The present invention is to provide a sensing device and method for detecting a moving golf ball that fundamentally resolves the cause of errors in sensing results according to conventional technologies in detecting the movement of a golf ball using a light-sensing type golf putting sensing device, thereby further improving the precision of the sensing results.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
. A sensing device for sensing movement of a golf ball comprising:
. The sensing device according to, wherein the light emitting assembly includes:
. The sensing device according to, wherein the light emitting assembly is configured to include:
. The sensing device according to, wherein the controller is configured to preset the effective radius measured in advance according to a size of the golf ball, a height at which the light emitter and the light receiver are installed, and a beam width of the light from the light emitter to the light receiver.
. The sensing device according to, wherein the controller is configured to preset the effective radius measured in advance for each golf ball manufacturer or brand, and identify a manufacturer or brand of the golf ball used by the user for putting and apply a preset effective radius of the golf ball corresponding to the identified manufacturer or brand.
. The sensing device according to, wherein the controller is configured to distinguishes a new golf ball and a used golf ball, preset each effective radius measured in advance for the new golf ball and the used golf ball, and identify whether a golf ball used by the user for putting is a new or used golf ball and apply a preset effective radius of the identified golf ball.
. The sensing device according to, further comprising an effective radius measuring device for measuring the effective radius of a golf ball used by the user for putting, and
. A sensing method of a sensing device in which a plurality of light emitters are configured to emit light on one side of a path along which a golf ball moves according to a user's putting, and a plurality of light receivers on the other side each receive light, and a controller senses the movement of the golf ball through detection results of each of the plurality of light receivers, the method comprising:
. The method according to, wherein the setting the distance as the effective radius includes setting the effective radius measured in advance according to a size of the golf ball, a height at which the light emitter and the light receiver are installed, and a beam width of the light from the light emitter to the light receiver.
. The method according to, wherein the setting the distance as the effective radius includes setting the effective radius measured in advance for each golf ball manufacturer or brand, and
. The method according to, wherein the setting the distance as the effective radius includes distinguishing a new golf ball and a used golf ball, and setting each effective radius measured in advance for the new golf ball and the used golf ball, and
. The method according to, wherein the sensing device further includes an effective radius measuring device for measuring the effective radius of a golf ball used by the user for putting, and
Complete technical specification and implementation details from the patent document.
This application is the 35 U.S.C. 371 national stage of international application PCT/KR2023/006964 filed on May 23, 2023, which claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0066529 filed on May 31, 2022. The entire contents of each of the above-identified applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention is related to a sensing device and method for detecting a moving golf ball, specifically, as the golf ball moved by the user's putting passes through a plurality of sensing lights, the sensing device based on an optical sensor detects the golf ball and calculates information on the moving characteristics of the golf ball by the detection result.
Recently, virtual simulation systems for sports that are very restrictive to play directly on the field, such as golf and baseball, have become widely popular.
Furthermore, virtual sports simulation systems for net sports, in which both players exchange balls with each other over nets such as tennis, squash, and badminton, are also emerging, making it easier for users to enjoy various sports in popular cultural spaces.
In such a virtual sports simulation, the game is basically played while the player hits the ball, and for simulation on the image of the ball hit by the player, a sensing device capable of effectively sensing the moving ball is required.
As a sensing device that detects a ball moving due to a user's hit, optical sensing devices, camera-based sensing devices, and radar-based sensing devices are widely used.
In particular, in the case of golf putting, the golf ball is basically hit so that it rolls on a bottom such as a mat, and as a sensing device to detect the movement of the golf ball rolling on the mat, an optical sensing device, which is relatively inexpensive sensing device, are mainly used rather than expensive sensing devices (such as camera-based sensing devices or radar-based sensing devices).
As prior arts regarding a sensing device using an optical sensing method for detecting the movement of a golf ball according to a golf putting, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2016-0026093, Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0671751, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2007-0108330, and Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0923452, etc. are disclosed.
shows an example of a sensing device for detecting a golf ball during a golf putting according to the above-mentioned prior art.
