Positional locating system and method
AssigneeAvidaSports, LLC
InventorsBruce J. Burton, Paul C. Duckworth, Ryan D. Johnson, Warren Guthrie
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system are disclosed for locating or otherwise generating positional information for an object, such as but not limited generating positional coordinates for an object attached to an athlete engaging in an athletic event. The positional coordinates may be processed with other telemetry and biometrical information to provide real-time performance metrics while the athlete engages in the athletic event.
Claims20
A method of positionally identifying people and objects within a defined space, the method comprising:
- associating an identification generated for each person or object with a device to be worn or mounted while the person or object moves within the defined space;
- controlling a beacon included within each device to emit a signal at an interval specified within a beacon transmission schedule;
- controlling an instrument to record images representative of at least a portion of the defined space, each image plotting recorded signals within a two-dimensional field defined by a viewing angle of the instrument;
- calculating image-based positional coordinates for each signal appearing within each of the captured images, the image-based positional coordinates defining spatial positioning of the beacons emitting the signals relative to the two-dimensional field of each image;
- reducing the image-based positional coordinates to defined space-based positional coordinates, the defined space-based positional coordinates defining spatial positioning of the beacons emitting the signals within at least a two-dimensional coordinate system defined relative to at least a length and width of the defined space;
- and
- for each of the images, identifying the person or object at each of the defined space-based positional coordinates based on the identification of the person or object scheduled to emit signals at the time the image was captured.
A method of generating positional coordinates for a plurality of moving objects, the method comprising:
- instructing each of the plurality of objects to emit a locating signal according to a schedule, the schedule being set such that each of the plurality of objects is scheduled to emit the locating signal during a different period of time;
- capturing images of an area in which the plurality of objects are moving with one or more instruments, each image fixing a representation of any locating signals appearing at a time of capture;
- calculating positional coordinates for each of the representations, the positional coordinates reflecting a position of the people or objects at the time of capture relative to the instrument capturing the image having the representation;
- and
- associating the positional coordinates with the plurality of moving people or objects by cross-referencing the positional coordinates for each time of capture with the one of the plurality of moving objects scheduled to emit the locating signal at the time of capture.
A locating system comprising:
- a plurality of devices each having a beacon configured to emit a non-modulated signal at a fixed wavelength;
- one or more instruments configured to take images of an area defined by a viewing angle of each instrument;
- a master station configured to wirelessly communicate a broadcast schedule to each of the plurality of device, the broadcast schedule specifying a period of time during which each beacon is to emit the non-modulated signal;
- and
- wherein the master station is configured to generate positional coordinates for each beacon appearing within each of the pictures based on the beacon scheduled to emit the non-modulated signal at the time the image was taken and a position of the instrument taking the image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.