System and method for a golf cart to automatically proceed to the location of a struck golf ball. The system and method allow a golfer to play golf without the need to keep diligent track of the ball. The golf cart determines the location of the struck ball and the proceeds to the location of the ball. This reduces the time needed to find a struck ball and reduces the instances of lost balls.

A golfing aid system and method includes an image capturing device and an interface system coupled to at least one processor and a memory coupled to the processor which is configured to be capable of executing programmed instructions comprising and stored in the memory to capture, with the image capture device, image data comprising at least one of a playing surface, a ball, or a designated location spaced from the ball on the playing surface. At least one type of spatial data and at least one type of playing surface data relating to the playing surface, the ball and the designated location is determined. An overall trajectory, a starting direction, and an initial velocity of the ball to reach the designated location is computed, wherein the computation identifies and accounts for at least one airborne segment. The computed overall trajectory, the starting direction, and the initial velocity of the ball are provided.

Systems and methods are described for generating a three-dimensional track a ball in a gaming environment from a single camera. In some examples, an input video including frames of a ball moving in a gaming environment recorded by a camera may be obtained, along with a camera projection matrix associated with at least one frame that maps a two-dimensional pixel space representation to a three-dimensional representation of the gaming environment. Candidate two-dimensional image locations of the ball across the plurality of frames may be identified using a neural network or a computer vision algorithm. An optimization algorithm may be performed that uses a 3D ball physics model, the camera projection matrix and a subset of the candidate two-dimensional image locations of the ball to generate a three-dimensional track of the ball in the gaming environment. The three-dimensional track of the ball may then be provided to a user device.

The present invention relates to a virtual golf device and a virtual sports device. The virtual sports device comprises a play area in which a user who plays virtual sports is located, a display area in which a content image is displayed, and an image providing unit for projecting the content image onto the display area to provide the content image to the user.

The present invention relates to a golf ball location ascertaining method and a golf play information providing system. The golf ball location ascertaining method comprises a first step of ascertaining a motion location at which a predetermined motion is taken when a golfer located near a golf ball on a golf field takes the predetermined motion, and a second step of ascertaining the location of the golf ball on a golf course by using golf course data on the golf field and the motion location.

A system for measuring golf ball trajectory characteristics is disclosed. The system includes artificial grass with a launch location for a golf ball and a plurality of wide-angle distance optical sensors mechanically connected to the artificial grass positioned such that a field of measurement of each wide-angle distance optical sensors intersects. The system also includes a central processing unit connected to the wide-angle distance optical sensors, the central processing unit configured to collect distance measurements from the wide-angle distance optical sensors and to determine a velocity of a trajectory of the golf ball from the launch location to the intersection of the field of measurement of each wide-angle distance optical sensors given a distance between the plurality of the wide-angle distance optical sensors, a distance between the plurality of the wide-angle distance optical sensors and the launch location, and the distance measurements from the plurality of the wide-angle distance optical sensors. Once the velocity of the trajectory of the golf ball is determined, the central processing unit transmits the velocity to a display.

Methods and systems include, in at least one aspect: determining an optical model of an object in flight using two dimensional image data obtained from a camera, determining a radar model of the object in flight using radar data obtained from a radar device, combining the radar model with the optical model to produce three dimensional location information of the object in flight in three dimensional space, comparing the three dimensional location information of the object in flight with data representing an expected ball launch, and rejecting (or verifying) the object as an actual ball launch in response to the three dimensional location information of the object in flight differing (or not differing) from the data representing the expected ball launch by a threshold amount.

Golf balls including a plurality of radar detectable marks disposed on any single layer or among two or more layers thereof are provided. When all of the radar detectable marks present on any layer of the ball are radially projected onto the outer surface of the ball, the resulting overall pattern of projected radar detectable marks includes a series of three or marks located on a 1.5 mm wide great circle band on the outer surface of the ball.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for 3D flight tracking of objects include a method including determining a golf ball trajectory based on observations by sensor(s), extrapolating the trajectory backward in time, calculating distance measure(s) between the extrapolated trajectory and physical locations, determining one of the physical locations to be an origin of the golf ball based on the distance measure(s) and two types of separately estimated errors, wherein a first of the two types of separately estimated errors affects ball positional error for the initial observations, and a second of the two types of separately estimated errors affects an angle of the extrapolated trajectory; and presenting golf ball data on a display device associated with the origin of the golf ball.

Systems and methods are described for generating a three-dimensional track a ball in a gaming environment from a single camera. In some examples, an input video including frames of a ball moving in a gaming environment recorded by a camera may be obtained, along with a camera projection matrix associated with at least one frame that maps a two-dimensional pixel space representation to a three-dimensional representation of the gaming environment. Candidate two-dimensional image locations of the ball across the plurality of frames may be identified using a neural network or a computer vision algorithm. An optimization algorithm may be performed that uses a 3D ball physics model, the camera projection matrix and a subset of the candidate two-dimensional image locations of the ball to generate a three-dimensional track of the ball in the gaming environment. The three-dimensional track of the ball may then be provided to a user device.