Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statements
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on December 19, 2024 was considered in this office communication despite the discrepancy between the names in the fields “Signature” and “Name/Print” of the IDS. The signature of the IDS nonetheless complies with 37 CFR 1.4 (d)(2)(iii) that requires the signer’s name to be “(A) [p]resented in printed or typed form preferably immediately below or adjacent the S-signature, and (B) [r]easonably specific enough so that the identity of the signer can be readily recognized." (emphasis added).
Claim Interpretation
Claim 8 recites, “a strike parameter corresponding to the strike motion of the player.” The specification provides a set of parameters that satisfy this limitation but neither bounds the set, nor does the specification provide an unequivocal definition to determine whether a measurement is a parameter because the specification provides
strike parameters such as the shot type of strike motion, the swing speed, the swing strength, the swing efficiency, the initial speed of returned shuttlecock, and the likes can be referred to Taiwan Patent No. TWI770787 entitled “HAND-HELD MOTION ANALYSIS SYSTEM AND METHOD”.
(paragraph 64) (emphasis added). The machine-generated translation into English of Wang (TWI770787B) mentions the word parameter or parameters once and does not clarify “strike parameter”: “Max pooling is used here to reduce the feature mapping dimension (network training parameters) and retain only the important features in the input image.” (page 35). “[A] strike parameter corresponding to the strike motion of the player” is interpreted to mean a measurement taken from, or identification of a characteristic of, a racquet swing that strikes the shuttlecock. This limitation is interpreted in the same way in claim 18.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1–20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claims not expressly mentioned below, in a rejection under 35 USC 112, inherit their respective base claim’s indefiniteness.
Claim 1 recites, “the signal sensing device senses a strike motion of the player with holding the badminton racket” It is unclear whether the player is with or holding the badminton racket. This limitation is interpreted: “the signal sensing device senses a strike motion of the player holding the badminton racket.” Claims 12 and 20 are unclear for the same reasons described in this paragraph.
Claim 1 recites, “first image capturing devices obtain an image . . . an image of the shuttlecock returned by the player until falling on a landing point on the second half court.” This appears to state that the first image capturing devices obtain an image of the shuttlecock while it is continuously traveling in the air, and until the shuttlecock is falling on a landing point. It is unclear how an image can display multiple moments in this flight path, from some moment in time upon or after the player strikes the shuttlecock, to the moment that it is falling on a landing point. It is unclear how the shuttlecock is both falling and is simultaneously on a landing point. The same lack of clarity results from the claim 1 recitation, “a third procedure of obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player until falling on the landing point on the second half court.” These limitations are interpreted to refer to an image of the shuttlecock laying on a landing point on the second half court. Claims 12 and 20 are unclear for the same reasons described in this paragraph.
Claim 1 recites, “a computing device communicational connected to the signal sensing device.” “Communicational” is an adjective and cannot modify “connected.” It is unclear how a computing device is connected to the signal sensing device. “Communicatively” is an adverb and may modify “connected.” Claims 12 and 20 are unclear for the same reasons described in this paragraph.
Claim 3 recites, “a fast moving direction of the player.” Here, it is subjective and thus unclear whether the direction of the player is “fast moving” because this limitation is not compared to a “moving direction” of something else, nor does claim 3 refer to a value of a metric that is “fast moving.” An applicant is entitled to be his or her own lexicographer but must clearly set forth a definition so as to give one of ordinary skill in the art notice of the change in meaning. MPEP 2111.01 (IV)(A). The specification states that “[i]n this embodiment, . . . the dynamic vacancy region is the region on the first half court Z1 opposite to a fast moving direction of the player A.” This mention of “fast moving direction of the player” assumes that its definition is already known. (paragraph 53). The following may partially elucidate its meaning, “the serving device 12 can be controlled to serve the shuttlecock B toward the region opposite to the moving direction of the player A.” (paragraph 55). “[A] fast moving direction of the player” is interpreted: “a direction in which the player is moving.” Claim 14 is unclear for the same reasons described in this paragraph.
Claim 20 is directed to “A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing an application software, an electronic device loading and executing the application software to perform a badminton intelligent training evaluation method.” Thus claim 20 is directed to a computer that executes software. The method comprises three steps: “obtaining and analyzing . . .; controlling the serving device to serve the shuttlecock . . .; and obtaining the image . . . .” The middle step requires “the serving device to serve the shuttlecock” but the claim is directed only to a computer. It is unclear how the computer serves the shuttlecock. And if claim 20 is not directed to a serving device in addition to the computer, then claim 20 may be directed to a computer that merely sends and receives data.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1–2, 4, 6, 8, 9–10, 12, 13, 15–16, 18, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the machine-generated translation into English of Lu (CN 106730721 B) in view of Shachar et al. (US 9999825 B2). Please note that a citation to Lu is a citation to the machine-generated translation into English of Lu, except that a citation to a figure of Lu is a citation to the original language patent document of Lu (CN 106730721 B).
As to claim 1, Lu teaches some limitations of a badminton intelligent training evaluation system (“An automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 8–19 in combination with a “serving method for the above-mentioned automatic serving training system” at paragraph 20–26) applied to a badminton court (paragraph 31 and “In this embodiment, the ball served by the automatic ball serving machine 10 is a badminton ball” at paragraph 38; Fig. 1) for training and evaluating an exercising result of a player, wherein the badminton court comprises
two badminton net stands (Fig. 1) and a badminton net (Fig. 1) hanging between the badminton net stands, and the badminton court is divided by the badminton net into a first half court (Fig. 1) and a second half court (Fig. 1),
the badminton intelligent training evaluation system comprising:
a badminton racket (“Rackets, including trackers” at paragraph 9) comprising a signal sensing device (“the piezoelectric sensor is used to sense whether the racket hits the ball” at paragraph 17; “racket includes a frame and a handle, the accelerometer, the gyroscope, and the Bluetooth transmitter are disposed on the handle, and the piezoelectric sensor is disposed on the frame” at paragraph 18, 24–25), wherein the signal sensing device senses a strike motion (“the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball” at paragraph 26) of the player holding the badminton racket on the first half court and outputs a sensing signal (“transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 26);
a serving device (“automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 19, 23–26, 39; Fig. 1, 3) arranged at the second half court for serving at least one shuttlecock to the first half court;
positioning capturing devices (“a second positioning unit 30, and a third positioning unit 40” at paragraph 38, “and a first positioning unit 12” at paragraph 39) wherein
the positioning capturing devices obtain
a position of the player on the first half court
The first positioning unit 12 is used in conjunction with the second positioning unit 30 and the third positioning unit 40 to perform triangulation positioning of the relative position of the tracker of the racket 20, so as to obtain the position information of the racket 20 relative to the automatic ball machine 10.
(paragraph 40) and
status information on hitting the shuttlecock by the player
Preferably, the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball and transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine accumulates the received racket hitting status information. When the number of consecutive hits reaches a preset number of consecutive hits, or the number of consecutive misses reaches a preset number of consecutive misses, the automatic ball-serving machine automatically adjusts the preset difficulty and serves the ball.
(paragraph 25); and
the “automatic ball-serving machine 10” performs:
a first procedure of obtaining the position of the player on the first half court to obtain a vacancy region with respect to the player instantly,
One function of the tracker is to cooperate with the first positioning unit 12, the second positioning unit 30 and the third positioning unit 40 to locate the position of the racket 20 and transmit the information to the automatic ball-serving machine 10. . . .
. . .
Specifically, when a right-handed athlete runs from the left side of the court to the right side and then swings the racket with a backhand, the positioning data of the racket 20 will only reflect that the position of the racket 20 has moved from the left side of the court to the right side and then moved a small distance to the left. It cannot reflect the actual position of the athlete. However, when the athlete swings the racket with a backhand, the accelerometer 241 and the gyroscope 242 will detect the acceleration and angular velocity in different directions than when swinging the racket with a forehand. Using this data as negative feedback for positioning can stabilize the accuracy of positioning and thus accurately reflect the real-time position of the athlete. Since classifying the difficulty of a serve based on the distance between the serve landing point and the athlete is more accurate than classifying it based on the distance between the serve landing point and the racket 20, the serve difficulty level is more accurate when the position information of the racket 20 is corrected by using racket acceleration and racket angular velocity information before serving.
(paragraph 41, 44) (emphasis added);
a second procedure of controlling itself to serve the shuttlecock to fall in the vacancy region according to the obtained vacancy region,
If the serve landing point of the landing point prediction unit is located within a circular area with the position information of the racket 20 as the center and a radius of X meters, it can be defined as the second difficulty level. In the first case, the serving device 11 serves the ball into a circular area, making it easier for the athlete to receive the ball. The landing point prediction unit's serving landing point is located within a circular area centered on the position information of the racket 20, with an inner diameter of X meters and an outer diameter of Y meters. Y is greater than X, which can be defined as the third difficulty level. At this difficulty level, the serving device 11 serves the ball into a circular area, requiring the athlete to move a certain distance to receive the ball, which is quite difficult. The serving device 11 can also further serve the ball into an outer circular area to form a higher difficulty level, which will not be elaborated here.
