VIRTUAL GOLF SIMULATION APPARATUS AND METHOD AND SENSING DEVICE AND METHOD USED FOR THE SAME

• US 20140004968A1
• Filed: 03/22/2012
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GOLFZON Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: GOLFZON Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Jang, Hyung Wook, Jeong, Hyun Dam, Park, Hyun Jin, Yoon, Hyung Sik
• Granted Patent: US 9,333,412 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 473/156
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0622 Visual, audio or audio-visual systems for entertaining, instructing or motivating the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/00 Simulators for teaching or training purposes for the use of weapons F41; computing aspects G06; protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality H04L67/131

Abstract

Disclosed are a virtual golf simulation apparatus and method in which a golf ball hit by a user who swings at the golf ball is sensed by a sensing device, and the trajectory of the golf ball is simulated on a virtual golf course based on the sensed result so that the user can enjoy virtual golf on the virtual golf course, thereby providing the same sense of reality that the user would feel playing a round of golf on a real golf course.

Claims

1. A sensing device used in a virtual golf simulation apparatus, comprising:

at least one capturing means for acquiring a plurality of frame images of a ball hit by a user;

an image collection means for sequentially collecting the frame images acquired by the at least one capturing means; and

an image processing means for receiving and processing the frame images collected by the image collection means in real time to extract information on physical properties of the ball which is moving.

2. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein sequential collection of the images by the image collection means and image processing by the image processing means are independently carried out.

3. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the image collection means sequentially collects images on a per frame basis independently of the image processing means while transmitting a frame image collected by the image collection means to the image processing means and, when processing of the previously received frame by the image processing means is completed, transmits one of the images collected by the image collection means to the image processing means, whereby image processing is carried out in real time.

4. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the image processing means performs image processing independently of the image collection means and, when processing of the received frame by the image processing means is completed, receives and processes one of the images collected by the image collection means, whereby image processing is carried out in real time.

5. The sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the image collection means comprises:

a grabber for transmitting the images acquired by the at least one capturing means while storing the images; and

a shot detector for processing the images received from the grabber to sense whether hitting has been performed and for collecting and storing images to be transmitted to the image processing means upon sensing that hitting has been performed.

6. The sensing device according to claim 5, wherein the shot detector transmits a frame image received from the grabber to the image processing means and, at the same time, sequentially receives the next frame image, and, when processing of the received frame by the image processing means has been completed, transmits one of the images received from the grabber to the image processing means, whereby image transmission is carried out in real time.

7. The sensing device according to claim 6, wherein, when calculating physical properties of the moving ball is not possible although the images received from the shot detector in real time have been processed by the image processing means, the image processing means further receives and processes some or all of the frame images which have not been transmitted to the image processing means to calculate physical properties of the moving ball.

8. (canceled)

9. A sensing method for virtual golf simulation, comprising:

acquiring a plurality of frame images of a ball hit by a user;

an image collection means sequentially collecting the acquired frame images;

transmitting the frame images collected by the image collection means to an image processing means in real time; and

the image processing means processing the frame images received in real time to extract information on physical properties of the ball which is moving.

10. The sensing method according to claim 9, wherein sequential collection of the images by the image collection means and image processing by the image processing means are independently carried out so that, while the image processing means process a frame image, the image collection means collects and stores another frame image.

11. The sensing method according to claim 9, wherein the step of transmitting the frame images collected by the image collection means to the image processing means in real time comprises:

collecting and storing a frame image and, at the same time, determining whether processing of the previously received frame image by the image processing means has been completed; and

transmitting the collected frame image to the image processing means upon determining that the image processing carried out by the image processing means has been completed and not transmitting the collected frame image to the image processing means upon determining that the image processing carried out by the image processing means has not been completed.

12. The sensing method according to claim 9, wherein the step of processing the frame images received in real time comprises:

the image processing means processing the image previously received from the image collection means and, at the same time, determining whether processing of the previously received frame image by the image processing means has been completed; and

the image processing means receiving and processing a frame image collected by the image collection means when the image processing carried out by the image processing means has been completed and the image processing means not receiving a frame image collected by the image collection means when the image processing carried out by the image processing means has not been completed.

13. A virtual golf simulation method comprising:

sensing whether hitting preparation has been completed;

sensing whether hitting has been performed when the hitting preparation has been completed;

collecting and storing an image when the hitting has been performed and images before and after the hitting on a per frame basis;

processing the collected images in real time to extract information on physical properties of a moving ball; and

realizing a simulation image of a trajectory of the ball based on the extracted information on the physical properties of the ball.

14. The virtual golf simulation method according to claim 13, wherein, at the step of processing the collected images in real time, collection of the images and processing of the images are independently carried out, and a frame image collected when image processing in progress has been completed is processed, whereby collected images are processed in real time.

15. The virtual golf simulation method according to claim 14, wherein the step of extracting the information on the physical properties of the ball comprises further processing frame images which have not been processed among the images stored at the step of collecting and storing the images on the per frame basis when extracting the physical properties of the ball as the result of the image processing in real time is not possible.