SWING MEASUREMENT AND DISPLAY SYSTEM FOR ATHLETIC IMPLEMENTS

• US 3,806,131 A
• Filed: 03/29/1972
• Issued: 04/23/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: James W. Evans
• Original Assignee: James W. Evans
• Inventors: Evans, James W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Marlo, George J.
• Application Number:
  US05/239,195
• Time in Patent Office: 755 Days
• Field of Search: 273/186,26A,29A,73R,183
• US Class Current: 473/223
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/53 Force of an impact, e.g. blow or punch
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/54 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/3632 Clubs or attachments on clubs, e.g. for measuring, aligning A63B69/3614 takes precedence; clubs for swinging exercises in general A63B15/00

Abstract

A system and method for measuring at least one element of motion, e.g, torque, of a moving member and visually displaying the element as a series of bars each at a discrete time interval during movement. The slope of each bar is relative to the magnitude of the element during the corresponding time interval. The system may be employed to depict the position of the face of a golf club relative to the shaft during the swing, in which torque about the club shaft is measured by a torque gauge which provides an output representative of torque during the swing of the club. This output is transmitted to logic generating means which provides the series of bars.

Claims

1. An athletic swing measurement and display system, comprising:

an athletic implement having a shaft and an end portion attached thereto, said end portion having a face which is a adapted to strike a ball;

means associated with said implement for sensing an element of motion of said implement about said shaft during the swing and providing an electrical signal which varies in magnitude relative thereto;

means responsive to the output of said sensing means for visually displaying a series of bars, each having an end disposed on a common line; and

means for preselecting said bars so that a bar normal to said common line represents said face at a position wherein said face should impact said ball, and the other bars are sloped inversely proportional to the magnitude of said signal during a corresponding discrete time interval to indicate deviations from said position.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said visual display means comprises:

means responsive to said sensing means for receiving and converting said signal to a series of digital values;

data averaging means responsive to said digital values for obtaining an average value of a number of said digital values during each one of said discrete time intervals;

means responsive to said averaging means for adding said average value to the average values of all of the previous time intervals to obtain a net total value for each said discrete time interval;

means for converting the output of said adding means to an analog electrical signal; and

means responsive to said analog signal for displaying said bar series on a cathode-ray tube.

3. A system as recited in claim 2, further comprising means for serially storing said digital values, said storage means being electrically interposed between said converting means and said data averaging means.

4. A system as recited in claim 2, wherein said receiving and converting means comprises:

receiving means responsive to a frequency-modulated signal representative of the output of said sensing means;

signal conditioning means responsive to said receiver; and

analog-to-digital converting means responsive to said conditioning means.

5. A system as recited in claim 4, wherein said sensing means is carried by said athletic implement.

6. A system as recited in claim 5, further comprising transmitting means mounted in said shaft and responsive to said sensing means for transmitting said frequency-modulated signal.

7. A golf club swing measurement and display system, comprising:

a golf club having a shaft and a head attached thereto, said head having a face which is adapted to strike a golf ball;

a torque strain gage mounted in said shaft proximal to said head, said gage being adapted to sense torque during a swing and provide an electrical signal which varies in magnitude relative thereto;

means carried by said shaft and coupled to said gage for transmitting an output modulated by said signal;

a measurement and display console remote from said golf club comprising;

means for receiving and demodulating said output and reproducing said signal;

means coupled to said receiver for conditioning said signal;

means responsive to said conditioning means for converting said signal to a series of digital values;

means responsive to an input of said digital values for averaging a number of said values during a discrete time interval;

means responsive to said aveRaging means for adding said average value to the average values for all of the previous time intervals to obtain a net total value for each time interval;

logic display means responsive to said adding means for generating a series of bar signals, each bar signal being preselected to represent a given one of said net total values;

means responsive to said display means for converting said bar signal to a bar analog signal;

means responsive to said analog signal for generating a bar series visual display, each bar having one end on a common line and a bar normal to said line being preselected to represent a net total value of zero, with increasing positive net total values being represented as preselected bars which incline increasingly clockwise from said normal bar; and

wherein each bar visually displays the position of said face during the corresponding time interval.