Basketball shot-tracking system

A wireless wrist tracker device comprising:

• a microprocessor,
• a memory storage area for storing one or more player shot data profiles, each player shot data profile representing typical movements of a user's arm or wrist while shooting a basketball;
• one or more sensors to detect actual movements of the user's wrist or arm during an attempt to shoot a basketball;
• a radio transmitter;
• and
• a shot attempt detection program in the memory storage area, the shot attempt detection program having program instructions that, when executed by the microprocessor, cause the microprocessor to analyze data generated by the one or more sensors and to determine whether a qualified match exists between the actual movements and the typical movements represented by at least one of said one or more player shot data profiles;
• wherein, when the shot attempt detection program determines that the qualified match exists, the program instructions are further configured to cause the microprocessor to transmit a message to a personal computer system via the radio transmitter, the message indicating that a shot attempt event has occurred.

A wireless net tracker device comprising;

• a microprocessor,
• a memory storage area for storing one or more made shot profiles, each made shot profile representing typical perturbations of the net when a shot is made;
• one or more sensors that detect actual perturbations of the net when a basketball passes through the net;
• a radio transmitter;
• and
• a made shot detection program in the memory storage area, the made shot detection program having program instructions that, when executed by the microprocessor, cause the microprocessor to analyze data generated by the one or more sensors and to determine whether a qualified match exists between the actual perturbations of the net and the typical perturbations of the net when a shot is made as represented by at least one of said made shot profiles;
• wherein, when the made shot detection program determines that the qualified match exists, the program instructions are further configured to cause the microprocessor to transmit a message to a personal computer system via the radio transmitter, the message indicating that a made shot event has occurred.

An arm-worn tracking device configured to identify and report, to a co-operating shot-tracking application executing on a separate computing device, basketball shot-attempts taken by a player, the tracking device comprising:

• a motion sensor;
• a microprocessor which receives motion data generated by the motion sensor;
• a computer memory;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a motion-processing application which executes on the microprocessor;
• wherein the motion-processing application causes the microprocessor to implement the following steps:
• analyze and then store in the computer memory a qualified portion of the motion data that is generated by the motion sensor;
• compare the qualified portion of the motion data to one or more player shot data profiles that have been previously stored in the computer memory, with each of the player shot data profiles comprising data representative of how the player's shooting arm moves when the player makes a shot-attempt for one of a plurality of different types of basketball shots;
• determine from the compare step whether the player has made a shot-attempt of any of said different types of basketball shots;
• and
• if the player has made a basketball shot-attempt, cause the transmitter to transmit a shot-attempt event message.

An arm-worn tracking device configured to identify basketball shot-attempts taken by a player by comparing motion of the player's shooting arm to one or more pre-established player shot data profiles, the tracking device comprising:

• a motion sensor;
• a microprocessor which receives motion data generated by the motion sensor,
• a computer memory;
• and
• a motion-processing application which executes on the microprocessor to establish and store the one or more player shot data profiles in the computer memory;
• wherein the motion-processing application causes the microprocessor to implement the following steps:
• for each of a series of training shots of a given shot-type,
• analyze, and then store in the computer memory a qualified portion of, the motion data that is generated by the motion sensor;
• identify, within the qualified portion of motion data, motion data indicative of a basketball shot having been taken and a point in time at which the basketball shot was taken;
• and
• store in the computer memory a window's worth of shot-taken data, the shot-taken data being determined from the data in the qualified portion of motion data within a time window of predetermined duration and centered around the point in time at which the basketball shot was taken;
• and
• average together the shot-taken data from all of the test shots within the series, on a time-increment-by-time-increment and parameter-by-parameter basis, and then store in the computer memory the averaged data values to yield a player shot data profile for the player for basketball shots of the given shot-type.

A computer-implemented method for detecting basketball shot-attempts taken by a player using an arm-worn tracking device, the arm-worn tracking device having a motion sensor, a microprocessor and a computer memory, the computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving on the microprocessor motion data generated by the motion sensor;
• analyzing and storing in the computer memory a qualified portion of the motion data;
• comparing the qualified portion of the motion data to one or more player shot data profiles that have been previously stored in the computer memory, with each of the one or more player shot data profiles comprising data representative of how the player's shooting arm moves when the player takes a shot-attempt for one of a plurality of different types of basketball shots;
• determining from the comparing step whether the player has made a shot-attempt of any of said different types of basketball shots.

A computer-implemented method for detecting basketball shot-attempts taken by a player using an arm-worn tracking device, the arm-worn tracking device having a microprocessor, a motion sensor, a computer memory and an interface to a remote computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

• generating with the motion sensor motion data representing the movement of the player's arm;
• for each of a series of training shots of a given shot-type, causing the microprocessor to
• (i) analyze and store in the computer memory a qualified portion of motion data that generated by the motion sensor,
• (ii) identify within the qualified portion of motion data, motion data indicative of a basketball shot having been taken and a point in time at which the basketball shot was taken, and
• (iii) store in the computer memory a window's worth of shot-taken data, the shot-taken data being determined from the data in the qualified portion of motion data within a time window of predetermined duration and centered around the point in time at which the basketball shot was taken;
• averaging together the shot-taken data from all of the test shots within the series, on a time-increment-by-time-increment and parameter-by-parameter basis;
• generating a player shot data profile for the player for basketball shots of the given shot-type, the player shot data profile including the averaged data values;
• and
• storing the averaged data values in the computer memory.