(paragraph 39; Fig. 3) (emphasis added); and
a third procedure of obtaining status information on hitting the shuttlecock by the player,
The automatic ball-serving machine corrects the racket's position information based on the received swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, so that the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit matches the corrected position information, and serves according to a preset difficulty level. Preferably, the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball and transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine accumulates the received racket hitting status information.
(paragraph 25–26). Lu’s preceding teachings also implicitly teach a computing device that is communicatively connected to the signal sensing device, the serving device (and that is comprised within the serving device, “automatic ball-serving machine 10”) and the positioning capturing devices, and wherein the computing device comprises one or more processing units and a memory unit, the one or more processing units are coupled to the memory unit, the memory unit stores one or more instructions, and the one or more processing units, and that the computing device executes an instruction.
Lu neither teaches
two first image capturing devices respectively disposed on the badminton net stands; nor
that the first image capturing devices obtain an image of the player on the first half court and an image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on a landing point on the second half court; nor
a first procedure of obtaining and analyzing the image of the player on the first half court to obtain a vacancy region with respect to the player instantly; nor
a third procedure of obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on the landing point on the second half court, and determining whether the landing point is out of bounds.
Shachar teaches a “smart-court system” that comprises:
two first image capturing devices (“cameras”) disposed on a “constrained sport environment” such as a tennis court that capture an image of a tennis player, wherein the “cameras”
capture an image of a tennis ball hit by the player at the moment that the ball bounces on the side of the court opposite the player’s location;
the “cameras” that are communicatively connected to
a computing device (“a data processing system comprising a computer”) that
obtains and analyzes the image,
calculates the location of the tennis player, and
determines whether the ball hit by the tennis player landed inbounds or not.
(column 6, line 11–20; column 9, line 39–45; column 11, line 15–27; column 14, line 57–67; column 15, line 1–16).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lu by employing as taught by Shachar, two image capturing devices that obtain an image of the player on the first half court and an image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on a landing point on the second half court; and wherein the computing device performs a first procedure of obtaining and analyzing the image of the player on the first half court to obtain a location of the player instantly; and wherein the computing device performs a third procedure of obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on the landing point on the second half court, and determines whether the landing point is out of bounds: to more accurately determine the location of the badminton player compared to relying on data recorded from the racket which estimates the badminton player’s location and estimates the direction that the badminton player’s torso faces (see generally Lu paragraph 44); and determining whether the shuttlecock was returned inbounds as opposed to merely whether the shuttlecock was hit improves as taught by Shachar (at column 5, line 59–67; column 11, line 5–27), an assessment of player performance.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified by the preceding paragraph, by arranging the two first image capturing devices on the badminton net stands because such an arrangement would have been an rearrangement of parts that would not have modified operation of the cameras, it would have been an obvious matter of design choice. MPEP 2144.04 (VI)(C). Motivation for such an arrangement would have been to arrange the cameras at a location that minimizes camera obstruction of player activity and shuttlecock activity, to an out-of-bounds onlooker.
As to claim 2, Lu as modified to reject claim 1, already teaches the processing units, and obtaining the vacancy region, but not that the processing units obtain an image of the first half court, and mark and map corner points of the first half court.
Shachar teaches that “the system may further provide an analysis by pattern of: . . . (v) player's position (The position may be presented in a color map) . . . .” (column 7, line 4–9). Because Shachar teaches the first image capturing devices, that they obtain an image of the player, and that processing units obtain the image to determine the player’s position, and that such “position may be presented in a color map” then inherently Shachar teaches the limitations: the processing units obtain an image of the first half court by the first image capturing devices, mark corner points of the first half court, and map the corner points of the first half court to a top view diagram of the first half court so as to establish a coordinate base for detecting a position of the player on the top view diagram.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by providing as taught by Shachar, that before the processing units obtain the vacancy region, the processing units obtain an image of the first half court by the first image capturing devices, and the processing units mark corner points of the first half court; and the processing units map the corner points of the first half court to a top view diagram of the first half court so as to establish a coordinate base for detecting a position of the player on the top view diagram: to assist in determining the vacancy region.
As to claim 4, Lu further teaches:
Specifically, setting the serving difficulty of the automatic ball-serving machine 10 includes
setting at least one of the following: the distance between the ball landing point of the landing
point prediction unit and the racket 20, the serving speed, and the time interval between two
adjacent serves.
(paragraph 50). Lu further inherently teaches that the serve parameter comprises a horizontal serve position and a vertical serve position because Lu expressly teaches changing the serving speed and the position that the shuttlecock lands inbounds, that would necessitate changing the unexpressed serve parameters. Therefore Lu teaches that in the second procedure, the computing device controls a serve parameter of the serving device to make the shuttlecock fall within the vacancy region, and the serve parameter comprises a serve speed, a serve frequency, a horizontal serve position and a vertical serve position.
As to claim 6, Lu as modified to reject claim 1, does not teach tracking position changes of the player on projected images.
Shachar teaches after the player returns the shuttlecock in the third procedure, the one or more processing units further perform: tracking position changes of the player on projected images of sequential frames to obtain a running distance of the player in a period of returning the shuttlecock.
According to some embodiments of the present invention, a method for enabling real time analysis and debriefing of sport activities in a Smart-court system that is adaptive to constrained sport environment is provided herein. The method is comprised of the following stages: (i) automatically recording in real time (RT) a real sport session by utilizing an automatic calibration and stabilization module requiring no human intervention by a system that is comprising a plurality of video cameras that are located in a court; (ii) tracking motion and the activities of objects in a video of the RT sport session by a tracking module; (iii) receiving a stream of video of the tracked objects and simultaneously analyzing, during the RT sport session, the motion and the activities of the tracked objects that appear in the stream of video; (iv) automatically identifying and classifying events based on the tracking and analysis of the motion and the activities of the tracked objects and calculating statistics that occurred during the RT sport session; and (v) creating a synchronized event log of the classified events, wherein a user is enabled to perform instant debriefing, combined biomechanical and tactical analysis of the video by selectively playing specific events by type based on the synchronized event log.
. . .
According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system may also record and analyze activity and motion of a tennis player and other objects which are related to the real sport game, by utilizing streamed data.
. . .
According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system provides calculations of game statistics such as: (i) player's and ball's position in various positions; (ii) player's speed; (iii) player's mileage calculation; . . . .
. . .
The unforced error may be detected by analyzing the player's position and timing before striking the ball, in case the player has reached the point and position where the player can strike the ball, at least specified amount of time (e.g. one second) before the ball and fails in her or his performance, an unforced error is identified. In case the player reached the striking point less than said specified amount of time (E.g. one second) and fails, a forced error is identified. This algorithm of identifying forced and unforced error is based on analysis of an accurate identification of the positions and motion of objects (i.e. players and balls) at all frames.
(column 3, line 7–30; column 6, line 1–4, 52–63) (emphasis added).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by causing as taught by Shachar, after the player returns the shuttlecock in the third procedure, the processing unit to perform tracking position changes of the player on projected images of sequential frames to obtain a running distance of the player in a period of returning the shuttlecock: to identify as taught by Shachar, forced and unforced errors of the player.
As to claim 8, Lu further teaches that one or more processing units further perform: analyzing the sensing signal and calculating a strike parameter corresponding to the strike motion of the player.
Preferably, the tracker also senses the racket's swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, and transmits the racket's swing acceleration and swing angular velocity to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine corrects the racket's position information based on the received swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, so that the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit matches the corrected position information, and serves according to a preset difficulty level.
(paragraph 25).
As to claim 9, Lu as modified to reject claim 1 above, does not teach a second image capturing device for obtaining an image of the strike motion of the player and an image of the flying shuttlecock.
Shachar teaches that a second image capturing device for obtaining an image of the strike motion of the player and an image of the flying shuttlecock, wherein the one or more processing units further perform: playing the image of the strike motion of the player.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the system may play an abridged video or virtual 3D dynamic scenes representing the video game sessions, in which the pattern of tactical behavior of the real players 110 and 140 may be presented. The video and the related virtual 3D dynamic scenes may be displayed simultaneously on the same screen, enabling the user to analyze the game both strategically by reviewing the motion across the screen at the virtual 3D dynamic scene version, and analyzing biomechanical motion of part of the body at the video file. The abridged video or virtual 3D dynamic scenes can be played according to a user query for displaying only events of specific type, for example, showing all backend strokes through the game.
. . .
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the customized video may be generated by a specified criterion or event. For example, generating a video with all successful backhands in a real sport game or in a series of games.
. . .