As shown in, a conventional golf putting sensing device is provided with a light emitting deviceon the right side of the path along which the golf ball moves, and a light receiving deviceon the left side. The light emitting deviceis provided with a light emitting unit, and the light receiving deviceis provided with two light receiving unitsandthat receive light from the light emitting unit.
In, Aand Arepresent the light received from the light emitting unitto each light receiving unit,as lines, respectively.
As shown in, when the golf ballmoves in the bp direction centered on the center lineby the user's putting, the golf ballpasses through the Alight line and the Alight line, respectively.
When the golf ballblocks the Alight line, the light receiving unitcannot receive light, thereby detecting the golf ball, and when the golf ballblocks the Alight line, the light receiving unitcannot receive light, thereby detecting the golf ball. As shown in, the time when the golf ball blocks the Alight line is indicated as b, and the time when the Alight line is interrupted is indicated as b.
As shown in, the golf ball moving in the bp direction can be detected by the light receiving units at the band bpositions, respectively.
As described above, the conventional technology detects the time at the band bpositions, obtains the direction angle a in the bp direction, which is the moving direction of the golf ball, through geometric analysis, and obtains the speed of the golf ball using the distance and time at the band bpositions.
However, the conventional technology as described above assumes that the bposition and the bposition, which are the positions when the golf ball blocks the Alight line and the Alight line, respectively, when the light-receiving unit detects the golf ball as shown in, are the positions of the center point of the golf ball, and calculates the directional angle and speed.
However, in reality, the light-receiving unit detects the golf ball not when the center of the golf ball blocks the light, but when the light is blocked at the outer edge of the golf ball, so there is a problem that calculating the movement characteristics of the golf ball assuming that the center point of the golf ball is detected when the light-receiving unit detects the golf ball as shown incan cause a significant error.
The farther the directional angle according to the movement of the golf ball is from the center line, the more the result calculated assuming that the center point of the golf ball is detected as shown inaccording to the conventional technology causes a larger error from the actual movement characteristics of the golf ball.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sensing device and method for detecting a moving golf ball that fundamentally resolves the cause of errors in sensing results according to conventional technologies in detecting the movement of a golf ball using a light-sensing type golf putting sensing device, thereby further improving the precision of the sensing results.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a sensing device for sensing movement of a golf ball comprising: a light emitting assembly that is provided on one side of a path through which the golf ball moves according to the user's putting and including a plurality of light emitters each of which is irradiate light to the other side; a light receiving assembly that is provided on the other side of the path through which the golf ball moves and including a plurality of light receivers for receiving the light emitted by each of the plurality of light emitters; and a controller that determines movement characteristic information of the golf ball using results detected by each of the plurality of light receivers as the moving golf ball passes while blocking light from each of the plurality of light emitters to each of the plurality of light receivers, wherein the controller is configured to set a distance from a center of the golf ball to a line of the light as an effective radius at the point in time when a sensing condition preset for the light receiver to detect the golf ball is met, and obtain the movement characteristic information of the golf ball by geometric analysis, taking the point in time when each of the light receivers detects the golf ball as the point in time when an effective circle with the effective radius comes into contact each of the light lines.
The light emitting assembly may include: a first light emitter and a second light emitter that irradiate light substantially in parallel to sense a speed of the golf ball; and a first cross-light emitter and a second cross-light emitter that are provided between the first light emitter and the second light emitter and irradiate light in an X shape, respectively, and the light receiving assembly may include: a first light receiver that receives the light from the first light emitter; a second light receiver that receives the light from the second light emitter; a first cross-light receiver that receives the light from the first cross-light emitter; and a second cross-light receiver that receives the light from the second cross-light emitter.
The light emitting assembly may be configured to include: a first light emitting hole through which the light of the first light emitter passes to form a first light beam; a second light emitting hole through which the light from the second light emitter passes to form a second light beam; a first cross-light emitting hole for passing through which the light of the first cross-light emitter passes to form a first cross-light beam; a second cross-light emitting hole through which the light of the second cross-light emitter passes to form a second cross-light beam, and the light receiving assembly may be configured to include: a first light receiving hole for passing the first light beam to the first light receiver; a second light receiving hole for passing the second light beam to the second light receiver; a first cross-light receiving hole for passing the first cross-light beam to the first cross-light receiver; and a second cross-light receiving hole for passing the second cross-light beam to the second cross-light receiver.
