The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 17, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 05, 1997
Guy F Cooper, Ventura, CA (US);
Mark Leach, Ventura, CA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
A video system, comprising a pair of digital video cameras and a data prosing system, which is used to determine the location of a golf ball during flight and the location of the golf ball when its flight is completed. The video cameras are fixedly mounted on a golf cart and boresighted to insure that the field of view for one camera overlaps the field of view for the other camera allowing the golf ball to be tracked after the golf ball is struck by the golfer. Each of the video cameras has an image array comprising a plurality of image sensing elements. As the golf ball travels along its flight path a light image of the golf ball is detected by at least one of the image sensing elements of the image array for each camera during a scan of the camera's image array. Each camera generates a data bit stream indicating the location of the image sensing elements on the image array which sense the golf ball's light image for each scan of the image array. The data bit streams are supplied to the data processing system which then calculates the departure vector, a trajectory path and a circular impact probability (CIP) location for the golf ball when the golf ball lands on the golf course. A monitor provides the golfer with video data indicating the golf ball's circular impact probability location.