Determination of golf ball flight based on planar structure sensor

Abstract

This paper presents a new sensing method for determining the flight of a golf ball. As a critical component of golf simulation systems, the flight of a golf ball is affected by sidespin of the golf ball, which in turn is influenced by the horizontal angles of the golf ball and the club. Thus, by considering the horizontal angles of the golf ball and club, the sidespin of the golf ball can be estimated and the final flight of the golf ball determined. A sensor collects raw data on the ball and club movements and passes this data to a PC that has more computing power than the CPU of the sensor. The raw data generated by the sensor includes information on shadow variations under high-speed scanning. After identifying the golf ball and club shadow blobs from the raw data, these blobs are used to calculate basic features, such as the speed and initial movement direction of the golf ball and club. The final ball flight is then determined by considering the sidespin that is estimated from the golf ball and club features. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective in estimating complicated ball movements, and practical for use in golf simulator systems. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.