Systems and methods for measuring and/or analyzing swing information
View Patent ↗In a first aspect, a system for monitoring a swing is provided that includes a wireless device adapted to couple to a swinging object and to provide information indicative of a characteristic of the swinging object. The wireless device is a cellular telephone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Numerous other aspects are provided.
1. A method for monitoring a golf swing comprising:
providing a cellular telephone having one or more accelerometers and a program that allows the cellular telephone to:
monitor acceleration of the cellular telephone as the cellular telephone swings;
collect acceleration information based on the monitored acceleration of the cellular telephone as the cellular telephone swings;
analyze the collected acceleration information to determine one or more characteristics of a golf swing based on the collected acceleration information; and
output information regarding the one or more characteristics of the golf swing on a display of the cellular telephone;
coupling the cellular telephone to a forearm or wrist of a user; and
employing the cellular telephone coupled to the forearm or wrist of the user to:
monitor acceleration of the cellular telephone as the cellular telephone swings while the user swings a golf club;
collect acceleration information based on the monitored acceleration of the cellular telephone as the cellular telephone swings;
analyze the collected acceleration information to determine one or more characteristics of the golf swing based on the collected acceleration information; and
output information regarding the one or more characteristics of the golf swing on the display of the cellular telephone.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the cellular telephone includes a program that determines one or more of acceleration of the golf club, velocity of the golf club, and speed of the golf club.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the cellular telephone includes a program that determines one or more of ball-club contact, ball-club contact timing and ball-club contact force.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the cellular telephone includes a program that determines one or more of number of strokes of the golf club, number of strokes of a golfer swinging the golf club, golf score and golf handicap.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cellular telephone includes a program that determines one or more of predicted ball travel distance and predicted ball position.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the cellular telephone includes a program that detects wirelessly transmitted signals from multiple golfers.