Speed measurement method and apparatus

• US 8,803,913 B1
• Filed: 09/09/2013
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Brian Scott Edmonston
• Original Assignee: Brian Scott Edmonston
• Inventors: Edmonston, Brian Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): McDowell, Jr., Maurice L
• Application Number:
  US14/021,041
• Time in Patent Office: 337 Days
• Field of Search: 345/629, 386/226
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20101 Interactive definition of point of interest, landmark or seed
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30224 Ball; Puck
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30241 Trajectory
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51

Abstract

A method and apparatus for measuring a speed of an object is provided. The speed is measured by taking a video of said object moving across a span. The object may be a baseball thrown from the pitcher'"'"'s mound to home plate. The invention may include a device that with a video camera, a display screen and a control interface. The device generates a video of the object moving from a start point to an end point. The video frames for the start point and the end point are identified and the time span between the start frame and the end frame is determined. A distance between the start point and the end point is also determined. The speed of the object is then calculated from the time span and the distance. The information may then be displayed including a path trace and the calculated speed.

Claims

1. A method for measuring a speed of an object comprising the steps of:

a. taking a video of said object moving across a span;

b. displaying a first frame of said video wherein said object it at a start point;

c. designating said first frame as said start frame;

d. displaying a second frame of said video wherein said object is at an end point;

e. designating said second frame as said end frame;

f. calculating a time difference between said start frame and said end frame.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein steps b-e are performed via the steps of:

b.1 performing motion detection on said video;

b.2 setting said start frame to a frame in which motion of a small object is detected;

b.3 setting said end frame to a frame in which motion of a small object is not detected.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

a. displaying said video;

b. displaying a start frame indicator;

c. displaying an end frame indicator;

d. displaying said speed.

4. The method as set forth in claim 3 wherein said start frame indicator is displayed over said video.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the step of appending a second video to said video before exporting.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said video is taken at a rate of at least 40 frames per second.

7. The device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the span is equal to the distance between a pitcher mound to home plate.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

calculating an average speed and a peak speed; and

displaying said average speed and said peak speed.

9. A method for measuring the speed of a moving object comprising the steps of:

a. receiving a video of a moving object;

b. receiving a distance;

c. determining a time span for said moving object as it moves across said distance using said video;

d. calculating a speed for said moving object.

10. The method as set forth in claim 9 wherein step c is comprised of the steps of:

c.1 identifying a start frame in said video;

c.2 identifying an end frame is said video;

c.3 calculating said time span based on said start frame and said end frame.

11. The method as set forth in claim 10 wherein step c.3 is comprised of the steps of:

c.3.a receiving a start time stamp for said start frame;

c.3.b receiving an end time stamp for said end frame;

c.3.c calculating the difference between said start time stamp and said end time stamp.

12. The method as set forth in claim 10 wherein step c.3 is comprised of the steps of:

c.3.a receiving a start frame index;

c.3.b receiving an end frame index;

c.3.c receiving a frame rate for said video;

c.3.d calculating a time span based on said start frame index, said end frame index and said frame rate.

13. The method as set forth in claim 10 further comprising the step of

displaying a burst style indicia over said end frame at the location of said moving object on said end frame.

14. The method as set forth in claim 9 further comprising the steps of:

e. receiving path points for said moving object;

f. placing indicia on said video based on said path points.

15. The method as set forth in claim 9 wherein said distance is a number selected from the set of 45 or 60.5 feet.

16. A device for measuring a speed of an object travelling across a distance, the device comprised of:

video recorder for recording a video of the object, said video being comprising of frames;

display for displaying said video;

input for receiving a start frame indication and for receiving an end frame indication; and

processor for determining a time span between said start frame and said end frame, and for calculating the speed of the object using said time span and the distance.

17. The device as set forth in claim 16 wherein said video recorder has a frame rate of at least 60 frames/sec.

18. The device as set forth in claim 16 wherein said input and said display are integrated as a touch screen, and said display is further for displaying a set start frame input.

19. The device as set forth in claim 16 wherein said input and said display are integrated as a touch screen, and said display is further for displaying a set end frame input.

20. The device as set forth in claim 16 wherein said input and said display are integrated as a touch screen, and said input is used to index through said frames of said video.

21. The device as set forth in claim 16 wherein said display is further for displaying said speed.

22. The device as set forth in claim 16 wherein display is further for displaying said video in slow motion and for displaying a start indicator for said start frame and an end indicator for said end frame.

23. The device as set forth in claim 16 wherein said distance is the distance between a pitchers mound and home plate.

24. A method for displaying a moving object comprising the steps of:

receiving a video recording of said moving object;

inputting a first location point corresponding to a first location of said moving object in a first frame of said video;

inputting a second location point corresponding to a second location of said moving object in a second frame of said video;

displaying said video with a graphic inserted, said graphic tracing a path from said first location to said second location.

25. The method as set for in claim 24 wherein said first location and said second location are input via a user touching a display screen.

26. The method as set forth in claim 25 wherein at least a portion of frames from said video are displayed at higher resolution when said user is inputting said first location and said second location.

27. The method as set forth in claim 25 wherein said first location is displayed to said user along with an option to reject or select said first point.

28. The method as set forth in claim 24 wherein said first location and said second location are input via a movement detection system.

29. The method as set forth in claim 24 further comprising the steps of

designating a start frame in said video;

designating an end frame is said video;

receiving a distance;

calculating a time span between said start frame and said end frame;

calculating a speed based on said time span and said distance.

30. The method as set forth in claim 29 further comprising the step of:

displaying said speed.