Determining Spin Based On Club Parameters

A system for determining spin of a golf ball in flight, the system comprising:

• a plurality of sensors;
• a data processing apparatus comprising a processor, a communication interface, a memory and a user interface;
• wherein the plurality of sensors are configured to obtain at least a portion of an observed trajectory of the golf ball and one or more parameters associated with the observed trajectory, the observed trajectory comprising three-dimensional locations of the golf ball over time, as determined from individual observations of the golf ball by the plurality of sensors;
• wherein the plurality of sensors are configured to communicate to the communication interface of the data processing apparatus the at least a portion of an observed trajectory of the golf ball and one or more parameters associated with the observed trajectory;
• wherein the processor is configured to obtain two or more spin candidates for the golf ball, each spin candidate having an associated measurement probability indicating relative frequency of different spin values;
• wherein the processor is configured to determine a most probable used golf club for launching the golf ball into the observed trajectory, based on probability data for one or more parameters for two or more different golf clubs;
• wherein the processor is configured to obtain ball spin probability data for the most probable used golf club;
• wherein the processor is configured to determine the spin of the golf ball to be the spin candidate which is most probable, based on the ball spin probability data and the obtained portion of the observed trajectory, wherein the determining is based on a combination of measurement probability, club spin probability and physics probability, wherein the club spin probability indicates how likely the most probable used golf club generated the spin candidate, and the physics probability refers to probability converted from an error between the observed trajectory and a simulated trajectory;
• and
• wherein the user interface is configured to display the determined spin of the golf ball.