GOLF SIMULATION APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR THE SAME

• US 20120083351A1
• Filed: 06/30/2009
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GOLFZON Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: GOLFZON Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Ok, Jae Yoon, Kim, Pil Joo, Jeong, Joo Myung
• Granted Patent: US 8,512,162 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 473/222
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0031 at the starting point
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0034 during flight
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0056 for statistical or strategic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0625 Emitting sound, noise or music
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0638 Displaying moving images of recorded environment, e.g. virtual environment
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0691 Maps, e.g. yardage maps or electronic maps
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/05 Image processing for measuring physical parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/20 Distances or displacements
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/807 Photo cameras
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/833 Sensors arranged on the exercise apparatus or sports implement
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/15 with identification means that can be read by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0021 Tracking a path or terminating locations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/04 for small-room or indoor sporting games
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0616 Means for conducting or scheduling competition, league, tournaments or rankings
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to provide a golf simulation apparatus and a method for the same, which reproduce the trajectory of a golf ball hit by a golfer to give a sense of reality to the golfer by identifying a current golf club and applying information about the identified golf club in a simulation result, the object can be accomplished by the provision of a golf simulation apparatus for simulating a golf course, including a sensing unit for sensing at least one of a golf ball hit by a golfer and a golf club used by the golfer in a simulated golf course, a club identification unit for identifying the golf club used by the golfer in the simulated golf course, and a simulation unit for simulating.

Claims

1-22. -22. (canceled)

23. A golf simulation apparatus for simulating a golf course, comprising:

a sensing unit for sensing at least one of a golf ball hit by a golfer and a golf club used by the golfer in a simulated golf course;

a club identification unit for identifying the golf club used by the golfer and obtaining a club data about the identified golf club; and

a simulation unit for simulating a trajectory of the golf ball in the simulated golf course according to information about parameters which are required for simulating the trajectory of the golf ball and calculated on the basis of a result sensed by the sensing unit and the club data from the club identification unit.

24. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the club identification unit includes a club data storage attached to the golf club used by the golfer, for storing data about the club data of the golf club, and a receiver connected wirelessly to the club data storage, for receiving the club data about the golf club from the club data storage.

25. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the club data storage is one of an RFID tag and a RuBee tag, and the receiver is one of an RFID reader and a RuBee reader, for wirelessly receiving information stored in the RFID tag or the RuBee tag.

26. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the club data storage wirelessly communicates with the receiver according to an uni-directional communication scheme being one of Radio Frequency (RF) communication and InfraRed (IR) communication, or according to a bi-directional communication scheme being one of Bluetooth and Zigbee.

27. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the club data includes data about a type and specification of the golf club.

28. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the receiver further includes an indication part which visually indicates completion of reading the data about the golf club from the club data storage.

29. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 23, further comprising a database for accumulating information about the golf club identified by the club identification unit and rounding information based on the trajectory of the golf ball calculated by the simulation unit during the simulation.

30. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the simulation unit includes a statistics processing means for calculating characteristics of the golfer, for each club by matching the simulated trajectory of the golf ball with the information about the identified golf club.

31. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the simulation unit includes:

a database for storing data required for simulating a round in a golf course and storing contents data including video or audio information about advertisements or contents related to each golf club;

an A/V processing unit for processing audio and video information required for simulating the round in the golf course; and

a controller for extracting contents data corresponding to the golf club identified by the club identification unit from the database and controlling the A/V processing unit to process the extracted contents data.

32. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the club identification unit is configured to be wirelessly connected to a club data storage and receive data from the club data storage which is attached to the golf club and used for storing contents data including data about the golf club and video or audio information about advertisements or contents related to the golf club, and

wherein the simulation unit includes an A/V processing unit for processing audio and video information required for simulating the round in the golf course;

and a controller for receiving identification information about the golf club and the contents data about the identified golf club and controlling the A/V processing unit to process the received identification information and contents data.

33. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the controller controls the contents data about the identified golf club to be output along with a simulated image of the round in the golf course.

34. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the club identification unit determines whether the identified golf club is authentic, and the controller controls contents data corresponding to an advertisement or contents related to the golf club to be extracted from the database and output, according to whether the club identification unit determines the golf club as authentic or not.

35. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the club identification unit is configured to be wirelessly connected to a club storage which is attached to the golf club storing data about the golf club and data used to determine whether the golf club is authentic, and receive from the club data storage the data about the golf club and the data used to determine whether the golf club is authentic.

36. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the controller controls the contents data corresponding to the identified golf club, processed by the A/V processing unit, to be displayed on the simulated golf course.

37. A golf simulation apparatus for simulating a golf course, comprising:

a sensing unit for sensing at least one of a golf ball hit by a golfer and a golf club used by the golfer in a simulated golf course;

a club identifier for capturing an image of an indicator attached to the golf club used by the golfer and identifying the golf club based on the captured image; and

a simulation unit for simulating a trajectory of the golf ball in the simulated golf course according to information about a result sensed by the sensing unit and a club data from the identified golf club.

38. The golf simulation apparatus according to claim 37, wherein the simulation unit includes a database for storing golf club information including data about a type and specification of the golf club, and

wherein the simulation unit extracts information about the golf club identified based on the captured image of the indicator from the database, and applies the extracted golf club information in the simulation.

39. A golf simulation method for simulating a rounding in a golf course, comprising:

identifying a golf club used by a golfer, and obtaining a club data of the identified golf club;

sensing at least one of the identified golf club and a golf ball hit by the identified golf club;

calculating parameters required for simulating a trajectory of the golf ball to be simulated in the golf course on the basis of a sensed data and the club data of the identified golf club;

calculating the trajectory of the golf ball to be simulated according to information about the calculated parameters; and

displaying the calculated trajectory of the golf ball in the golf course.

40. The golf simulation method according to claim 39, further comprising:

accumulating information based on results of golf simulations for each identified golf club; and

calculating records for each golf club used by the golfer based on the accumulated information and displaying the calculated records.

41. The golf simulation method according to claim 39, further comprising:

analyzing records from golf simulations for each identified golf club; and

recommending a golf club to the golfer based on the analysis.

42. The golf simulation method according to claim 39, further comprising:

extracting record information about each of golfers participating in a golf rounding;

classifying the golfers based on the extracted record information according to golf skill of the golfers using a predetermined skill classification condition; and

analyzing club selection of the classified golfers and displaying an analysis result.