The controller may be configured to preset the effective radius measured in advance according to a size of the golf ball, a height at which the light emitter and the light receiver are installed, and a beam width of the light from the light emitter to the light receiver.
The controller may be configured to preset the effective radius measured in advance for each golf ball manufacturer or brand, and identify a manufacturer or brand of the golf ball used by the user for putting and apply a preset effective radius of the golf ball corresponding to the identified manufacturer or brand.
The controller may be configured to distinguishes a new golf ball and a used golf ball, preset each effective radius measured in advance for the new golf ball and the used golf ball, and identify whether a golf ball used by the user for putting is a new or used golf ball and apply a preset effective radius of the identified golf ball.
The sensing device may further comprise an effective radius measuring device for measuring the effective radius of a golf ball used by the user for putting, and wherein the controller is configured to set a value measured by the effective radius measuring device for the golf ball moving as the user putts as the effective radius so as to obtain the movement characteristic information of the golf ball using the set effective radius.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sensing method of a sensing device in which a plurality of light emitters are configured to emit light on one side of a path along which a golf ball moves according to a user's putting, and a plurality of light receivers on the other side each receive light, and a controller senses the movement of the golf ball through detection results of each of the plurality of light receivers, the method comprising: setting a distance from a center of the golf ball to a line of the light as an effective radius at the point in time when a sensing condition preset for the light receiver to detect the golf ball is met; receiving the detection results of each of the plurality of light receivers as the golf ball moves according to the user's putting; and obtaining the movement characteristic information of the golf ball by geometric analysis, taking the point in time when each of the light receivers detects the golf ball as the point in time when an effective circle with the effective radius comes into contact each of the light lines.
The setting the distance as the effective radius may include setting the effective radius measured in advance according to a size of the golf ball, a height at which the light emitter and the light receiver are installed, and a beam width of the light from the light emitter to the light receiver.
The setting the distance as the effective radius may include setting the effective radius measured in advance for each golf ball manufacturer or brand, and the obtaining the movement characteristic information of the golf ball may include identifying a manufacturer or brand of the golf ball used by the user for putting and applying a preset effective radius of the golf ball corresponding to the identified manufacturer or brand.
The setting the distance as the effective radius may include distinguishing a new golf ball and a used golf ball, and setting each effective radius measured in advance for the new golf ball and the used golf ball, and the obtaining the movement characteristic information of the golf ball may include identifying whether a golf ball used by the user for putting is a new or used golf ball, and applying a preset effective radius of the identified golf ball.
The sensing device may further include an effective radius measuring device for measuring the effective radius of a golf ball used by the user for putting, and the setting the distance as the effective radius may include setting a value measured by the effective radius measuring device for the golf ball moving as the user putts as the effective radius so as to obtain the movement characteristic information of the golf ball using the set effective radius.
The sensing device and sensing method for detecting the movement of a golf ball according to the present invention that fundamentally solves the cause of errors in the sensing results according to the prior art that arises from the premise that the position of the center point of the golf ball is detected at the time of detection of the light receiving unit when detecting the movement of the golf ball by a golf putting sensing device of the optical sensing type, and has the effect of further improving the precision of the sensing results by utilizing the concept of the effective radius.
A sensing device and sensing method for detecting the movement of a golf ball according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First, the sensing device for detecting the movement of a golf ball according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to.
shows a putting practice device to which a sensing device for detecting the movement of a golf ball is applied according to an embodiment of the present invention, andshows a configuration of a sensing device applied to the putting practice device shown inas viewed from above.
As shown in, the sensing device for sensing the movement of the golf ball according to an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented as a putting practice device that allows a user to practice putting a golf ball GB with a golf club GC on a putting mat.
