Transducing and analyzing forces for instrumented sporting devices and the like

Sporting apparatus, comprising

• a piece of equipment held or worn by a user, and
• a device for characterizing a trajectory followed by a movable object after an object-striking face of said piece of equipment comes into contact with said movable object, said device comprising
• an impact sensor comprising a plurality of impact force sensing element, said impact sensor being incorporated into said object-striking face of said piece of equipment in a manner such that each of said impact force sensing elements can experience compressional or tensile force upon impact between said piece of equipment and said movable object, each of said impact force sensing elements providing a respective signal representing the intensity of said compressional or tensile force when said contact between said movable object and said piece of equipment occurs, said plurality of impact force sensing elements being arranged to be positioned at differing locations on said piece of sporting equipment at which said impact force sensing elements receive differing compressional or tensile forces due to impact between said piece of sporting equipment and said movable object,
• an electrical processing circuit arranged to receive said signals from said impact force sensing elements and to process said signals to produce an output characterizing said trajectory of said movable object, and
• a user notification device arranged to receive said output from said electrical processing circuit and to present to said user information characterizing said trajectory, said information characterizing said trajectory comprising the direction of travel of said movable object relative to said piece of equipment.

Sporting apparatus, comprising

• a piece of equipment designed for sporting purposes, and
• a device for characterizing the spin of a movable object with which an object-striking face of said piece of equipment comes into contact, comprising
• an impact sensor comprising a plurality of impact force sensing elements, said impact sensor being incorporated into said object striking face of said piece of equipment in a manner such that said impact force sensing elements can experience compressional or tensile force upon impact between said piece of equipment and said movable object, said impact force sensing elements providing a plurality of respective signals representing the intensity of said compressional or tensile force when said contact between said movable object and said piece of equipment occurs, said plurality of impact force sensing elements being arranged to be positioned at differing locations on said piece of sporting equipment at which said impact force sensing elements receive differing compressional or tensile forces due to impact between said piece of sporting equipment and said movable object,
• an electrical processing circuit arranged to receive said signals from said impact force sensing elements and to process said signals to produce an output characterizing said spin of said movable object, and
• a user notification device arranged to receive said output from said electrical processing circuit and to present to said user information characterizing said spin.

A shear force transducer comprising

• a first plate having a plurality of protrusions extending from one side thereof,
• a second plate positioned substantially parallel to said first plate and having a plurality of protrusions extending from one side thereof, said protrusions extending from said second plate being interspaced with respect to said protrusions extending from said first plate,
• a plurality of sensor elements, each of said sensor elements being located between a protrusion extending from said first plate and a protrusion extending from said second plate, each of said sensor elements providing a signal representing the intensity of force between said element and said protrusions when a shear force is applied to one of said plates, said shear force applied to said one of said plates being in a direction parallel to said one of said plates and said force between each of said sensor elements and said protrusions being in a direction parallel to said one of said plates, and
• a processing circuit arranged to receive said signal from at least a first of said sensor elements and said signal from at least a second of said sensor elements, said at least a first of said sensor elements experiencing a compressional force only when a shear force is applied to one of said plates in a first direction, said at least a second of said sensor elements experiencing compressional force only when a shear force is applied to said one of said plates in an opposite direction, said processing circuit producing an output identifying the sign or magnitude of said shear force.

A device, designed for use in conjunction with a piece of sporting equipment held or worn by a user, for characterizing a trajectory followed by a movable object after an object-striking face of said piece of sporting equipment comes into contact with said movable object, comprising

• an impact sensor comprising at least one impact force sensing element, said impact sensor being incorporated into said object-striking face of said piece of sporting equipment in a manner such that said impact force sensing element can experience compressional or tensile force upon impact between said piece of sporting equipment and said movable object, said impact force sensing element providing a signal representing the intensity of said compressional or tensile force when said contact between said movable object and said piece of sporting equipment occurs,
• an electrical processing circuit arranged to receive said signal from said impact force sensing element and to process said signal to produce an output characterizing said trajectory of said movable object, said electrical processing circuit comprising a peak detector arranged to detect a peak value of said signal from said impact force sensing element, said electrical processing circuit further comprising a memory arranged to receive said peak value as an input and preprogrammed with experimentally determined values that relate each of a plurality of possible peak values of said signal with a respective output value characterizing said trajectory,
• a user notification device arranged to receive said output from said electrical processing circuit and to present to said user information characterizing said trajectory.