Golf clubs and golf club heads having digital lie and/or other angle measuring equipment

• US 8,500,570 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2012
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Karsten Manufacturing Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nike, Inc.
• Inventors: Stites, John T., Hadden, Jeffrey Alan, Snyder, Jeremy, Glenn, Bradley Charles, Simpson, Daniel John, Roberts, Daniel Alan, Thomas, James S., Thornton, Douglas Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Kevin Y
• Application Number:
  US13/603,131
• Publication Number:
  US 20120329568A1
• Time in Patent Office: 336 Days
• Field of Search: 473219-223
• US Class Current: 473/223
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0028 Tracking the path of an object, e.g. a ball inside a soccer pitch
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2102/32 Golf
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/16 Angular positions
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/24 Angular displacement
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/34 Angular speed
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/40 Acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/44 Angular acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/62 Time or time measurement used for time reference, time stamp, master time or clock signal
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/72 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/803 Motion sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/833 Sensors arranged on the exercise apparatus or sports implement
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/04 Heads
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0466 wood-type
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/047 iron-type
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 53/0487 for putters A63B53/065 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 60/42 Devices for measuring, verifying, correcting or customising the inherent characteristics of golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like, e.g. measuring the maximum torque a batting shaft can withstand
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 60/46 Measurement devices associated with golf clubs, bats, rackets or the like for measuring physical parameters relating to sporting activity, e.g. baseball bats with impact indicators or bracelets for measuring the golf swing
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/36 for golf
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0622 : Visual, audio or audio-visual systems for entertaining, instructing or motivating the user

Abstract

Golf club heads having sensors configured to measure one or more swing parameters are provided. The golf club head may include several gyroscopes and accelerometers. In one embodiment, the club head contains three gyroscopes that measure angular rate data along different orthogonal axes. At least one gyroscope may an analog gyroscope. Accelerometers may provide data regarding the three orthogonal axes associated with the gyroscopes. The club head may further include software and/or hardware that perform computer-executed methods for determining one or more swing parameters. Exemplary club heads may include a display device for displaying an output of the swing parameter(s). Further aspects of the invention relate to novel methods and algorithms for calculating measurements relating to the swing parameters.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions that when executed by a processor are configured to perform at least:

collecting angular rate data from at least one gyroscope located within a golf club head, wherein the angular rate data comprises data along three different orthogonal axes;

collecting acceleration data from at least one accelerometer, wherein the accelerometer data comprises data along each of the three orthogonal axes associated with the gyroscope data;

after determining that an impact event has occurred, identifying data for processing and processing the identified data, wherein the processing comprises;

resolving the identified angular rate data to obtain space-fixed coordinates;

calculating roll and pitch data; and

utilizing the roll and pitch data and the space-fixed coordinates to calculate at least one of a lie angle, a club face angle, and a loft angle of the club head;

wherein at least a portion of the roll and pitch data are calculated using the formula;

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises computer-readable instructions that when executed by a processor are configured to perform at least:

determining that data from at least one gyroscope or at least one accelerometer comprises saturated data; and

reconstructing at least a portion of the data that is determined to be saturated based upon known factors relating to angular velocities of the club head during a swing.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises computer-readable instructions configured to reconstruct at least a portion of the data when executed by a processor comprising at least:

determining that a saturation event was initiated at a first time-frame;

determining that the saturation event ended at a second time-frame;

calculating a first-order line regression from a plurality of data points before the first time frame and a plurality of data points after the second time frame to obtain a first and a second regression line, wherein the first and the second regression lines meet at an intersection;

determining the location of the intersection of the first and the second regression line; and

utilizing a second-order polynomial function to calculate data points over a time period between the first time-frame and the second time frame of the saturation event, wherein the data points connect the intersection of the first and the second regression lines with the first time-frame and the second time-frame.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the data for processing is identified based on a predefined time frame selected from the group consisting of:

the time before the impact event, the time after impact event, and combinations thereof.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the data identified for processing is within about 4 seconds before the impact event, and about 1 second after the impact event.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the roll and pitch data is applied to a sliding mode observer with a discontinuous input configured to reduce the effects of noise.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the sliding mode observer comprises the following formula:

