Recognizing Pool Balls

[chucktaylor]

This is my first attempt at a thread here at SFN.I've been lurking around for a while,satisfying my curiosity reading and using the search function.It was recommended to me to first present my question in the engineering section,but possibly not limited to it.

 

I'm a long time pool player,roughly 35-40 years.I'm a student of the game.Being a student I cannot go through a day without asking questions of how things work and why.Billiard games have been around for hundreds of years.The effects on a table are heavily governed by the laws of physics and geometry and have been written about extensively.My physical skills are diminishing,but my thirst for more definable understanding has never been higher.I am pushed on by the fact my area of the US,(small population base),has developed,arguably,the best player in America at this time.This young man is poetry in motion and I get to watch him play all over the world via live streaming and play him when he's home for holidays.

 

My question is related to scoring and displaying.More clearly defining with statistics and information and archiving the data.What are the possibilities and creative ways to register billiard balls on a billiard table relative to themselves,the rails and the bed.Ultimately every detail and nuance captured and recorded.Maybe some answers would come from engineering-manufacturing or optics,computer science or possibly Astronomy.Maybe even something like medical procedures or devises or any combination of these disciplines. Simple to extravagant. Search suggestions would be great.

 

I am not a great communicator.If there is a need for responses,they may be slow.I'm thankful for finding this site.What a wonderful resource of people and thoughts. Thank you

[iNow]

Hi Chuck,

 

My first impression is that you would need a combination of viewing and sensing equipment. Something like a highly precise GPS chip inside each ball, then couple that with some high-speed HD cameras at several locations around the table. Maybe one at each corner from on high, a few at table level, one looking straight down, etc... Then some smart software which couples that information together into a nice 3D full representation.

 

I'm thinking IMAX style equipment here... except instead of placing little foam dots on actors to capture the movements used in Avatar, you incorporate similar sensing equipment into the balls themselves. Similar technology is in use with NFL football, where they can rotate around players and get different views based on an algorithm which combines all of the various data sources.

 

Interesting question, though. I've enjoyed pool myself, but not usually as much as beer I drink while playing it. Cheers.

[Klaynos]

One good camera from above, shape recognition, you've got well known shapes you are trying to track shouldn't be too hard compared to a lot of other things. Ever quite cheap cameras come with face recognition now.

[Mr Skeptic]

Since billiard balls are shiny, you can also consider the reflection of the lightsources. The position of the reflections relative to the ball's outline would probably also be enough to get the position. You can combine the various methods suggested for higher accuracy.

 

I think the best field of knowledge to find answers for this would be computer graphics. Since billiard balls are fairly simple, maybe a student or teacher of computer graphics at the local college could help design a program. It wouldn't surprise me if there's commercial programs as well.

 

You could ask these guys:

Application of high-speed imaging to determine the dynamics of billiards