A trajectory and a flight distance of a target moving body such as a ball hit by a golf club in an athletic competition such as a golf game may be calculated from the images having been taken. The calculation may be conducted from the pictures having been taken with a monocular camera of low resolution such as a smartphone. An initial velocity and a hitting angle of a target moving body such as a ball having been hit high by the golf club may be calculated.

A method for tracking performance of player including determining global direction of magnetic field at first court and computing first court specific data; providing rotation for rotating apparatus about spin axis via player, wherein rotating apparatus comprising XYZ-magnetic field sensor; measuring plurality of magnetic field values as function of time when rotating apparatus is rotating about spin axis; computing magnetic field component of magnetic field in direction of local body co-ordinate of spin axis of rotating apparatus; determining direction of spin axis using computed magnetic field component of magnetic field and determined global direction of magnetic field; determining player specific data comprising angle of spin axis with respect to horizontal ground plane and angle of shot direction with respect to horizontal component of spin axis; and calibrating and storing first court specific data and player specific data to track performance of player at first court.

A method, including scanning a golf club to obtain scanning information; inputting the scanning information into a processing system; using at least one camera positioned behind and in-line to a golf swing direction and at least one lighting unit to obtain a series of images of a golf club during the golf swing; converting the series of images into parameterized motion representations; using at least one radar to obtain a radar signal; inputting the parameterized motion representations and the radar signal into the processing system; receiving golf club parameters and golf swing parameters as an output of the processing system; and generating a visual model of the golf club and the golf swing in a virtual space using the golf club parameters and the golf swing parameters.

The present embodiments provide systems and methods for aggregating measurements captured by different technologies during a golf swing. By capturing measurements using different technologies, more accurate measurements may be provided to a user by selecting from the measurements, offsetting measurements based on the technologies used, and aligning measurements between devices. Further, by aggregating measurements received from different devices, additional features and functionality may be provided to the user that is absent from any one device used alone. Additionally, by storing the aggregated measurements, users, club fitters and instructors may access and leverage larger databases of measurements to better understand the user's golf swing and to provide better recommendations and instruction to the user.

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.

A method includes identifying a first point on an object striking element in a first image and a second image from images. The first and second images are captured within a predetermined time span of an impact of the object with the element and determining an impact time of the impact in combination with determining a position in the first and/or second images corresponding to a location of the object at the impact time. Based on the positions of the first point in the first and second images, determining a position in the first and/or second images corresponding to a position of the first point at the impact time. The method also includes determining a distance from the imager to a location at which the object and the element impact one another and determining an impact location of the object relative to the first point.

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.