FIG. 2 is a flowchart diagram of object detection module 200 activity, according to some embodiments of the invention.
. . .
At the next stage the objects are detected and extracted (the players and the ball) in each frame (stage 220). Optionally, “noise” filter is applied (stage 225) and identification of the objects video 3D coordinates is performed by analyzing stereo image of at least two cameras (stage 230).
(column 10, line 31–44; 53–56; column 11, line 60–62; column 12, line 7–11).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by providing as taught by Shachar, a second image capturing device for obtaining an image of the strike motion of the player and an image of the flying shuttlecock, wherein the one or more processing units further perform playing the image of the strike motion of the player: to analyze as taught by Shachar (column 10, line 31–44), the “biomechanical motion” of the player.
As to claim 10, Lu as modified to reject claim 1, does not teach relying on image data and repeating the first, second, and third procedures. However, Lu does teach repeating the steps of obtaining a vacancy region with respect to the player, serving the shuttlecock to fall in the vacancy region, and determining whether the landing point is out of bounds. (paragraph 60–65).
It would have been obvious to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by employing a processing unit that repeats the first procedure, the second procedure and the third procedure until reaching a stop condition because repeating these procedures would have been a duplication of parts producing no new and unexpected result. MPEP 2144.04 (VI)(B). Motivation to repeat the three procedures until a stop condition would have been to control duration of a training session.
As to claim 12, Lu teaches some limitations of a badminton intelligent training evaluation method (“An automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 8–19 in combination with a “serving method for the above-mentioned automatic serving training system” at paragraph 20–26), applied to a badminton intelligent training evaluation system (“An automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 8–19 in combination with a “serving method for the above-mentioned automatic serving training system” at paragraph 20–26) for training and evaluating an exercising result of a player, wherein the badminton intelligent training evaluation system is applied to a badminton court (paragraph 31 and “In this embodiment, the ball served by the automatic ball serving machine 10 is a badminton ball” at paragraph 38; Fig. 1), the badminton court comprises:
two badminton net stands (Fig. 1) and a badminton net (Fig. 1) hanging between the badminton net stands (Fig. 1), and the badminton court is divided by the badminton net into a first half court (Fig. 1) and a second half court (Fig. 1);
the badminton intelligent training evaluation system comprises
a badminton racket (“Rackets, including trackers” at paragraph 9),
a serving device (“automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 19, 23–26, 39; Fig. 1, 3), and
positioning capturing devices (“a second positioning unit 30, and a third positioning unit 40” at paragraph 38, “and a first positioning unit 12” at paragraph 39);
the badminton racket comprises a signal sensing device (“the piezoelectric sensor is used to sense whether the racket hits the ball” at paragraph 17; “racket includes a frame and a handle, the accelerometer, the gyroscope, and the Bluetooth transmitter are disposed on the handle, and the piezoelectric sensor is disposed on the frame” at paragraph 18, 24–25);
the signal sensing device senses a strike motion (“the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball” at paragraph 26) of the player holding the badminton racket on the first half court and outputs a sensing signal (“transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 26);
the serving device (“automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 19, 23–26, 39; Fig. 1, 3) is arranged at the second half court for serving at least one shuttlecock to the first half court;
positioning capturing devices (“a second positioning unit 30, and a third positioning unit 40” at paragraph 38, “and a first positioning unit 12” at paragraph 39) wherein the positioning capturing devices obtain
a position of the player on the first half court
The first positioning unit 12 is used in conjunction with the second positioning unit 30 and the third positioning unit 40 to perform triangulation positioning of the relative position of the tracker of the racket 20, so as to obtain the position information of the racket 20 relative to the automatic ball machine 10.
(paragraph 40); and
the badminton intelligent training evaluation method comprising:
obtaining the position of the player on the first half court to obtain a vacancy region with respect to the player instantly,
One function of the tracker is to cooperate with the first positioning unit 12, the second positioning unit 30 and the third positioning unit 40 to locate the position of the racket 20 and transmit the information to the automatic ball-serving machine 10. . . .
. . .
Specifically, when a right-handed athlete runs from the left side of the court to the right side and then swings the racket with a backhand, the positioning data of the racket 20 will only reflect that the position of the racket 20 has moved from the left side of the court to the right side and then moved a small distance to the left. It cannot reflect the actual position of the athlete. However, when the athlete swings the racket with a backhand, the accelerometer 241 and the gyroscope 242 will detect the acceleration and angular velocity in different directions than when swinging the racket with a forehand. Using this data as negative feedback for positioning can stabilize the accuracy of positioning and thus accurately reflect the real-time position of the athlete. Since classifying the difficulty of a serve based on the distance between the serve landing point and the athlete is more accurate than classifying it based on the distance between the serve landing point and the racket 20, the serve difficulty level is more accurate when the position information of the racket 20 is corrected by using racket acceleration and racket angular velocity information before serving.
(paragraph 41, 44) (emphasis added),
controlling itself to serve the shuttlecock to fall in the vacancy region according to the obtained vacancy region,
If the serve landing point of the landing point prediction unit is located within a circular area with the position information of the racket 20 as the center and a radius of X meters, it can be defined as the second difficulty level. In the first case, the serving device 11 serves the ball into a circular area, making it easier for the athlete to receive the ball. The landing point prediction unit's serving landing point is located within a circular area centered on the position information of the racket 20, with an inner diameter of X meters and an outer diameter of Y meters. Y is greater than X, which can be defined as the third difficulty level. At this difficulty level, the serving device 11 serves the ball into a circular area, requiring the athlete to move a certain distance to receive the ball, which is quite difficult. The serving device 11 can also further serve the ball into an outer circular area to form a higher difficulty level, which will not be elaborated here.
(paragraph 39; Fig. 3) (emphasis added); and
obtaining status information on hitting the shuttlecock by the player,
The automatic ball-serving machine corrects the racket's position information based on the received swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, so that the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit matches the corrected position information, and serves according to a preset difficulty level. Preferably, the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball and transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine accumulates the received racket hitting status information.
(paragraph 25–26). Lu’s preceding teachings also implicitly teach a computing device that is communicatively connected to the signal sensing device, the serving device (and that is comprised within the serving device, “automatic ball-serving machine 10”) and the positioning capturing devices, and wherein the computing device comprises one or more processing units and a memory unit, the one or more processing units are coupled to the memory unit, the memory unit stores one or more instructions, and the one or more processing units, and that the computing device executes an instruction.
Lu neither teaches
two first image capturing devices respectively disposed on the badminton net stands; nor
that the first image capturing devices obtain an image of the player on the first half court and an image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that has fallen on a landing point on the second half court; nor
obtaining and analyzing the image of the player on the first half court to obtain a vacancy region with respect to the player instantly; nor
obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on the landing point on the second half court, and determining whether the landing point is out of bounds.
Shachar teaches a “smart-court system” that comprises:
two first image capturing devices (“cameras”) disposed on a “constrained sport environment” such as a tennis court that capture an image of a tennis player, wherein the “cameras”
capture an image of a tennis ball hit by the player at the moment that the ball bounces on the side of the court opposite the player’s location;
the “cameras” that are communicatively connected to
a computing device (“a data processing system comprising a computer”) that
obtains and analyzes the image,
calculates the location of the tennis player, and
determines whether the ball hit by the tennis player landed inbounds or not.
(column 6, line 11–20; column 9, line 39–45; column 11, line 15–27; column 14, line 57–67; column 15, line 1–16).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lu by employing as taught by Shachar, two image capturing devices that obtain an image of the player on the first half court and an image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on a landing point on the second half court; and wherein the badminton intelligent training evaluation method comprises obtaining and analyzing the image of the player on the first half court to obtain a location of the player instantly; and wherein the badminton intelligent training evaluation method comprises obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on the landing point on the second half court, and determining whether the landing point is out of bounds: to more accurately determine the location of the badminton player compared to relying on data recorded from the racket which estimates the badminton player’s location and estimates the direction that the badminton player’s torso faces (see generally Lu paragraph 44); and determining whether the shuttlecock was returned inbounds as opposed to merely whether the shuttlecock was hit improves as taught by Shachar (at column 5, line 59–67; column 11, line 5–27), an assessment of player performance.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified by the preceding paragraph, by arranging the two first image capturing devices on the badminton net stands because such an arrangement would have been an rearrangement of parts that would not have modified operation of the cameras, it would have been an obvious matter of design choice. MPEP 2144.04 (VI)(C). Motivation for such an arrangement would have been to arrange the cameras at a location that minimizes camera obstruction of player activity and shuttlecock activity, to an out-of-bounds onlooker.
As to claim 13, Lu as modified to reject claim 12, already teaches obtaining the vacancy region, but not obtaining an image of the first half court, and marking and mapping corner points of the first half court.
