23 and navigation engine 24. For further information on how this standard functionality or similar functionality of optical mice are implemented, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,139, U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,813, U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,804 and/or U.S. Pat. No. 6,281,212 B1.
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An automatic gain control (AGC) 33 evaluates digital data received from ADC 32 and controls shutter speed and gain adjust within image array 31. This is done, for example, to prevent saturation or underexposure of images captured by image array 31.
A navigation engine 34 evaluates the digital data from ADC 32 and performs a correlation to calculate overlap of images and to determine shift between images in order to detect motion. Navigation engine 34 determines a delta x value and a delta y value that are placed on a communication path 35.
For a second optical motion sensor, an image array 41 is implemented, for example, using a 32 by 32 array of photodetectors. Alternatively, other array sizes can be used, dependent upon the image resolution necessary to give sufficient information for a particular application. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 42 receives analog signals from image array 41 and converts the signals to digital data.
An automatic gain control (AGC) 43 evaluates digital data received from ADC 42 and controls shutter speed and gain adjust within image array 41. This is done, for example, to prevent saturation or underexposure of images captured by image array 41.
A navigation engine 44 evaluates the digital data from ADC 42 and performs a correlation to calculate overlap of images and to determine shift between images in order to detect motion. Navigation engine 44 determines a delta x value and a delta y value that are placed on a communication path 45.
For a third optical motion sensor, an image array 51 is implemented, for example, using a 32 by 32 array of photodetectors. Alternatively, other array sizes can be used, dependent upon the image resolution necessary to give sufficient information for a particular application. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 52 receives analog signals from image array 51 and converts the signals to digital data.
An automatic gain control (AGC) 53 evaluates digital data received from ADC 52 and controls shutter speed and gain adjust within image array 51. This is done, for example, to prevent saturation or underexposure of images captured by image array 51.
A navigation engine 54 evaluates the digital data from ADC 52 and performs a correlation to calculate overlap of images and to determine shift between images in order to detect motion. Navigation engine 54 determines a delta x value and a delta y value that are placed on a communication path 55.
A controller 38 receives the delta x values and delta y values placed on communication data path 35, communication data path 45 and communication data path 55. For example, communication data paths 35, 45 and 55 are implemented using wires within the sporting equipment in which the optical motion sensors are embedded. Alternatively, communication data paths 35, 45 and 55 are implemented using wireless technology. Controller 38, through a transceiver 39, forwards representatives of these values to a host system. The representatives of the delta x values and delta y values for each optical motion sensor can be transmitted immediately and continuously, or, alternatively, can be stored for later transmission in response to a query from a host computer system.
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Optical motion sensors can be embodied in other types of sporting equipment. For example, optical motion sensors can be mounted in a billiard ball and/or pool stick to detect quality of contact and/or characteristics of roll (such as spin or “English”). Optical motion sensors can also be mounted in wheels, such as for example, a bicycle wheel, a skateboard wheel or a wheel of an inline skate, to detect characteristics of motion, such as speed of wheel surface. In the case of wheels, the embedded optical motion sensors allow absolute measurement of speed without the need to exactly know tire circumference in order to translate rotational velocity to linear velocity.
A host system 83 located, for example, on a nearby support 84, gathers and analyzes information from the optical sensors. For example, host system 83 is a lap top computer or a personal digital assistant (PDA) with wireless communication capability.
Sports equipment can also be used to directly monitor motion of a performer. For example,
For example, various optical sensors can be attached to a performer, for example, a gymnast, a skater, a runner, a diver, a dancer, an actor, a speaker, a singer or other type of performer to track motion of one or more body parts during training or performance. The performer can be a human, but can also be another type of animal for example, a horse in training for an equestrian event or a dog in training for a race or show.
In addition to giving performance feedback, the optical sensors can be used for other purposes. For example, the optical sensors can be attached to an alert system to provide immediate feedback and/or warnings to a performer. For example, the feedback could indicate, that an equestrian is not traveling at a sufficient speed to clear a steeple, a long jumper is not traveling at an optimal speed to maximize jump distance, or a shot putter is not rotating at an optimal rotational speed to maximize throwing distance,
The foregoing discussion discloses and describes merely exemplary methods and embodiments of the present invention. As will be understood by those familiar with the art, the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.
