Patent ID: 7946928

Claim:
Apparatus for measuring and analyzing a player's foot related forces during a golf swing or a sports swing similar to a golf swing, comprising a standing surface for the player; a communication means; a plurality of sensor means which are operable to measure force; the standing surface comprising two separate foot platforms for the player's feet, each foot platform comprising a supporting structure including a surface with a plurality of discrete positions to which vertical forces on the supporting structure are distributed; the communication means for communicating to the player with information related to a performance of the player, thereby allowing the player to understand the performance without assistance from a skilled third party; the sensor means, located at the discrete positions, for measuring vertical forces; a computing means for analyzing the swing, including: means for receiving and separately processing signals from the sensor means; means for determining the relative magnitudes and positions of resultant forces by balance-resolution of forces, including individual forces measured by the sensor means in relation to the discrete positions; means for analyzing and evaluating numerical data related to the measured positions and magnitudes of the forces; and the computing means for analyzing the swing based on an evaluation of forces from the sensor means against a framework of feature events, determined positions of the feet, and a body of information available to the computing means comprising available reference data; wherein: the evaluation related to the framework of feature events is based on a mapping of the times of various detectable principal events which are common to all normal swings; the evaluation related to the determined positions of the feet is based on a statistical analysis of a batch of resultant forces measured by the sensor means where the player shifts weight with the foot in that position; and the available reference data include at least one piece of: information related to known swing performance, including criteria which allow different aspects of the performance to be judged against a predetermined performance when the available reference data is prepared; information accessible by the computing means from a logging means for logging information concerning previous swings made by the player, and the player's previous performance; and information accessible by the computing means from a co-operating means for co-operating with other apparatus, the co-operating means is for receiving further information on the swing from the other apparatus.