Shachar teaches that “the system may further provide an analysis by pattern of: . . . (v) player's position (The position may be presented in a color map) . . . .” (column 7, line 4–9). Because Shachar teaches the first image capturing devices, that they obtain an image of the player, and that processing units obtain the image to determine the player’s position, and that such “position may be presented in a color map” then inherently Shachar teaches the limitations: the badminton intelligent training evaluation method further comprises obtaining an image of the first half court by the first image capturing devices, and marking and mapping to a top view diagram of the first half court, corner points of the first half court so as to establish a coordinate base for detecting a position of the player on the top view diagram.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by providing as taught by Shachar, that before obtaining the vacancy region, the badminton intelligent training evaluation method further comprises obtaining an image of the first half court by the first image capturing devices, marking and mapping to a top view diagram of the first half court, corner points of the first half court, so as to establish a coordinate base for detecting a position of the player on the top view diagram: to assist in determining the vacancy region.
As to claim 15, Lu further teaches:
Specifically, setting the serving difficulty of the automatic ball-serving machine 10 includes
setting at least one of the following: the distance between the ball landing point of the landing
point prediction unit and the racket 20, the serving speed, and the time interval between two
adjacent serves.
(paragraph 50). Lu further inherently teaches that the serve parameter comprises a horizontal serve position and a vertical serve position because Lu expressly teaches changing the serving speed and the position that the shuttlecock lands inbounds and in the vacancy region, that would necessitate changing the unexpressed serve parameters. Therefore Lu teaches that the computing device controls a serve parameter of the serving device to make the shuttlecock fall within the vacancy region, and the serve parameter comprises a serve speed, a serve frequency, a horizontal serve position and a vertical serve position.
As to claim 16, Lu as modified to reject claim 12, does not teach tracking position changes of the player on projected images.
Shachar teaches in the step of obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player, that the badminton intelligent training evaluation method tracks position changes of the player on projected images of sequential frames to obtain a running distance of the player in a period of returning the shuttlecock.
According to some embodiments of the present invention, a method for enabling real time analysis and debriefing of sport activities in a Smart-court system that is adaptive to constrained sport environment is provided herein. The method is comprised of the following stages: (i) automatically recording in real time (RT) a real sport session by utilizing an automatic calibration and stabilization module requiring no human intervention by a system that is comprising a plurality of video cameras that are located in a court; (ii) tracking motion and the activities of objects in a video of the RT sport session by a tracking module; (iii) receiving a stream of video of the tracked objects and simultaneously analyzing, during the RT sport session, the motion and the activities of the tracked objects that appear in the stream of video; (iv) automatically identifying and classifying events based on the tracking and analysis of the motion and the activities of the tracked objects and calculating statistics that occurred during the RT sport session; and (v) creating a synchronized event log of the classified events, wherein a user is enabled to perform instant debriefing, combined biomechanical and tactical analysis of the video by selectively playing specific events by type based on the synchronized event log.
. . .
According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system may also record and analyze activity and motion of a tennis player and other objects which are related to the real sport game, by utilizing streamed data.
. . .
According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system provides calculations of game statistics such as: (i) player's and ball's position in various positions; (ii) player's speed; (iii) player's mileage calculation; . . . .
. . .
The unforced error may be detected by analyzing the player's position and timing before striking the ball, in case the player has reached the point and position where the player can strike the ball, at least specified amount of time (e.g. one second) before the ball and fails in her or his performance, an unforced error is identified. In case the player reached the striking point less than said specified amount of time (E.g. one second) and fails, a forced error is identified. This algorithm of identifying forced and unforced error is based on analysis of an accurate identification of the positions and motion of objects (i.e. players and balls) at all frames.
(column 3, line 7–30; column 6, line 1–4, 52–63) (emphasis added).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by causing as taught by Shachar, in the step of obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player, to track position changes of the player on projected images of sequential frames to obtain a running distance of the player in a period of returning the shuttlecock: to identify as taught by Shachar, forced and unforced errors of the player.
As to claim 18, Lu further teaches that one or more processing units further perform: analyzing the sensing signal and calculating a strike parameter corresponding to the strike motion of the player.
Preferably, the tracker also senses the racket's swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, and transmits the racket's swing acceleration and swing angular velocity to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine corrects the racket's position information based on the received swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, so that the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit matches the corrected position information, and serves according to a preset difficulty level.
(paragraph 25).
As to claim 20, Lu teaches some limitations of a badminton intelligent training evaluation method (“An automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 8–19 in combination with a “serving method for the above-mentioned automatic serving training system” at paragraph 20–26), which is applied to a badminton intelligent training evaluation system for training and evaluating an exercise result of a player, wherein the system is applied to a badminton court (paragraph 31 and “In this embodiment, the ball served by the automatic ball serving machine 10 is a badminton ball” at paragraph 38; Fig. 1), wherein the badminton court comprises
two badminton net stands (Fig. 1) and a badminton net (Fig. 1) hanging between the badminton net stands, and the badminton court is divided by the badminton net into a first half court (Fig. 1) and a second half court (Fig. 1),
the badminton intelligent training evaluation system comprising:
a badminton racket (“Rackets, including trackers” at paragraph 9) comprising a signal sensing device (“the piezoelectric sensor is used to sense whether the racket hits the ball” at paragraph 17; “racket includes a frame and a handle, the accelerometer, the gyroscope, and the Bluetooth transmitter are disposed on the handle, and the piezoelectric sensor is disposed on the frame” at paragraph 18, 24–25), wherein the signal sensing device senses a strike motion (“the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball” at paragraph 26) of the player holding the badminton racket on the first half court and outputs a sensing signal (“transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 26);
a serving device (“automatic ball-serving machine” at paragraph 19, 23–26, 39; Fig. 1, 3) arranged at the second half court for serving at least one shuttlecock to the first half court;
positioning capturing devices (“a second positioning unit 30, and a third positioning unit 40” at paragraph 38, “and a first positioning unit 12” at paragraph 39) wherein
the positioning capturing devices obtain
a position of the player on the first half court
The first positioning unit 12 is used in conjunction with the second positioning unit 30 and the third positioning unit 40 to perform triangulation positioning of the relative position of the tracker of the racket 20, so as to obtain the position information of the racket 20 relative to the automatic ball machine 10.
(paragraph 40) and
status information on hitting the shuttlecock by the player
Preferably, the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball and transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine accumulates the received racket hitting status information. When the number of consecutive hits reaches a preset number of consecutive hits, or the number of consecutive misses reaches a preset number of consecutive misses, the automatic ball-serving machine automatically adjusts the preset difficulty and serves the ball.
(paragraph 25); and
the “automatic ball-serving machine 10” performs:
obtaining the position of the player on the first half court to obtain a vacancy region with respect to the player instantly,
One function of the tracker is to cooperate with the first positioning unit 12, the second positioning unit 30 and the third positioning unit 40 to locate the position of the racket 20 and transmit the information to the automatic ball-serving machine 10. . . .
. . .
Specifically, when a right-handed athlete runs from the left side of the court to the right side and then swings the racket with a backhand, the positioning data of the racket 20 will only reflect that the position of the racket 20 has moved from the left side of the court to the right side and then moved a small distance to the left. It cannot reflect the actual position of the athlete. However, when the athlete swings the racket with a backhand, the accelerometer 241 and the gyroscope 242 will detect the acceleration and angular velocity in different directions than when swinging the racket with a forehand. Using this data as negative feedback for positioning can stabilize the accuracy of positioning and thus accurately reflect the real-time position of the athlete. Since classifying the difficulty of a serve based on the distance between the serve landing point and the athlete is more accurate than classifying it based on the distance between the serve landing point and the racket 20, the serve difficulty level is more accurate when the position information of the racket 20 is corrected by using racket acceleration and racket angular velocity information before serving.
(paragraph 41, 44) (emphasis added);
controlling itself to serve the shuttlecock to fall in the vacancy region according to the obtained vacancy region,
If the serve landing point of the landing point prediction unit is located within a circular area with the position information of the racket 20 as the center and a radius of X meters, it can be defined as the second difficulty level. In the first case, the serving device 11 serves the ball into a circular area, making it easier for the athlete to receive the ball. The landing point prediction unit's serving landing point is located within a circular area centered on the position information of the racket 20, with an inner diameter of X meters and an outer diameter of Y meters. Y is greater than X, which can be defined as the third difficulty level. At this difficulty level, the serving device 11 serves the ball into a circular area, requiring the athlete to move a certain distance to receive the ball, which is quite difficult. The serving device 11 can also further serve the ball into an outer circular area to form a higher difficulty level, which will not be elaborated here.
(paragraph 39; Fig. 3) (emphasis added); and
obtaining status information on hitting the shuttlecock by the player,
The automatic ball-serving machine corrects the racket's position information based on the received swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, so that the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit matches the corrected position information, and serves according to a preset difficulty level. Preferably, the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball and transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine accumulates the received racket hitting status information.
