| abstract |
A sports simulator (10) has a housing (12) and two arrays of IR receivers (50, 52) and emitters (72) positioned in the hous-ing. A launch area (20) is established near one end of the housing, and a user can launch an object such as a golf ball (24) located in the launch area and drive the ball into the housing through the planes defined by the arrays of emitters and against a screen (26) positioned at one end of the housing. A computer (74) is connected to the IR receivers, which detect the passage of the object through the respective plane. Based upon the signals from the receivers the computer, using triangulation techniques, determines the horizontal and vertical position, as well as the velocity, of the object. The computer can also determine the spin of the golf ball, and cause an image of the golf ball to be displayed on the screen. |