Tracking balls in sports |
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申请号 | EP08161913.2 | 申请日 | 2008-08-06 | 公开(公告)号 | EP2025372A2 | 公开(公告)日 | 2009-02-18 |
申请人 | Catapult Innovations Pty Ltd; | 发明人 | Holthouse, Shaun; van de Greindt, Igor; | ||||
摘要 | A system for tracking balls in sports in which players kick, pass, bounce, strike or carry a ball. The ball is equipped with two beacons pulsing in the 5-10 Hz range at a frequency which is not attenuated by the body of the players. one beacon has a very short range of 40 -120 cm and the other has a range of 1 - 5 metres. A data logger worn by the players includes a clock, location and speed sensors, a receiver for the beacon signals and a micro controller to record the data from all the sensors. The micro controller is able to record whether the player is in possession of the ball or is contesting the ball. The path of the ball from player to player is tracked relative to the playing field. An impact or pressure sensor may be fitted to the players footwear, glove or a bat stick, club or racquet to register a kick or ball strike. |
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权利要求 | |||||||
说明书全文 | This invention relates to a system and method of tracking balls, possession and actions in sports particularly the various codes of football using oval balls and the various team sports using round balls such as soccer basket ball and netball. The idea of locating beacons in balls has been proposed. These systems are expensive as they rely on powerful transmitters and receivers that need to be located around the playing field. They also use expensive electronic equipment within the balls. Sport balls usually experience rapid wear and tear during a game and need to be replaced often. It is an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive means of locating the travel path of a ball and also detect possessions and the methods by which it is propelled. To this end the present invention provides a ball which incorporates at least one short range wireless beacon or radio frequency identification device. In a further aspect the invention provides a system for tracking balls in a team sport in which players kick, pass, bounce or carry a ball which includes
wherein the micro controller is able to record whether the player is in possession of the ball or is contesting the ball. Preferably the data logger worn by the players also includes location and speed sensors, which enable the micro controller to track the path of the ball from player to player relative to the playing field. A suitable data logger is disclosed in Australian patent Preferably the signals are transmitted at a frequency which is not attenuated by the body of the players. Preferably a wireless beacon pulsing in the 5-10 Hz range may be used. Preferably two beacons are used one with a very short range of 40 -120 cm and the other with a range of 1- 5 metres. These signals are picked up by a data logger worn by the players and used to indicate that the player is either in possession of the ball (short range beacon) or contesting possession(longer range beacon). Alternatively the beacons may generate magnetic fields detected by sensors worn by the players or incorporated in the data loggers. Instead of tracking the ball directly this system tracks the ball relative to the players and records and tracks possession from player to player. Currently available technology such as GPS (or wireless triangulation ) provides the position of the players on the field and allows the player's movements during the game to be tracked. This invention adds information about which player is in proximity to the ball and has had impact with it (for instance a kick) and this enables a computer simulation of the path of the ball during play. This is an inexpensive alternative to the extremely cumbersome methods currently available for direct ball tracking. The beacons may be powered by a battery or a piezo energy harvester mounted on the football cover which produces current from impacts to power the beacons. The occurrence of impacts can also be used to switch the beacons on and absence of impacts can turn it off. To provide further information the system may provide a pressure pad integrated with a low power wireless transmitter located on the tongue of the football boot to transmit a signal when a ball is kicked. A kick results in a wireless pulse which is recorded on the data logger worn by the players. In another aspect this invention provides a system for monitoring kicks in a team sport in which players kick a ball which includes
Similarly the sensor could be fitted to a cricket or baseball bat, a hockey stick. A golf club or a racquet as used in tennis, or badminton. In a further aspect this invention provides a system for monitoring ball strikes in a sport in which players strike a ball with a bat, stick, club or racquet which includes
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings in which:
The system of this invention preferably includes 2 wireless beacons inside the ball, as shown in Corresponding pick up coils inside the data logger device, illustrated in Since the data logger is worn on the athlete, a pickup of the short range beacon will indicate possession of the ball and a pick up of the longer range beacon will indicate proximity to the "play" (i.e. the athlete was involved in the play). As shown in Since the electronics used in the ball are low powered, the battery will last longer than the ball. The electronics are also inexpensive so that the cost of the instrumented balls is only a small increment above normal ball cost. If desired a switch on/off functionality via a reed switch in the electronics may be provided. Passing a magnetic wand over one or more balls would switch them on or off. In one embodiment the ball transmitter uses three timer circuits to produce an out put signal. Timer 1 enables the power for operation of the transmitter and may be set to a suitable interval such as 5 minutes. A trigger circuit based on a shock sensor activates the circuit once the ball is kicked off. The ball then transmits continuously for a maximum period of the selected interval (5 minutes). If the ball is kicked again the timer is reset and starts again. Power is only permanently provided to the trigger circuit. The receiver circuit on the data logger uses two sets of MFB filters used with 90 degrees oriented coils for maximum reception. An alternative is to have a motion activated on switch. When the ball bounces or experiences impact, the wireless beacon turns on and runs for a set period (such as 5 minutes) at which time it turns off if there have been no further impacts. Another alternative is to power the ball via an energy harvester and super capacitor. For instance a piezo device between the skin and bladder of the ball could generate voltage and charge a super capacitor to provide power to the beacons. The second aspect of this invention will be described in relation to Golf. A golfer may wear a data logger as shown in In this way the golfers score can be computed (number of shots). Also, using the GPS sensor in the data logger, the length of each shot and location can be recorded. It is possible to integrate the GPS data with a map of the golf course. A complete record of where the ball was hit around the course can be established. Furthermore, using the additional sensors such as gyro and accelerometer sensors on the data logger, diagnostic information about the golf swing can be recorded for later analysis or entertainment. For example, magnetometers in conjunction with the other sensors can tell which direction the golfer was facing as he swung the club and then, via GPS maps, whether that direction was appropriate for the shot. Gyroscopes can tell how fast the club was swung during the stroke and whether this was appropriate for the shot. The number of practice swings could be measured via the gyroscope. The golfer can later integrate all this information via software to replay his session and analyse his performance. Since golf gloves have a limited life, this invention provides a way for the associated electronics to be low cost (the more expensive sensors are located on the data logger). Putting the impact sensor on the glove avoids instrumenting multiple clubs or golf balls. In the case where the golf ball has instrumentation in it (like the ball example above), the short and long range beacons can be used to alert the user that he is near the ball, and hence help him find a lost ball. Those skilled in the art will realise that this invention provides a unique system that is able to be used in a range of sports to track the movement of the ball relative to one or more players. Those skilled in the art will also realise that this invention can be implemented in embodiments other than those described without departing from the core teachings of the invention. |