(paragraph 25–26). Lu’s preceding teachings also implicitly teach a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing an application software, an electronic device loading and executing the application software to perform the badminton intelligent training evaluation method; and a computing device that is communicatively connected to the signal sensing device, the serving device (and that is comprised within the serving device, “automatic ball-serving machine 10”) and the positioning capturing devices.
Lu neither teaches
two first image capturing devices respectively disposed on the badminton net stands; nor
that the first image capturing devices obtain an image of the player on the first half court and an image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on a landing point on the second half court; nor
obtaining and analyzing the image of the player on the first half court to obtain a vacancy region with respect to the player instantly; nor
obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on the landing point on the second half court, and determining whether the landing point is out of bounds.
Shachar teaches a “smart-court system” that comprises:
two first image capturing devices (“cameras”) disposed on a “constrained sport environment” such as a tennis court that capture an image of a tennis player, wherein the “cameras”
capture an image of a tennis ball hit by the player at the moment that the ball bounces on the side of the court opposite the player’s location;
the “cameras” that are communicatively connected to
a computing device (“a data processing system comprising a computer”) that
obtains and analyzes the image,
calculates the location of the tennis player, and
determines whether the ball hit by the tennis player landed inbounds or not.
(column 6, line 11–20; column 9, line 39–45; column 11, line 15–27; column 14, line 57–67; column 15, line 1–16).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lu by employing as taught by Shachar, two image capturing devices that obtain an image of the player on the first half court and an image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on a landing point on the second half court; and wherein the badminton intelligent training evaluation method comprises obtaining and analyzing the image of the player on the first half court to obtain a location of the player instantly; obtaining the image of the shuttlecock returned by the player that is laying on the landing point on the second half court, and determining whether the landing point is out of bounds: to more accurately determine the location of the badminton player compared to relying on data recorded from the racket which estimates the badminton player’s location and estimates the direction that the badminton player’s torso faces (see generally Lu paragraph 44); and determining whether the shuttlecock was returned inbounds as opposed to merely whether the shuttlecock was hit improves as taught by Shachar (at column 5, line 59–67; column 11, line 5–27), an assessment of player performance.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified by the preceding paragraph, by arranging the two first image capturing devices on the badminton net stands because such an arrangement would have been an rearrangement of parts that would not have modified operation of the cameras, it would have been an obvious matter of design choice. MPEP 2144.04 (VI)(C). Motivation for such an arrangement would have been to arrange the cameras at a location that minimizes camera obstruction of player activity and shuttlecock activity, to an out-of-bounds onlooker.
Claims 3 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the machine-generated translation into English of Lu and Shachar, and further in view of Yeager (US 9039547 B2) and Hopley (Mike Hopley. Singles strategy: movement pressure [online]. [retrieved on 2026-08-24]. Retrieved from the Internet:< URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20201106232351/https://www.badmintonbible.com/tactics/singles/movement-pressure >).
As to claim 3, Lu as modified to reject claim 1, already teaches the vacancy region but not that it comprises a positional vacancy region and a dynamic vacancy region.
Yeager teaches:
During the course of a simulated game or drill, the robot will move around the court and fire the game balls with shot dynamics (firing location, spin direction, velocity, height above the net, and impact location) that simulate the shot dynamics that a human opponent with a particular set of playing characteristics would be capable of imparting to the ball.
The shot dynamics for each ball that is fired within the playing of each point is sequenced to follow the overall strategy of the human opponent that is being simulated. Each ball that is fired has the shot dynamics based on the previous simulated shot and the player's return of that shot. The shot profile used to fire each ball is selected as the shot that would be played by that particular simulated opponent at that particular strategic situation in the game or drill.
. . .
The data on playing strategies, different physical player types, playing styles, and skill levels is well known by coaches and trainers in the field of sports training.
(column 7, line 64-67; column 8, line 1-11; column 15, line 27-29).
Hopley teaches:
In singles [badminton], the basic strategy is to apply maximum movement pressure to your opponent. This means that you force them to cover distance rapidly and change direction.
By forcing your opponent to move quickly about the court, you create situations where he will reach the shuttlecock late and have difficulty playing an effective shot. Once he plays a weak shot, you have the choice between pushing him even farther out of position, or attempting to win the rally immediately.
Here is a simple example of creating movement pressure:
1. You play a clear. Your opponent is forced to move into the rearcourt.
2. Your opponent plays a drop shot.
3. You play a net shot. Your opponent is forced to move into the forecourt.
By this simple sequence of shots, you forced your opponent to move into the rearcourt, and then back to the forecourt. This puts some pressure on his movement ability.
(page 1).
Yeager teaches that a human player’s strategy is used to determine serve location, and Hopley teaches that a human player’s strategy to select serve location comprises serving to a vacancy region, wherein the vacancy region comprises a region on the first half court farthest from the player, and another region that is located opposite to a direction in which the player is moving. Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by providing as taught by Yeager in view of Hopley, that the vacancy region comprises a positional vacancy region and a dynamic vacancy region, the positional vacancy region is a region on the first half court farthest from the player, and the dynamic vacancy region is a region on the first half court opposite to a direction in which the player is moving: to simulate a human adversary’s strategy.
As to claim 14, Lu as modified to reject claim 12, already teaches the vacancy region but not that it comprises a positional vacancy region and a dynamic vacancy region.
Yeager teaches:
During the course of a simulated game or drill, the robot will move around the court and fire the game balls with shot dynamics (firing location, spin direction, velocity, height above the net, and impact location) that simulate the shot dynamics that a human opponent with a particular set of playing characteristics would be capable of imparting to the ball.
The shot dynamics for each ball that is fired within the playing of each point is sequenced to follow the overall strategy of the human opponent that is being simulated. Each ball that is fired has the shot dynamics based on the previous simulated shot and the player's return of that shot. The shot profile used to fire each ball is selected as the shot that would be played by that particular simulated opponent at that particular strategic situation in the game or drill.
. . .
The data on playing strategies, different physical player types, playing styles, and skill levels is well known by coaches and trainers in the field of sports training.
(column 7, line 64-67; column 8, line 1-11; column 15, line 27-29).
Hopley teaches:
In singles [badminton], the basic strategy is to apply maximum movement pressure to your opponent. This means that you force them to cover distance rapidly and change direction.
By forcing your opponent to move quickly about the court, you create situations where he will reach the shuttlecock late and have difficulty playing an effective shot. Once he plays a weak shot, you have the choice between pushing him even farther out of position, or attempting to win the rally immediately.
Here is a simple example of creating movement pressure:
1. You play a clear. Your opponent is forced to move into the rearcourt.
2. Your opponent plays a drop shot.
3. You play a net shot. Your opponent is forced to move into the forecourt.
By this simple sequence of shots, you forced your opponent to move into the rearcourt, and then back to the forecourt. This puts some pressure on his movement ability.
(page 1).
Yeager teaches that a human player’s strategy is used to determine serve location, and Hopley teaches that a human player’s strategy to select serve location comprises serving to a vacancy region, wherein the vacancy region comprises a region on the first half court farthest from the player, and another region that is located opposite to a direction in which the player is moving. Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 12, by providing as taught by Yeager in view of Hopley, that the vacancy region comprises a positional vacancy region and a dynamic vacancy region, the positional vacancy region is a region on the first half court farthest from the player, and the dynamic vacancy region is a region on the first half court opposite to a direction in which the player is moving: to simulate a human adversary’s strategy.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the machine-generated translation into English of Lu and Shachar, and further in view of Weinlader (US 20230218969 A1)
As to claim 5, Lu does not expressly teach that the serve parameter is stored in the memory unit or a cloud database.
Weinlader teaches a serving deice that may be modified for serving a shuttlecock onto a badminton court, and that serves shuttlecocks to different areas on the first half of the court, where the player is situated.
[0005] The disclosure herein is not limited to tennis ball volleys and the hitting of baseballs, but can be modified for any number of different types of balls for different types of sports, including, for example, and not limited to, soccer, football, softball, table tennis, badminton, among others.
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0006] The disclosure is directed to an automatic ball machine including a frame, a ball launching system, and a gamification display. The ball launching system is coupled to the frame and rotatably moves to point in various directions to launch a ball to a player. The gamification display displays gamification information for the player.
. . .
The ball machines 150a, 150b can be networked via direct communications and/or via the network 23900. At least one of the ball machines 150a, 150b can return shots that are dynamically generated based on a last shot by the player 115. For example, if the player 115 hits an easy ball up the middle of the tennis court 110, a hard return would most likely be processed by at least one of the automatic ball machines 150a, 150b. Further, if the player 115 hits a great volley to the corner of the tennis court 110, the at least one of the ball machines 150a, 150b can respond with a 1ob. The return by at least one of the ball machines 150a, 150b can be based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) mining of tennis matches, and determined to be a most likely response for a particular shot.
