Golf swing analyzing apparatus and method of analyzing golf swing

• US 9,403,077 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2013
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KEIO University, Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: KEIO University, Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Ota, Ken, Shibuya, Kazuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Allen
• Application Number:
  US14/043,340
• Publication Number:
  US 20140100049A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,036 Days
• Field of Search: 473/222, 473/226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: G09B 19/0038 Sports

Abstract

An aspect of the invention relates to a golf swing analyzing apparatus, comprising: an arithmetic section operating to process the output of a first inertial sensor and the output of a second inertial sensor to calculate a relative angle between a forearm of a golfer and a golf club, the first inertial sensor being attached to a portion of the upper body of the golfer, the second inertial sensor being attached to the golf club.

Claims

1. A golf swing analyzing apparatus comprising:

a first inertial sensor attached to a portion of an upper body of a golfer, the first inertial sensor including a first gyro sensor;

a second inertial sensor attached to a golf club held by the golfer, the second inertial sensor including a second gyro sensor; and

an arithmetic section receiving an output of the first inertial sensor and an output of the second inertial sensor, the arithmetic section calculating a relative angle between a forearm of the golfer and the golf club based on the outputs of the first and second inertial sensors,

the arithmetic section including;

a first attitude calculating section that calculates a first attitude of the first inertial sensor based on a first angular velocity signal from the first inertial sensor;

a second attitude calculating section that calculates a second attitude of the second inertial sensor based on a second angular velocity signal from the second inertial sensor;

a first vector calculating section that calculates a first vector along one axis of the first inertial sensor based on the first attitude;

a second vector calculating section that calculates a second vector along one axis of the second inertial sensor based on the second attitude; and

a relative angle calculating section that identifies the relative angle by calculating an angle between the first vector and the second vector.

2. The golf swing analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus operates to utilize a three-dimensional double pendulum model to calculate the relative angle, the portion of the upper body of the golfer forming a first link of the three-dimensional double pendulum model, the golf club forming a second link of the three-dimensional double pendulum model.

3. The golf swing analyzing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a fulcrum of the first link is located at a center of a line connecting shoulders of the golfer, a joint between the first link and the second link being located on a grip of the golf club.

4. The golf swing analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the first inertial sensor and the second inertial sensor further includes an acceleration sensor.

5. The golf swing analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus operates to process the output of the first inertial sensor and the output of the second inertial sensor to calculate a total energy change rate for the portion of the upper body of the golfer.

6. The golf swing analyzing apparatus according to claim 5, including an energy change rate inversion detecting section configured to detect an inversion of positive/negative signs of the total energy change rate for the portion of the upper body of the golfer.

7. The golf swing analyzing apparatus according to claim 1, including an image data generating section generating an image data for displaying a change of the relative angle.

8. The golf swing analyzing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image data generating section generating an image data for displaying an image of information on a timing of the inversion superimposed on an image of the relative angle.

9. A method of analyzing golf swings, comprising:

attaching a first inertial sensor to a portion of an upper body of a golfer, the first inertial sensor including a first gyro sensor;

attaching a second inertial sensor to a golf club held by the golfer, the second inertial sensor including a second gyro sensor;

calculating a relative angle between a forearm of the golfer and the golf club based on an output of the first inertial sensor and an output of the second inertial sensor;

calculating a first attitude of the first inertial sensor based on a first angular velocity signal from the first inertial sensor;

calculating a second attitude of the second inertial sensor based on a second angular velocity signal from the second inertial sensor;

calculating a first vector along one axis of the first inertial sensor based on the first attitude;

calculating a second vector along one axis of the second inertial sensor based on the second attitude; and

identifying the relative angle by calculating an angle between the first vector and the second vector.