Virtual golf system for playing golf, comprising a plurality of trackable golf balls, wherein each golf ball comprises transmitting means for broadcasting electromagnetic beacon signals for detecting a position of the golf ball, a position determination unit comprising three receiving antenna's arranged for receiving beacon signals broadcasted by any of said plurality of trackable golf balls, and wherein said position determination unit is arranged to determine a position of said golf ball on a driving range based on time differences of a broadcasted beacon signal received by said receiving antenna's. A plurality of trackable golf balls and a plurality of players may be active at the same time. Trackable golf balls may be paired with specific players. A game controller advances a virtual game of golf each time a trackable golf ball is stroked by a player.

A golf target system featuring a hitting bay including a golf ball launch monitor system, a playing area including a plurality of illuminated panels, and a controller in communication with the golf ball launch monitor system and the plurality of illuminated panels, wherein the controller selectively controls the illumination of the plurality of panels to define one or more visual targets observable from the hitting bay and receives information from the golf ball launch monitor system such that, when a golf ball is hit from the hitting bay towards the playing area, the golf ball launch monitor system communicates data to the controller sufficient for the controller to identify a landing position of the golf ball with respect to the one or more visual targets.

A golf ball launch monitor is disclosed that may be used with an alignment stick. The monitor has a default alignment and an image sensor adapted to capture an image of the alignment stick and communicate that image to a processor. The processor is configured to perform the following steps: (a) detect a horizontal edge within the image representative of the alignment stick by detecting large contrast changes; (b) convert each edge to a vector that starts at the sensor's focal point and projects into space based on the sensor's calibration; (c) locate the plane formed by the vectors by applying standard outlier removal and best fit analysis (d) determine the intersection of the plane and an earth tangential plane; and (e) calculate an azimuth alignment angle offset based on the line and the monitor's default alignment. The calculated azimuth alignment angle can then be used to adjust ball flight trajectory calculations.

A method for determining golf shot characteristics includes detecting, in imaging data captured by an imager, a signature of a golf shot launched from a first launch area, a field of view of the imager including one of the first launch area and an area adjacent to the first launch area, and determining, from the imaging data, first golf shot characteristics, the first shot characteristics including a first launch location and a first launch time in combination with determining whether the first launch location and the first launch time correspond to a second launch location and a second launch time for second golf shot characteristics determined from sensor data captured by a further sensor arrangement and when no correspondence is found between the first and second launch locations and the first and second launch times, transmitting the first shot characteristics to a display at the first launch location.

A system and method for analyzing and improving the performance of a body motion of an animal or human subject requires instrumenting a subject with inertial sensors, monitoring a body motion of interest, converting sensor data into motion data and animation, comparing the motion data with existing data for motion related performance parameters, providing a real-time, information rich, animation and data display of the results in color coded displays; and based on the results prescribing a training regime with exercises selected from a library of standardized exercises using standardized tools and training aids.

Systems, apparatus, and methods for capturing data related to athletic performances. Some methods comprise displaying a site map for the performance and accepting a selection of a target for the performance. Various methods comprise estimating, based on the user location, the initial location of the object and recording data regarding the performance. Moreover, some methods also comprise using a satellite-based map as the site map. If desired, the estimating comprises sensing a pause in the changing user location. Some methods further comprise estimating a trajectory of the object using the initial location of the object and a portion of the trajectory. In some scenarios, methods comprise capturing a location of the object at the ending of the performance. The recording can further comprise capturing a video of the performance. Furthermore, these methods can comprise capturing subjective information regarding the performance.

Disclosed are a device for calculating flight information of a ball and a method of calculating flight information of a ball that are capable of rapidly calculating the motion parameters of a ball and a golf club using an infrared sensing type device or a camera sensing type device and very rapidly calculating spin information of the ball corresponding to the calculated motion parameters with high accuracy through a simple calculation with reference to database type information about the calculated motion parameters, and a computing-device-readable recording medium having the method recorded therein.

Proposed is a posture comparison and correction method using an application configured to check two golf images and result data in an overlapping state, the posture comparison and correction method being capable of analyzing an image of a user captured through a portable device, displaying the swing speed of a golf club, the swing angle of the golf club, the swing form of the golf club, the angle of a head of the golf club, the hitting angle of a golf ball, the speed of the golf ball, the flying distance of the golf ball, and the trajectory of the golf ball on a screen, and comparing the image of the user with an image of a pro golfer transmitted from a server on a single screen, whereby it is possible to correct the posture of the user.

A captured video image obtaining unit 70 obtains a captured video image in which a player making a golf swing is captured. A club head path specifying unit 82 specifies a path of a club head captured in a captured video image based on the captured video image. A launch direction specifying unit 84 specifies a launch direction of a ball captured in a captured video image based on the captured video image. A curve direction determining unit 88 determines a curve direction of the launched ball based on the path of the club head and the launch direction.

The present inventive concept relates to a virtual golf device, a virtual golf system and a method for operating a virtual golf device. The virtual golf device comprises a control part calculating a trajectory of a real golf ball when a user hits the real golf ball, and a display part displaying a virtual golf ball corresponding to the real golf ball hit by the user and moving according to the calculated trajectory in a virtual golf course. In this virtual golf device, the user can select one play mode of a first mode and a second mode, there are a plurality of users, an order of hitting the real golf ball between the plurality of users in the first mode depends on a location of each user's virtual golf ball in the virtual golf course, and an order of hitting the real golf ball between the plurality of users in the second mode does not depend on the location of each user's virtual golf ball in the virtual golf course.