(paragraph 5–6, 24). Weinlader also teaches that the serve parameter (“computer readable instructions”) may be stored in the memory unit of the computing device, and by teaching that the “program module” or “programming modules” may be stored on a cloud database, then one of ordinary skill would have understood Weinlader also to teach that the serve parameter may be stored on a cloud database, because both the serve parameter and “program module” comprise underlying computer readable instructions.
[0049] With reference to FIG. 9, an exemplary general-purpose computing device is illustrated in the form of the exemplary general-purpose computing device 23000. The general-purpose computing device 23000 may be of the type utilized for any of the automatic ball machine 150, the smart device 120, the gamification server 140, devices within the network 23900, and any other devices that these devices can communicate with (not shown). As such, it will be described with the understanding that variations can be made thereto. The exemplary general-purpose computing device 23000 can include, but is not limited to, one or more central processing units (CPUs) 23200, a system memory 23300, such as including a Read Only Memory (ROM) 23310 to store a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) 23330 and a Random Access Memory (RAM) 1320, and a system bus 23210 that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit 23200. . . .
. . .
[0053] The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in FIG. 9, provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the general-purpose computing device 23000. In FIG. 9, for example, hard disk drive 23410 is illustrated as storing operating system 23440, other program modules 23450, and program data 23460.
. . .
In other configurations, the programming modules 23450 may comprise a virtual programming module in the form of software that is on, for example, a smartphone, in communication with the network interface 23700. In still other configurations, such a virtual programming module may be located in the cloud (or web based), with access thereto through any number of different computing devices.
(paragraph 49, 53, 55).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 4, by storing as taught by Weinlader, the serve parameter in the memory unit of the computing device or a cloud database: to provide redundancy.
Claims 7 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the machine-generated translation into English of Lu and Shachar, and further in view of Chojnacki (US 11842572 B2).
As to claim 7, Lu as already modified to reject claim 1 above, teaches determining whether the landing point is out of bounds using sensors, not according to the limitations of claim 7.
Chojnacki teaches the step of determining whether the landing point is out of bounds in the third procedure comprises:
a court boundary detection step, that comprises
obtaining an image of the second half court, obtaining boundary information based on an image of the second half court, thereby
obtaining boundary lines, intersection coordinates, and an inbound area of the second half court; and
dividing the inbound area into multiple blocks and obtaining coordinates of the blocks;
detecting a flying trajectory of the shuttlecock; and
determining whether the landing point is out of bounds based on a result of the court boundary detection step and the flying trajectory of the shuttlecock.
The tennis game real-time analysis of the present invention may optionally include ball bounce position estimation (e.g., item 80a in FIG. 6), thereby allowing Bounce Event detection . . . .
The system of the present invention may perform estimation of a tennis ball's 3D-trajectory during a shot or during a sequence of frames that corresponds to a single shot-event (e.g., item 90a in FIG. 6), namely the 3D-location of the ball at every time-step (or frame) during a shot or during a shot-event. This optimization process may utilize three (or more) sources of information, for example: (1) The hitting player's location on the court, (2) the ball's coordinates in the camera(s) frame, and (3) a mathematical or physical or geometric or other model of the ball's flight from the hitting player's racquet to the bouncing point. This allows the system to perform further analysis of the players performance, such as the speed of the ball, the spin rate, the net clearance (the height at which the ball passes above the court's net), and/or other analysis results.
Some embodiments of the present invention perform translating of visual information (e.g., pixels or pixel data in captured frames) to real-world information (e.g. determination of the three dimensional location or spatial location or real-world location, for example, in the tennis court's axis system, of a specific feature or object that is detected or identified or recognized or tracked in one or more frames or images captured by the imager(s) or camera(s)), based on knowing or determining or identifying the relation (e.g., mathematical relation, or other matching criteria or correlation criteria) between the two. Given the intended use of the system, flexibility and low-maintenance may be important properties in some implementations; and therefore, a calibration process or task may be done automatically by the system in order to enable or to facilitate subsequent object-tracking and localization operations. The process includes, for example, detecting in the camera(s) frame(s) multiple points on the tennis court, which (X, Y, Z) components are known, and recording their coordinates in the camera(s) coordinates system (u, v). Then, the relation or correlation or mathematical relation between (i) pixels coordinates in the camera(s) frame (u, v) (e.g., as in FIG. 10) and (ii) their corresponding 3D point in the court's 3D coordinates system (X, Y, Z), as demonstrated in FIG. 3, is found through an optimization process and/or through an image-search process.
Some embodiments of the present invention may comprise or may utilize the following automated method or computer-vision based process for Ball Bounce Position Estimation.
The Applicants have realized that accurate estimation of a ball bounce location on the ground may be of importance for multiple sports fields; and, in Tennis particularly, correctly analyzing ball bounce locations over time for a specific player may allow to generate statistics and insights such as a “heat map” of shots placements distribution, as well as average hitting depth, which provides important insights on the player's performance and enables the player to focus on particular practice regimes.
In some embodiments, the Ball Detector (e.g., item 60a in FIG. 6) reduces the ball object to (or, replaces the entirety of the ball object with) one representative pixel, whose coordinates (u,v) in the camera(s) axis system (e.g., FIG. 3) are transferred as input to the ball Bounce Position Estimation process or unit (e.g., item 80a in FIG. 6), for each frame or for at least one frame or for at least a set of frames being analyzed. For example, the one representative pixel of the entire ball object, is generated by finding the average (or the median) of all the “u” (horizontal) values of all the pixels that correspond to the ball object, and by finding the average (or the median) of all the “v” (vertical) values of all the pixels that correspond to the ball object; and the average (or the median) values of all such “u” and “v” value are utilized as the “single representative pixel” of the entire ball object.
Furthermore, the “v” component (height of the ball; vertical component) of the single pixel (u,v) ball coordinates in the frame's axis system (e.g., demonstrated in FIG. 10) is monitored and/or tracked and/or followed in (or by) the Bounce Monitor (item 30b in FIG. 7), which identifies or determines the closest frame relative to the bounce event. The frame number of that frame (which is closest to the bounce event) and the pixel coordinates representing the ball object at that particular frame are denoted as (Umin, Vmin), and are stored by the system.
(column 18, line 1–67; column 19, line 1–18). Furthermore, Chojnacki teaches dividing the inbound area into multiple blocks and obtaining coordinates of the blocks because the processing unit necessarily generates such a grid by using image data to generate a “’heat map’” (column 18, line 52–60; Fig. 15–17).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by determining as taught by Chojnacki, whether the landing point is out of bounds in the third procedure comprises: a court boundary detection step, that comprises obtaining boundary information based on an image of the second half court, thereby obtaining boundary lines, intersection coordinates, and an inbound area of the second half court; and dividing the inbound area into multiple blocks and obtaining coordinates of the blocks; detecting a flying trajectory of the shuttlecock; and determining whether the landing point is out of bounds based on a result of the court boundary detection step and the flying trajectory of the shuttlecock. Motivation to determine the landing point as taught by Chojnacki would have been to rely on imaging the shuttlecock’s actual flight path, rather than relying on sensors measuring position and velocity of the implement that strikes the shuttlecock, and thereby more accurately determine the shuttlecock’s landing point.
As to claim 17, Lu as already modified to reject claim 12 above, teaches determining whether the landing point is out of bounds using sensors, not according to the limitations of claim 17.
Chojnacki teaches the step of determining whether the landing point is out of bounds comprises:
a court boundary detection step, that comprises
obtaining an image of the second half court, obtaining boundary information based on an image of the second half court, thereby
obtaining boundary lines, intersection coordinates, and an inbound area of the second half court; and
dividing the inbound area into multiple blocks and obtaining coordinates of the blocks;
detecting a flying trajectory of the shuttlecock; and
determining whether the landing point is out of bounds based on a result of the court boundary detection step and the flying trajectory of the shuttlecock.
The tennis game real-time analysis of the present invention may optionally include ball bounce position estimation (e.g., item 80a in FIG. 6), thereby allowing Bounce Event detection . . . .
The system of the present invention may perform estimation of a tennis ball's 3D-trajectory during a shot or during a sequence of frames that corresponds to a single shot-event (e.g., item 90a in FIG. 6), namely the 3D-location of the ball at every time-step (or frame) during a shot or during a shot-event. This optimization process may utilize three (or more) sources of information, for example: (1) The hitting player's location on the court, (2) the ball's coordinates in the camera(s) frame, and (3) a mathematical or physical or geometric or other model of the ball's flight from the hitting player's racquet to the bouncing point. This allows the system to perform further analysis of the players performance, such as the speed of the ball, the spin rate, the net clearance (the height at which the ball passes above the court's net), and/or other analysis results.
