Object path evaluation system

A system for calculating surface speed of a playing surface from image-captured ball movement, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media storing program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
• receive or generate tracking data, the tracking data being generated from imaging data of the ball captured by one or more imaging sensors configured to track movement of the ball along the playing surface, the imaging sensors comprising cameras, LiDAR, or combinations thereof, the tracking data comprising sequential points with position coordinates and associated timestamps;
• calculate a total deceleration from the tracking data;
• obtain elevation data for the sequential points from terrain data and calculate a slope component;
• isolate a friction component by removing the slope component from the total deceleration;
• convert the friction component to a surface speed value using a physics-based conversion factor;
• and
• output the surface speed value as a measurement of surface speed for the playing surface,
• wherein the program instructions, when executed, further cause the system to apply weighted averaging across multiple points, and wherein the weighted averaging comprises:
• group points into overlapping windows, calculate a surface speed value for each window, and attribute the surface speed value to points in the window with different weights

A method for calculating surface speed of a playing surface from image-captured ball movement, comprising:

• receiving or generating tracking data, the tracking data being generated from imaging data of the ball captured by one or more imaging sensors configured to track movement of the ball along the playing surface, the imaging sensors comprising cameras, LiDAR, or combinations thereof, the tracking data comprising sequential points with position coordinates and associated timestamps;
• calculating a total deceleration from the tracking data comprising performing polynomial fitting of position-time data with respect to a window of sequential points;
• obtaining elevation data for the sequential points from terrain data and calculating a slope component;
• isolating a friction component by removing the slope component from the total deceleration;
• converting the friction component to a surface speed value using a physics-based conversion factor;
• and
• outputting the surface speed value as a measurement of surface speed for the playing surface.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• receive or generate tracking data, the tracking data being generated from imaging data of the ball captured by one or more imaging sensors configured to track movement of the ball along the playing surface, the imaging sensors comprising cameras, LiDAR, or combinations thereof, the tracking data comprising sequential points with position coordinates and associated timestamps;
• calculate a total deceleration from the tracking data, the calculation comprising polynomial fitting of position-time data with respect to a window of sequential points;
• obtain elevation data for the sequential points from terrain data and calculate a slope component;
• isolate a friction component by removing the slope component from the total deceleration;
• convert the friction component to a surface speed value using a physics-based conversion factor;
• and
• output the surface speed value as a measurement of surface speed for the playing surface.