As shown in, the sensing device for sensing the movement of the golf ball according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a light emitting assemblywhich is provided on one side of the path through which the golf ball moves by the user's putting and comprising a plurality of light emitters,,andirradiating light L, L, LXand LXto the other side, respectively; a light receiving assemblyprovided on the side facing the light emitting assemblyand having a plurality of light receivers,,andfor receiving the light L, L, LXand LXirradiated by each of the light emitters,,andof the light emitting assembly; and a controllerthat determines the movement characteristic information of the golf ball using a result of each of the plurality of light receivers,,, anddetecting the golf ball as the moving golf ball GB passes while blocking the light L, L, LX, and LXfrom each of the plurality of light emitters,,, andas described above.
The controllermay obtain information such as the moving direction of the golf ball and the moving speed of the golf ball through geometric analysis using the result of detecting the golf ball GB by each light receiver.
The controllermay transmit the obtained characteristic information of the moving golf ball to a clientso that various services of the client related to golf putting are provided to the user.
For example, the clientcan be provided as a simulation device that implements an image of a virtual green and a simulation image in which a virtual golf ball moves on the virtual green based on the movement characteristic information of the golf ball determined by the controller.
In addition, for example, the clientmay be provided as a putting analysis device that displays and provides analysis results according to the user's putting.
Meanwhile, as shown in, the sensing device for sensing the movement of the golf ball according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a ball-ready sensor for sensing whether the golf ball GB is in a hitting position. The ball-ready sensor may be implemented in an optical sensing method by the light-emitting unitof the light emitting sensorand the light-receiving unitof the light receiving sensor, and although not shown in the drawings, the ball-ready sensor may be implemented as a position sensor provided inside the mat at the initial hitting position of the golf ball.
When the above-described ball-ready sensor is implemented in the optical sensing method by the light-emitting unitof the light-emitting sensorand the light-receiving unitof the light-receiving sensor, as shown in, if the light-receiving unitreceives sensing light LR emitted from the light-emitting unit, a golf ball is not in the initial hitting position, and as the user positions the golf ball GB at the initial hitting position, as shown in, when the golf ball GB blocks the sensing light LR and the light-receiving unitdoes not receive the sensing light LR, the controllercan detect that the golf ball GB is located at the initial hitting position.
Meanwhile, as shown in, the light emitting assemblyof the sensing device that senses the movement of the golf ball according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a first light emitterand a second light emittereach of which irradiates light in substantial parallel for sensing a speed of the golf ball, and a first cross-light emitterand a second cross-light emitterthat are provided between the first light emitterand the second light emitterto irradiate light in an X shape, respectively.
Furthermore, the light receiving assemblymay be configured to include a first light receiverthat receives light from the first light emitter, the second light receiverthat receives light from the second light emitter, the first cross-light receiverthat receives light from the diagonal direction of the first cross-light emitter, and the second cross-light receiverthat receives light from the diagonal direction of the second cross-light emitter.
As shown in, the light receiving unitof the ball-ready sensor, and the first light receiver, the second light receiver, the first cross-light receiverand the second cross-light receiverof the light receiving assemblyare connected to the controller, and the controller may receive detection results from each light receiver. Although not shown in the drawings, the light emitting unitof the ball-ready sensor, and the first light emitter, the second light emitter, the first cross-light emitter, and the second cross-light emitterof the light emitting assemblymay also be connected to the controllerto turn on/off light irradiation of each light emitter under the control of the controller.
The light emitting assemblyas described above may include: a first light emitting holein which the light of the first light emitterpasses to form a first light beam L; a second light emitting holein which the light of the second light emitterpasses to form a second light beam L; a first cross-light emitting holein which the light of the first cross-light emitterpasses to form a first cross-light beam LX; and a second cross-light emitting holein which the light of the second cross-light emitterpasses to form a second cross light beam LX.
Furthermore, the light receiving assemblyas described above may include a first light receiving holethat passes the first light beam Lto the first light receiver, a second light receiving holethat passes the second light beam Lto the second light receiver, a first cross-light receiving holethat passes the first cross-light beam LXto the first cross-light receiver, and a second cross-light receiving holethat passes the second cross-light beam LXto the second cross-light receiver.
The first light emitter, the second light emitter, the first cross-light emitter, and the second cross-light emitterof the light emitting assemblyas described above may be provided as light emitting elements such as LEDs.
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November 6, 2025
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