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein yaw (φ

) is calculated through a standard open-loop mode that always starts with an initial condition of zero in which the following formula is utilized to estimate yaw;

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises computer-readable instructions that when executed by a processor are configured to perform at least:

displaying at least one of the calculated lie angle, the club face angle, or the loft angle on a display device located on a club head.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises computer-readable instructions that when executed by a processor are configured to perform at least:

determining that the data from at least one gyroscopes is in an analog format;

integrating the analog data; and

converting the analog data to digital data.

11. A golf club head comprising:

at least one gyroscope configured to measure angular rate data, wherein the angular rate data comprises data along three different orthogonal axes;

at least one accelerometer configured to provide data regarding the three orthogonal axes;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a processor is configured to perform at least;

determining that an impact event has occurred, and in response identify data from the gyroscopes and the accelerometers to be processed;

processing the identified data, wherein processing comprises;

resolving angular rate signals from the at least one gyroscope to obtain space-fixed coordinates;

calculating roll and pitch data; and

utilizing the roll and pitch data and the space-fixed coordinates to calculate at least one of the lie angle, the club face angle, and the loft angle;

wherein at least a portion of the roll and pitch data are calculated using the formula;

12. The golf club head of claim 11, further comprising:

a display configured to display the at least one calculated lie angle, the club face angle, and the loft angle.

13. The golf club head of claim 11, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium is configured to be removably positioned within the golf club head.

14. The golf club head of claim 11, wherein the at least one gyroscope comprises a first gyroscope and the at least one accelerometer comprises a first accelerometer, wherein at least one of the first gyroscope or the first accelerometer is configured to be removably positioned within the golf club head.

15. The golf club head of claim 14, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium is configured to be removably positioned within the golf club head;

and wherein the weight of the combination of the first accelerometer, the first gyroscope and the computer-readable medium comprises less than 6% of a total weight of the golf club head when each of the computer-readable medium, first accelerometer, and first gyroscope are positioned in the golf club head.

16. The golf club head of claim 12, wherein the golf club head has a moment of inertia (“

MOI”

) of about 1500 g-cm2 with a standard deviation of no more than 200 g-cm.2.

17. The golf club head of claim 15, wherein the golf club head has a moment of inertia having a standard deviation of no more than 200 g-cm.2 regardless of whether the first accelerometer and the first gyroscope are positioned in the golf club head.

18. The golf club head of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises computer-executable instructions, than when executed by a processor, are configured to perform at least:

determining that data from at least one gyroscope or at least one accelerometer comprises saturated data; and

reconstructing at least a portion of the data that is determined to be saturated based upon known factors relating to angular velocities of the club head during a swing, wherein at least a portion of the data is reconstructed using a method comprising;

determining that a saturation event was initiated a first time-frame;

determining that the saturation event ended at a second time-frame;

calculating a first-order line regression from a plurality of data points before the first time frame and a plurality of data points after the second time frame to obtain a first and a second regression line, wherein the first and the second regression lines meet at an intersection;

determining the location of the intersection of the first and the second regression line;

utilizing a second-order polynomial function to calculate data points over a time period between the first time-frame and the second time frame of the saturation event, wherein the data points connect the intersection of the first and the second regression lines with the first time-frame and the second time-frame.

19. The golf club head of claim 13, wherein the roll and pitch data are applied to a sliding mode observer with a discontinuous input configured to reduce the effects of noise.

20. The golf club head of claim 17, wherein the sliding mode observer comprises the following formula:

21. The golf club head of claim 18, wherein yaw (φ

) is calculated through a standard open-loop mode that always starts with an initial condition of zero in which the following formula is utilized to estimate yaw;

22. The golf club head of claim 13, wherein the data for processing is identified based on a predefined time frame selected from the group consisting of:

the time before the impact event, the time after impact event, and combinations thereof.