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US 9,764,212 B2Granted
Force-sensing net
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsVictor Michael Bove, Jr., Jared Markowitz, Daniel Novy, Santiago Alfaro
Life of this patent
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AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsVictor Michael Bove, Jr., Jared Markowitz, Daniel Novy, Santiago Alfaro
Estimating the term…
In exemplary implementations of this invention, a basketball net or flat net measures the translational kinetic energy of a ball that passes through an aperture in the net or impacts the net. The net includes one or more electrically conductive cords, which have a resistance that varies depending on the degree to which the cord is stretched. From sensor measurements, a processor determines: (a) instantaneous rate of change of resistance, and (b) duration of a time period that begins when resistance exceeds a baseline (with hysteresis). In the case of a basketball net, a processor may calculate the translational kinetic energy of the ball as equal to a sum of two terms. The first term is inversely proportional to the square of the duration; the second is proportional to the square of the integral of the instantaneous rate of change of resistance over the time period.
An apparatus comprising in combination:
A method of estimating translational kinetic energy of a ball passing through an aperture in a net, which net includes one or more cords that are stretchable, electrically conductive and have an electrical resistance that varies depending on the extent to which one or more cords are stretched, which method comprises, in combination:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.