Sensing device and method used for virtual golf simulation apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9514379-B2
Application number	US-201214004938-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 22, 2012
Priority date	Mar 22, 2011
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed are a sensing device and method used for a virtual golf simulation apparatus in which an image acquired by an inexpensive camera having a relatively low resolution and velocity is analyzed to relatively accurately extract information on physical properties, such as velocity, direction and altitude angle, of a moving ball, and, particularly, in which the moving trajectory of a golf club is relatively accurately calculated from the acquired image to relatively accurately estimate spin of the ball and to reflect the estimated spin of the ball in golf simulation, thereby constituting a virtual golf simulation apparatus having high accuracy and reliability at low costs and further improving reality of virtual golf.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sensing device used in a virtual golf simulation apparatus, comprising:
a camera unit comprising at least one or more cameras configured to acquire a plurality of frame images of a ball and a golf club head as source images during hitting the ball by the golf club head; and
a sensing processing unit comprising,
a ball image processor configured to extract at least one or more ball images from each of the source images to obtain three-dimensional coordinates of the ball moved by hitting, and
a club image processor configured to extract at least one or more images of moving object of interest from each of the source images to calculate a moving trajectory of the golf club head,
wherein the club image processor is configured to:
obtain difference images by processing difference operations, wherein the difference operations compare each of the source images to a reference image,
create object extraction images from each of the obtained difference images by extracting differences between one of the difference images and remaining of the difference images then congregating the extracted differences,
extract an object of interest as the moving object of interest from moving portions of the respective object extraction images, wherein the ball images extracted by the ball image processor are excluded for extracting the object of interest,
fit a straight line for the respective moving object of interest, and
calculate a trajectory of the fitted straight line for the respective moving object of interest as the moving trajectory of the golf club head,

wherein the sensing processing unit is configured to calculate information on physical properties including at least one of velocity, direction and altitude angle of the moving ball using the three-dimensional coordinates of the moving ball obtained by the ball image processor, and to estimate a spin of the moving ball from the moving trajectory of the golf club head calculated by the club image processor.

2. The sensing device according to claim 1 , wherein the club image processor is configured to receive an image from the ball image processor and process the received image from which the ball, extracted each image processed by the ball image processor, has been removed.

3. The sensing device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a hitting sensor configured to process each of the images received from the camera unit to sense whether hitting has been performed by the user, thereby confirming impact time.

4. The sensing device according to claim 3 , wherein the ball image processor is configured to receive a plurality of frame images after impact from the hitting sensing sensor and to process the received images, and the club image processor is configured to receive a plurality of frame images before impact from the hitting sensor and the images processed by the ball image processor and to process the received images.

5. The sensing device according to claim 1 , wherein the club image processor further configured to estimate the spin of the moving ball a based on a region of interest including a predetermined size with respect to a position of the ball in a still state, and to determine moving trajectory of the golf club head in the region of interest by detecting a moving direction of the golf club head.

6. A sensing device used in a virtual golf simulation apparatus, comprising:
a camera unit comprising at least one or more cameras configured to acquire a plurality of frame images of a ball and a golf club head as source images during hitting the ball by the golf club head; and
a club image processor configured to
obtain difference images by processing difference operations, wherein the difference operations compare each of the source images to a reference image,

create object extraction images from each of the obtained difference images by extracting differences between one of the difference images and remaining of the difference images then congregating the extracted differences,
extract an object of interest as a moving object of interest from moving portions of the respective object extraction images, wherein the ball images are excluded for extracting the object of interest,
fit a straight line for the respective moving object of interest, and
calculate a trajectory of the fitted straight line for the respective moving object of interest as a moving trajectory of the golf club head.

7. The sensing device according to claim 6 ,
wherein the estimate of the fitted straight line from the difference among the respective one or more still images of the moving object of interest is performed by removing a still portion from the respective one or more still images of the moving object of interest,
wherein an image is created by congregating pixel values of a predetermined number of peripheral pixels with respect to all pixels on the difference.

8. The sensing device according to claim 6 , wherein the club image processor is further configured to:
detect coordinate movement of a portion of the fitted straight line to calculate the moving trajectory; and
determine an estimation of spin of the ball based on the moving trajectory of the golf club head associated with the calculated fitted line.

9. A computer-implemented sensing method of a sensing device used in a virtual golf simulation apparatus, comprising:
successively collecting images of a plurality of frame images of a moving ball associated with a predetermined capturing range;
detecting whether a ball being hit;
extracting at least one or more still ball images from each of the frame images of the moving ball to obtain three-dimensional coordinates of the moving ball;
extracting at least one or more still images of moving object of interest comprising a moving club other than the moving ball from each of the acquired frame images to calculate a moving trajectory of a golf club head, wherein the step of extracting at least one or more still images of moving object includes,
obtaining difference images by difference operations, wherein the difference operations compare each of the still images of moving object to a reference image,
creating object extraction images from each of the obtained difference images by extracting differences between one of the difference images and remaining of the difference images then congregating the extracted differences,
extracting an object of interest as the moving object of interest from moving portions of the respective object extraction images, wherein the ball images are excluded for extracting the object of interest,
fitting a straight line for the respective moving object of interest, and
calculating a trajectory of the fitted straight line for the respective moving object of interest as a moving trajectory of the golf club head,

wherein information on physical properties including at least one of velocity, direction and altitude angle of the moving ball is calculated using the three-dimensional coordinates of the moving ball obtained, and information on physical properties including spin of the moving ball from the moving trajectory of the golf club head is calculated.

10. The computer-implemented sensing method according to claim 9 , further comprising:
extracting a ball candidate for each frame with respect to the frame images;
converting three-dimensional coordinates of the ball candidate into two-dimensional coordinates to extract at least one two-dimensional trajectory obtained by connecting the ball candidates of the respective frames are connected to each other; and
analyzing the two-dimensional trajectory to extract a trajectory of the ball, thereby obtaining three-dimensional coordinates of the ball

Assignees

• Park Hyun Jin
• Yoon Hyung Sik
• Jeong Hyun Dam
• Jang Hyung Wook
• Golfzon Co Ltd

Inventors

• Park Hyun Jin
• Yoon Hyung Sik
• Jeong Hyun Dam
• Jang Hyung Wook

Classifications

• G09B19/0038 Primary

  Sports · CPC title

• G06F18/22

  Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures · CPC title

• G06K9/3241 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K9/00342

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06V40/23

  Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training · CPC title