Intelligent system to indicate appropriate trajectories in cue sports

• US 8,246,050 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2009
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Do, Lydia Mai, Nesbitt, Pamela Ann
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): SKAARUP, JASON M
• Application Number:
  US12/352,672
• Publication Number:
  US 20100178994A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,316 Days
• Field of Search: 473/1, 473/2, 473/4, 473/9, 473/24, 473/27, 473/29, 273/317, 273/317.1
• US Class Current: 273/317
• CPC Class Codes: A63D 15/006 Training or aiming arrangements on billiard tables

Abstract

A game manager receives a request from a user to play a cue sport, which includes a table and a plurality of balls. The game manager retrieves user attributes corresponding to the user that include a user skill level. Next, the game manager detects ball locations for each of the plurality of balls, and determines one or more beginning shot opportunities based upon the user skill level and the plurality of ball locations. In turn, the game manager provides the beginning shot opportunities to the user.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory accessible by at least one of the processors;

a nonvolatile storage area accessible by at least one of the processors;

a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors in order to perform actions of;

receiving a request from a user to play a cue sport that includes a table and a plurality of balls;

retrieving user attributes that correspond to the user;

detecting a plurality of ball locations corresponding to the plurality of balls on the table;

identifying, based upon one or more of the plurality of ball locations, a first beginning shot opportunity that includes a cue ball and a first ball;

identifying, based upon one or more of the plurality of ball locations, a second beginning shot opportunity that includes the cue ball and a second ball, wherein the second ball is different than the first ball;

determining that the first beginning shot opportunity corresponds to a higher probability of success than the second beginning shot opportunity based upon a user skill level and a user height included in the user attributes; and

recommending to the user the first beginning shot opportunity over the second beginning shot opportunity in response to determining that the first beginning shot opportunity corresponds to a higher probability of success than the second beginning shot opportunity, wherein the recommending includes providing the first beginning shot opportunity and the second beginning shot opportunity to the user and highlighting the first beginning shot opportunity.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the information handling system further performs actions that include:

detecting a shot type of the first beginning shot opportunity based upon the plurality of ball locations;

computing a shot success probability for the first beginning shot opportunity based upon the shot type and a ball pocketing success rate for the user corresponding to the shot type; and

utilizing the computed shot success probability during the determination that the first beginning shot opportunity has the higher probability of success based upon the user skill level.

3. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the information handling system further performs actions that include:

identifying a first set of shot opportunities that includes the first beginning shot and one or more subsequent first set shot opportunities corresponding to a first set of balls from the plurality of balls;

identifying a second set of shot opportunities that includes the second beginning shot and one or more subsequent second set shot opportunities corresponding to a second set of balls from the plurality of balls;

determining that the first set of shot opportunities results in a higher net ball pocketing than the second set of shot opportunities; and

recommending the first set of shot opportunities over the second set of shot opportunities in response to determining that the first set of shot opportunities results in the higher net ball pocketing than the second set of shot opportunities.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the information handling system further performs actions that include:

computing a historical shot accuracy by tracking a ball pocketing success rate for one or more shot types; and

adjusting the user skill level included in the user attributes based upon the historical shot accuracy.

5. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to play a cue sport that includes a table and a plurality of balls;

retrieving, by a processing device, user attributes that correspond to the user;

detecting, by the processing device, a plurality of ball locations corresponding to the plurality of balls on the table;

identifying, by the processing device based upon one or more of the plurality of ball locations, a first beginning shot opportunity that includes a cue ball and a first ball;

identifying, by the processing device based upon one or more of the plurality of ball locations, a second beginning shot opportunity that includes the cue ball and a second ball, wherein the second ball is different than the first ball;

determining, by the processing device, that the first beginning shot opportunity corresponds to a higher probability of success than the second beginning shot opportunity based upon a user skill level and a user height included in the user attributes; and

recommending to the user, by the processing device, the first beginning shot opportunity over the second beginning shot opportunity in response to determining that the first beginning shot opportunity corresponds to a higher probability of success than the second beginning shot opportunity, wherein the recommending includes providing the first beginning shot opportunity and the second beginning shot opportunity to the user and highlighting the first beginning shot opportunity.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

detecting a shot type of the first beginning shot opportunity based upon the plurality of ball locations;

computing a shot success probability for the first beginning shot opportunity based upon the shot type and a ball pocketing success rate for the user corresponding to the shot type; and

utilizing the computed shot success probability during the determination that the first beginning shot opportunity has the higher probability of success based upon the user skill level.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

identifying a first set of shot opportunities that includes the first beginning shot and one or more subsequent first set shot opportunities corresponding to a first set of balls from the plurality of balls;

identifying a second set of shot opportunities that includes the second beginning shot and one or more subsequent second set shot opportunities corresponding to a second set of balls from the plurality of balls;

determining that the first set of shot opportunities results in a higher net ball pocketing than the second set of shot opportunities; and

recommending the first set of shot opportunities over the second set of shot opportunities in response to determining that the first set of shot opportunities results in the higher net ball pocketing than the second set of shot opportunities.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

computing a historical shot accuracy by tracking a ball pocketing success rate for one or more shot types; and

adjusting the user skill level included in the user attributes based upon the historical shot accuracy.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein equipment attributes are utilized during the determination of the one or more beginning shot opportunities, wherein at least one of the equipment attributes is selected from the group consisting of stick attributes and table attributes.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein environmental attributes are utilized during the determination of the one or more beginning shot opportunities, wherein at least one of the environmental attributes is emotional status.

11. A computer program product stored in a computer readable medium, comprising functional descriptive material that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to perform actions that include:

receiving a request from a user to play a cue sport that includes a table and a plurality of balls;

retrieving user attributes that correspond to the user;

detecting a plurality of ball locations corresponding to the plurality of balls on the table;

identifying, based upon one or more of the plurality of ball locations, a first beginning shot opportunity that includes a cue ball and a first ball;

identifying, based upon one or more of the plurality of ball locations, a second beginning shot opportunity that includes the cue ball and a second ball, wherein the second ball is different than the first ball;

determining that the first beginning shot opportunity corresponds to a higher probability of success than the second beginning shot opportunity based upon a user skill level and a user height included in the user attributes; and

recommending to the user the first beginning shot opportunity over the second beginning shot opportunity in response to determining that the first beginning shot opportunity corresponds to a higher probability of success than the second beginning shot opportunity, wherein the recommending includes providing the first beginning shot opportunity and the second beginning shot opportunity to the user and highlighting the first beginning shot opportunity.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the information handling system further performs actions that include:

detecting a shot type of the first beginning shot opportunity based upon the plurality of ball locations;

computing a shot success probability for the first beginning shot opportunity based upon the shot type and a ball pocketing success rate for the user corresponding to the shot type; and

utilizing the computed shot success probability during the determination that the first beginning shot opportunity has the higher probability of success based upon the user skill level.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the information handling system further performs actions that include:

identifying a first set of shot opportunities that includes the first beginning shot and one or more subsequent first set shot opportunities corresponding to a first set of balls from the plurality of balls;

identifying a second set of shot opportunities that includes the second beginning shot and one or more subsequent second set shot opportunities corresponding to a second set of balls from the plurality of balls;

determining that the first set of shot opportunities results in a higher net ball pocketing than the second set of shot opportunities; and

recommending the first set of shot opportunities over the second set of shot opportunities in response to determining that the first set of shot opportunities results in the higher net ball pocketing than the second set of shot opportunities.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the information handling system further performs actions that include:

computing a historical shot accuracy by tracking a ball pocketing success rate for one or more shot types; and

adjusting the user skill level included in the user attributes based upon the historical shot accuracy.