Some embodiments of the present invention perform translating of visual information (e.g., pixels or pixel data in captured frames) to real-world information (e.g. determination of the three dimensional location or spatial location or real-world location, for example, in the tennis court's axis system, of a specific feature or object that is detected or identified or recognized or tracked in one or more frames or images captured by the imager(s) or camera(s)), based on knowing or determining or identifying the relation (e.g., mathematical relation, or other matching criteria or correlation criteria) between the two. Given the intended use of the system, flexibility and low-maintenance may be important properties in some implementations; and therefore, a calibration process or task may be done automatically by the system in order to enable or to facilitate subsequent object-tracking and localization operations. The process includes, for example, detecting in the camera(s) frame(s) multiple points on the tennis court, which (X, Y, Z) components are known, and recording their coordinates in the camera(s) coordinates system (u, v). Then, the relation or correlation or mathematical relation between (i) pixels coordinates in the camera(s) frame (u, v) (e.g., as in FIG. 10) and (ii) their corresponding 3D point in the court's 3D coordinates system (X, Y, Z), as demonstrated in FIG. 3, is found through an optimization process and/or through an image-search process.
Some embodiments of the present invention may comprise or may utilize the following automated method or computer-vision based process for Ball Bounce Position Estimation.
The Applicants have realized that accurate estimation of a ball bounce location on the ground may be of importance for multiple sports fields; and, in Tennis particularly, correctly analyzing ball bounce locations over time for a specific player may allow to generate statistics and insights such as a “heat map” of shots placements distribution, as well as average hitting depth, which provides important insights on the player's performance and enables the player to focus on particular practice regimes.
In some embodiments, the Ball Detector (e.g., item 60a in FIG. 6) reduces the ball object to (or, replaces the entirety of the ball object with) one representative pixel, whose coordinates (u,v) in the camera(s) axis system (e.g., FIG. 3) are transferred as input to the ball Bounce Position Estimation process or unit (e.g., item 80a in FIG. 6), for each frame or for at least one frame or for at least a set of frames being analyzed. For example, the one representative pixel of the entire ball object, is generated by finding the average (or the median) of all the “u” (horizontal) values of all the pixels that correspond to the ball object, and by finding the average (or the median) of all the “v” (vertical) values of all the pixels that correspond to the ball object; and the average (or the median) values of all such “u” and “v” value are utilized as the “single representative pixel” of the entire ball object.
Furthermore, the “v” component (height of the ball; vertical component) of the single pixel (u,v) ball coordinates in the frame's axis system (e.g., demonstrated in FIG. 10) is monitored and/or tracked and/or followed in (or by) the Bounce Monitor (item 30b in FIG. 7), which identifies or determines the closest frame relative to the bounce event. The frame number of that frame (which is closest to the bounce event) and the pixel coordinates representing the ball object at that particular frame are denoted as (Umin, Vmin), and are stored by the system.
(column 18, line 1–67; column 19, line 1–18). Furthermore, Chojnacki teaches dividing the inbound area into multiple blocks and obtaining coordinates of the blocks because the processing unit necessarily generates such a grid by using image data to generate a “’heat map’” (column 18, line 52–60; Fig. 15–17).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by including as taught by Chojnacki, in the step of determining whether the landing point is out of bounds: a court boundary detection step, that comprises obtaining an image of the second half court, obtaining boundary information based on an image of the second half court, thereby obtaining boundary lines, intersection coordinates, and an inbound area of the second half court; and dividing the inbound area into multiple blocks and obtaining coordinates of the blocks; detecting a flying trajectory of the shuttlecock; and determining whether the landing point is out of bounds based on a result of the court boundary detection step and the flying trajectory of the shuttlecock. Motivation to determine the landing point as taught by Chojnacki would have been to rely on imaging the shuttlecock’s actual flight path, rather than relying on sensors measuring position and velocity of the implement that strikes the shuttlecock, and thereby more accurately determine the shuttlecock’s landing point.
Claims 11 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the machine-generated translation into English of Lu and Shachar, and further in view of Cohen et al. (US 9956469 B2).
As to claim 11, Lu as modified to reject claim 1, does not teach generating a smart badminton shot report according to the sensing signal and landing points. However, Lu further teaches that the serving device serves a plurality of the shuttlecocks, and that the sensing signal (signal sent from “tracker”) is recorded;
The tracker sends a signal, and the first positioning unit, the second positioning unit, and the third positioning unit perform triangulation positioning on the relative position of the tracker of the racket to obtain the position information of the racket relative to the automatic ball serving machine. The tracker then transmits the position information of the racket to the automatic ball serving machine.
The automatic ball-serving machine receives the racket's position information, adjusts the ball-serving device to match the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit with the position information, and serves the ball according to a preset difficulty level.
Preferably, the tracker also senses the racket's swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, and transmits the racket's swing acceleration and swing angular velocity to the automatic ball-serving machine.
The automatic ball-serving machine corrects the racket's position information based on the received swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, so that the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit matches the corrected position information, and serves according to a preset difficulty level.
Preferably, the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball and transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine accumulates the received racket hitting status information. When the number of consecutive hits reaches a preset number of consecutive hits, or the number of consecutive misses reaches a preset number of consecutive misses, the automatic ball-serving machine automatically adjusts the preset difficulty and serves the ball.
(paragraph 23–26).
Shachar teaches generating a badminton shot report according to identified shot types in image data and landing points in image data, among other image-data-based metrics and image-data-based analysis included in the shot report:
(26) According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system automatically classifies events that took place during an entire match or training i.e. session, including: player behavior related events or game rules, session events including: (a) types and order of strokes, (b) net approach; (c) passing shot; (d) slice; and (e) aces, (f) successfully gained points; (g) game type; (h) match; (i) tactical patterns; (g) forced error; and (h) unforced error. An unforced error is a description of poor performance of a player and may be identified in relation to a player's profile.
(27) The unforced error may be detected by analyzing the player's position and timing before striking the ball, in case the player has reached the point and position where the player can strike the ball, at least specified amount of time (e.g. one second) before the ball and fails in her or his performance, an unforced error is identified. In case the player reached the striking point less than said specified amount of time (E.g. one second) and fails, a forced error is identified. This algorithm of identifying forced and unforced error is based on analysis of an accurate identification of the positions and motion of objects (i.e. players and balls) at all frames. The system may provide a detailed analysis of: (i) all the serves that hit the T point, Wide point or body point (each serve can be close to serve line or to the net); and (ii) all the serves above certain speed. Type of strokes may include: (i) first and second serve; (ii) backhand; (iii) forehand, including: inside out and passing shots; (iv) forehand and backhand volley; (v) nets; (vi) first and second return; (vii) smash.
(28) According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system may further provide an analysis by pattern of: (i) different combo; (ii) rally; (iii) data of all points that were gained at second serves; (iv) a tactical pattern e.g. “Serve-Return-Forehand”; (v) player's position (The position may be presented in a color map) (vi) serve and run; and (vii) all rallies above a certain amount of strokes.
(29) According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system may further provide an analysis by score. For example, (i) keep score (ii) analysis according to specific score in a game; (iii) ending score in a session; (iv) big points; (v) outs and nets; and (vi) leading and behind states.
(30) According to some embodiments of the present invention, the analysis may be performed for identifying and classifying events that occurred during an entire session. Further, the analysis may result in an online edited video version of the RT sport session. Additionally, a user may be enabled to perform debriefing and analysis operation by selecting to review specific events by their type according to the event log.
(column 6, line 42–67; column 7, line 1–23).
Cohen teaches a sensing signal on a racket that is communicated to a device, that in turn generates a report in accordance with the sensing signal.
As the player swings the racket, the device measures values obtained from the one or more sensors and calculates various parameters associated with the racket's physical position and motion, including various angle measurements of the racket with respect to its position in space, the direction of motion, speed of motion, acceleration, vibration, and shock. The various parameters associated with a racket's physical position and motion may be further processed to determine when certain events have occurred or are in the process of occurring. These events can include forehand preparation, backhand preparation, overhead preparation, forehand swing, backhand swing, overhead swing, contact with a tennis ball, contact with another object (such as the net, the ground, or a player's body), and the application of spin to the ball. From such events, the embodiment can further derive one or more phases of a point or drill (such as serving, rallying, or ending a point).
In an embodiment, Tennis Events are transmitted in the form of messages, and each message includes an identification of the coaching device transmitting the message along with information about the Tennis Event. Such information may include the type of Tennis Event (e.g., a “My Shot” Tennis Event) as well as information about the type of shot (e.g., speed, spin, direction, etc.). For example, a coaching device 100 may determine that a player hit a forehand lob shot based on the speed and direction of the shot (e.g., as measured by sensor 204), and the corresponding message may include this information, thereby enabling a receiving coaching device 100 to generate a relevant Notification (e.g., an announcement to prepare for an overhead shot).
