System and method for measurement and analysis of behavior of golf club head in golf swing

• US 8,734,264 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2012
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation, Bridgestone Sports Co Limited (Bridgestone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Bridgestone Corporation, Bridgestone Sports Co Limited (Bridgestone Corporation)
• Inventors: Takao, Koji, Iwade, Hirotada, Saito, Takashi, Matsunaga, Hideo
• Primary Examiner(s): GALKA, LAWRENCE STEFAN
• Application Number:
  US13/534,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20130005495A1
• Time in Patent Office: 699 Days
• Field of Search: 473219-223, 473/231, 473/233, 473/242, 473/257, 473/407, 473/409, 700/91
• US Class Current: 473/222
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 3/38 using photographic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30204 Marker
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30221 Sports video; Sports image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30241 Trajectory
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for measurement and analysis of a behavior of a golf club head. Specifically, the system comprises a measurement and analysis device having a marker recognition and positional information acquisition unit for recognizing the at least one marker and acquiring positional information of the recognized at least one marker, a vector calculation unit for calculating a first vector representing a direction of the head and a second vector representing a tangent vector of a trajectory of the head during the golf swing, and a vector angle change acquisition unit for calculating a vector angle between the first vector and the second vector and acquiring a time series change of the calculated vector angle.

Claims

1. A measurement and analysis system for measuring and analyzing a head behavior when a golfer hits a golf ball by a golf club, comprising:

a golf club used by the golfer and having at least one marker on a head, the marker is formed as a line perpendicular to the face or as at least two markers;

at least two cameras for imaging a golf swing by using the golf club; and

a measurement and analysis device having a marker recognition and positional information acquisition unit for recognizing the at least one marker and acquiring positional information of the recognized at least one marker, a vector calculation unit for calculating a first vector representing a direction of the head and a second vector representing a tangent vector of a trajectory of the head during the golf swing, and a vector angle change acquisition unit for calculating a vector angle between the first vector and the second vector and acquiring a time series change of the calculated vector angle.

2. A measurement and analysis system according to claim 1, wherein

the golf club has at least two markers, and

the vector calculation unit calculates the first vector, based on the positional information of the at least two markers acquired by the marker recognition and positional information acquisition unit.

3. A measurement and analysis method for measuring and analyzing a head behavior when a golfer hits a golf ball by a golf club, conducted by a measurement and analysis device, comprising the following steps conducted by the measurement and analysis device:

recognizing the at least one marker formed as a line perpendicular to the face or as at least two markers and acquiring positional information of the recognized at least one marker for images of a golf swing by using the golf club having at least one marker on a head;

calculating a first vector representing the direction of the head and a second vector representing a tangent vector of a trajectory of the head during the golf swing; and

calculating a vector angle between the first vector and the second vector and acquiring a time series change of the calculated vector angle.