Patent ID: 7744480

Claim:
A single-camera system for monitoring a movement of a striking instrument that impacts with an object comprising: (a) a single camera unit having a light sensitive panel that is operable to be focused on a field of view through which the striking instrument passes prior to striking the object, wherein said single camera unit is operable to shutter or gate at least two times as the striking instrument and object pass through the field of view; (b) three or more contrasting areas on the striking instrument and one or more contrasting areas on the object, said contrasting areas positioned so that light emitting therefrom reaches said light sensitive panels to form images thereon and create image signals when camera shutters are open; (c) an image analyzer operable to discriminate between the striking instrument contrasting areas and the object contrasting areas and determining the conditions of a path and orientation of the striking instrument through the field; and (d) a rotatable calibration fixture having a pivot point and a plurality of predetermined contrasting areas, wherein three dimensional positions of the plurality of predetermined contrasting areas are known relative to each other, and wherein the striking instrument has a striking face, and wherein the striking instrument is calibrated such that the single-camera system is operable to identify a position and orientation of the striking face from the striking instrument contrasting areas, wherein a first calibration image of a first perspective view of the calibration fixture and first plurality of contrasting areas and the striking instrument and second plurality of contrasting areas is captured and the calibration fixture is rotated to a second orientation by the pivot point to provide a second perspective view of the calibration fixture and first plurality of contrasting areas and the striking instrument and second plurality of contrasting areas; wherein the striking instrument is a golf club comprising a club head and a club face and the object is a golf ball, wherein the image analyzer is operable to determine a club head path and face orientation during a swing of the golf club, and wherein the image analyzer is operable to determine a location of impact of the golf ball on the club face with an accuracy of 0.10 inch.