In alternative embodiments, messages may include measurement information gathered directly from sensor 204 and/or information about a Physical Event instead of or in addition to information about the Tennis Event. In such embodiments, the receiving coaching device 100 translates the measurement information into Physical Events and derives corresponding Tennis Events in the same manner as the transmitting device.
(column 4, line 53–67; column 5, line 1–2; column 14, line 7–27).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 1, by providing as taught by Shachar, that the processing unit further performs a fourth procedure of generating a portion of a smart badminton shot report according to the landing points of the returned shuttlecocks: to determine a player’s performance and tendencies.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified by the preceding paragraph, by generating as taught by Cohen, the smart badminton shot report according to the sensing signal (in addition to the landing points of the returned shuttlecocks): to include more data with which to determine a player’s performance and tendencies.
As to claim 19, Lu as modified to reject claim 12, does not teach generating a smart badminton shot report according to the sensing signal and landing points. However, Lu further teaches that the serving device serves a plurality of the shuttlecocks, and that the sensing signal (signal sent from “tracker”) is recorded;
The tracker sends a signal, and the first positioning unit, the second positioning unit, and the third positioning unit perform triangulation positioning on the relative position of the tracker of the racket to obtain the position information of the racket relative to the automatic ball serving machine. The tracker then transmits the position information of the racket to the automatic ball serving machine.
The automatic ball-serving machine receives the racket's position information, adjusts the ball-serving device to match the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit with the position information, and serves the ball according to a preset difficulty level.
Preferably, the tracker also senses the racket's swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, and transmits the racket's swing acceleration and swing angular velocity to the automatic ball-serving machine.
The automatic ball-serving machine corrects the racket's position information based on the received swing acceleration and swing angular velocity, so that the ball's landing point predicted by the landing point prediction unit matches the corrected position information, and serves according to a preset difficulty level.
Preferably, the tracker also senses whether the racket hits the ball and transmits the racket's hitting status information to the automatic ball-serving machine. The automatic ball-serving machine accumulates the received racket hitting status information. When the number of consecutive hits reaches a preset number of consecutive hits, or the number of consecutive misses reaches a preset number of consecutive misses, the automatic ball-serving machine automatically adjusts the preset difficulty and serves the ball.
(paragraph 23–26).
Shachar teaches generating a badminton shot report according to identified shot types in image data and landing points in image data, among other image-data-based metrics and image-data-based analysis included in the shot report:
(26) According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system automatically classifies events that took place during an entire match or training i.e. session, including: player behavior related events or game rules, session events including: (a) types and order of strokes, (b) net approach; (c) passing shot; (d) slice; and (e) aces, (f) successfully gained points; (g) game type; (h) match; (i) tactical patterns; (g) forced error; and (h) unforced error. An unforced error is a description of poor performance of a player and may be identified in relation to a player's profile.
(27) The unforced error may be detected by analyzing the player's position and timing before striking the ball, in case the player has reached the point and position where the player can strike the ball, at least specified amount of time (e.g. one second) before the ball and fails in her or his performance, an unforced error is identified. In case the player reached the striking point less than said specified amount of time (E.g. one second) and fails, a forced error is identified. This algorithm of identifying forced and unforced error is based on analysis of an accurate identification of the positions and motion of objects (i.e. players and balls) at all frames. The system may provide a detailed analysis of: (i) all the serves that hit the T point, Wide point or body point (each serve can be close to serve line or to the net); and (ii) all the serves above certain speed. Type of strokes may include: (i) first and second serve; (ii) backhand; (iii) forehand, including: inside out and passing shots; (iv) forehand and backhand volley; (v) nets; (vi) first and second return; (vii) smash.
(28) According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system may further provide an analysis by pattern of: (i) different combo; (ii) rally; (iii) data of all points that were gained at second serves; (iv) a tactical pattern e.g. “Serve-Return-Forehand”; (v) player's position (The position may be presented in a color map) (vi) serve and run; and (vii) all rallies above a certain amount of strokes.
(29) According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system may further provide an analysis by score. For example, (i) keep score (ii) analysis according to specific score in a game; (iii) ending score in a session; (iv) big points; (v) outs and nets; and (vi) leading and behind states.
(30) According to some embodiments of the present invention, the analysis may be performed for identifying and classifying events that occurred during an entire session. Further, the analysis may result in an online edited video version of the RT sport session. Additionally, a user may be enabled to perform debriefing and analysis operation by selecting to review specific events by their type according to the event log.
(column 6, line 42–67; column 7, line 1–23).
Cohen teaches a sensing signal on a racket that is communicated to a device, that in turn generates a report in accordance with the sensing signal.
As the player swings the racket, the device measures values obtained from the one or more sensors and calculates various parameters associated with the racket's physical position and motion, including various angle measurements of the racket with respect to its position in space, the direction of motion, speed of motion, acceleration, vibration, and shock. The various parameters associated with a racket's physical position and motion may be further processed to determine when certain events have occurred or are in the process of occurring. These events can include forehand preparation, backhand preparation, overhead preparation, forehand swing, backhand swing, overhead swing, contact with a tennis ball, contact with another object (such as the net, the ground, or a player's body), and the application of spin to the ball. From such events, the embodiment can further derive one or more phases of a point or drill (such as serving, rallying, or ending a point).
In an embodiment, Tennis Events are transmitted in the form of messages, and each message includes an identification of the coaching device transmitting the message along with information about the Tennis Event. Such information may include the type of Tennis Event (e.g., a “My Shot” Tennis Event) as well as information about the type of shot (e.g., speed, spin, direction, etc.). For example, a coaching device 100 may determine that a player hit a forehand lob shot based on the speed and direction of the shot (e.g., as measured by sensor 204), and the corresponding message may include this information, thereby enabling a receiving coaching device 100 to generate a relevant Notification (e.g., an announcement to prepare for an overhead shot).
In alternative embodiments, messages may include measurement information gathered directly from sensor 204 and/or information about a Physical Event instead of or in addition to information about the Tennis Event. In such embodiments, the receiving coaching device 100 translates the measurement information into Physical Events and derives corresponding Tennis Events in the same manner as the transmitting device.
(column 4, line 53–67; column 5, line 1–2; column 14, line 7–27).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified to reject claim 12, by providing as taught by Shachar, generating a portion of a smart badminton shot report according to the landing points of the returned shuttlecocks: to determine a player’s performance and tendencies.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Lu, already modified by the preceding paragraph, by generating as taught by Cohen, the smart badminton shot report according to the sensing signal (in addition to the landing points of the returned shuttlecocks): to include more data with which to determine a player’s performance and tendencies.
Conclusion
Prior art that is not relied upon but considered relevant to the instant disclosure:
Vilar (US 9953424 B2) teaches a method of using images to detect whether a ball lands inbounds or not:
[T]he present invention relates, in a first aspect, to a method for determining whether a spherical element impacts with a component of a playing field, or arranged on or proximate thereto, where said field is formed by a number of game areas, wherein the method comprises:
a) acquiring a sequence of images of at least one area of surveillance of said playing field covering at least part of at least said component;
b) performing an approximate detection of the impact of a spherical element with said component or proximate thereto;
c) automatically selecting, in response to said approximate detection, at least one image, from said sequence of images, acquired for the same point in time and that includes the area where said impact took place; and
d) analysing the at least one selected image to check if the spherical element has really impacted or not with said component.
(column 3, line 65–67; column 4, line 1–15).
Amini (US 8419560 B2) teaches a sensor on a player or implement that relays player orientation and motion to a serving device that adjusts serve parameters based on relayed data:
The adaptive tennis ball ejector (109) is positioned opposite the user (101) on the tennis court (115) so that the balls can be delivered to the user similarly to how an opposing player would. In this example, the user (101) is wearing a WIMU (102) on their dominant playing arm. The WIMU (102), or Wireless Inertial Measurement Unit, is an example of a motion sensor. The WIMU (102) captures movement and orientation data from the user and transmits the data wirelessly to the computer (104) via the wireless router (103). . . . A computer program (116) . . . analyzes the movement and orientation data from the user in order to assess the user's performance and to generate parameters for adaptive ball delivery. . . . The ejector controller (111) receives the updated parameters and integrates the updated parameters into its local state, including trajectory, speed, and interval of successive balls.
. . .
FIG. 9 illustrates how a plurality of WIMU (102) may be positioned to capture movement and orientation data from the user (101). Those skilled in the art will recognize that different subsets of the sensors displayed in FIG. 9 may be chosen according to a variety of reasons, including the motion being assessed, user comfort, and expense. FIG. 9 also illustrates the WIMU may be placed on the sports instrument, including tennis rackets, golf clubs, and hockey sticks.
(column 4, line 16–40; column 5, line 17–24).
Han et al. (CN 116958872 A)
Fan et al. (CN 111184994 A)
Weinlader et al. (US 20250319382 A1)
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/ENRICO MIOTTO/Examiner, Art Unit 3711
/NICHOLAS J. WEISS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3711
