Techniques for Evaluating Swing Metrics

• US 20180345075A1
• Filed: 05/30/2017
• Published: 12/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Under Armour Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Under Armour Incorporated
• Inventors: Dau, Nathan, Nelligan, Angela, Kovach, F. Grant, Oleson, Mark A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,300,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A43B 3/34 with electrical or electronic arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/10 Athletes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1114 Tracking parts of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6807 Footwear
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6895 Sport equipment
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/34 Angular speed
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0006 Computerised comparison for qualitative assessment of motion sequences or the course of a movement
• 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: G01B 21/16 for measuring distance of clearance between spaced objects
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 5/0023 Measuring of sport goods, e.g. bowling accessories, golfclubs, game balls
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/00 Aspects of pattern recognition specially adapted for signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• 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: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A shoe pod includes a positioning component and an altimeter. The positioning component determines geodetic locations of the shoe, whereas the altimeter determines elevations of the shoe. A golf club pod is disposed at the golf club and includes a golf club parameter detector operable to be detachably fastened to the golf club, to detect a golf club head striking surface position and to transmit the detected club parameter signal based on the detected golf club parameter.

Claims

1. A system for use by a user and for use with a golf club, the system comprising:

a first shoe for being worn by the user and comprising at least a first sensor configured to detect a first shoe parameter;

a second shoe for being worn by the user and comprising at least a second sensor configured to detect a second shoe parameter;

a golf club sensor detachably fastened to the golf club, the sensor configured to detect a position parameter of a ball-striking surface of a head of the golf club relative to at least one of the first shoe and the second shoe;

a remote controller apparatus configured to;

receive the first shoe parameter, the second shoe parameter, and the position parameter from the respective first shoe, second shoe and golf club sensors via a wireless communication protocol;

generate a performance signal comprising a composite of the first shoe parameter, the second shoe parameter, and the position parameter; and

output the performance signal to an external display apparatus; and

an external display apparatus configured to receive the performance signal from the remote controller apparatus via a wireless communication protocol and to display the performance signal to the user via a display thereof.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first shoe parameter comprises an orientation of the first shoe, and wherein the second shoe parameter comprises an orientation of the second shoe.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second shoe parameters comprises a position of the first shoe relative to the second shoe.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein first shoe parameter comprises at least one of:

pressure associated with the first shoe, and force associated with the first shoe, and wherein the second shoe parameter comprises at least one of;

pressure associated with the second shoe, and force associated with the second shoe.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the first shoe parameter, the second shoe parameter, and the position parameter are collected over a time period comprising at least one of:

an entire time period throughout which the user swings the golf club;

a portion of the entire time period throughout which the user swings the golf club which encompasses a back swing;

a portion of the entire time period throughout which the user swings the golf club which encompasses a forward swing; and

entire time period throughout which the user swings the golf club which encompasses a follow-through.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the performance signal comprises a functional relationship between one or more of:

the first shoe parameter, the second shoe parameter, and the position parameter.

4. (canceled)

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the golf club sensor is configured to detect the position of the ballstriking surface at a first time, a second position of the ball-striking surface at a second time, and a third position of the ball-striking surface at a third time.

7-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A method comprising:

receiving at a computer apparatus from one or more shoe parameter sensors disposed at one or more shoes worn by a user shoe parameter data, the shoe parameter data comprising orientation, acceleration, and position of the one or more shoes throughout the duration of a swing of a golf club by the user;

receiving, at the computer apparatus golf club data from a golf club parameter sensor detachably fastened to the golf club, the golf club data comprising acceleration, force, and velocity of the golf club throughout the duration of the swing of the golf club by the user;

processing the golf club data and the shoe parameter data at the computer apparatus to generate a performance signal;

outputting the performance signal to a mobile apparatus via wireless communication therewith for display to the user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more shoe parameters comprise two shoe parameters and the orientation data comprises an orientation of the first shoe, and an orientation of the second shoe relative one another.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more shoe parameters comprise two shoe parameters and the position data comprises, a position of the first shoe relative to the second shoe.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the golf club data further comprises a position of a ball-striking surface of a head of the golf club about a shaft of the golf club relative to a position of at least one shoe.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the shoe parameter data further comprises at least one of:

pressure associated with the one or more shoes, and force associated with the one or more shoes.

21. The method of claim 10, wherein the performance signal comprises composite of the shoe parameter data and the golf club data.

22. The method of claim 10, wherein the computer apparatus comprises the mobile apparatus which is configured to display the performance signal.

14. (canceled)

16-18. -18. (canceled)

23. A computer-readable apparatus comprising a plurality of instructions which are configured to, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a first set of data from at least one shoe, the first set of data comprising a plurality of data relating to orientation, acceleration, and position of one or more shoes worn by a user over a given time period;

receive a second set of data from golf club, the second set of data comprising a plurality of data relating to a golf club over the given time period;

calculate a performance evaluation based at least in part on the first and second data sets; and

output the performance evaluation to an external device configured to display the performance evaluation to the user.

24. The computer-readable apparatus of claim 23, wherein the given time period comprises at least one of:

an entire time period throughout which the user swings the golf club;

a portion of the entire time period throughout which the user swings the golf club which encompasses a back swing;

a portion of the entire time period throughout which the user swings the golf club which encompasses a forward swing; and

entire time period throughout which the user swings the golf club which encompasses a follow-through.

25. The computer-readable apparatus of claim 24, wherein the second data set comprises position data of a ball-striking surface of a head of the golf club relative to the position of at least one of the first shoe and the second shoe throughout the given time period.

26. The computer-readable apparatus of claim 24, wherein the second data set comprises one or more of:

acceleration, force, and velocity of the golf club throughout the given time period.

27. The computer-readable apparatus of claim 23, wherein the first data set comprises data relating to the orientation, acceleration and position of a first shoe worn by the user relative to a second shoe worn by the user over the given time period.

28. The computer-readable apparatus of claim 23, wherein the performance evaluation comprises a functional relationship between the first set of data and the second set of data.