tip position measurement device

[nataddrho]

Does there exist a tool that measures exactly where your tip strikes the cue ball? I'm looking for something that you can use during normal play, doesn't require touching or aligning the cue ball.

This might be a hard problem to solve, especially determing what the reference point is on a uniform sphere.

 

[hang-the-9]

Does there exist a tool that measures exactly where your tip strikes the cue ball? I'm looking for something that you can use during normal play, doesn't require touching or aligning the cue ball.

This might be a hard problem to solve, especially determing what the reference point is on a uniform sphere.

Slow motion camera should do it. Aside from that, I always just use a chalk mark and a clean stripped ball for a cueball. Don't see what else you can use.

 

[stljohnny]

The Jim Rempe Training ball is coated with something that holds the chalk-mark from the hit. It's not 100% perfect at retaining it, but it has worked for me 95% of the time (if I'm hitting with draw, sometimes the spin wipes the chalk off).

 

[nataddrho]

The Jim Rempe Training ball is coated with something that holds the chalk-mark from the hit. It's not 100% perfect at retaining it, but it has worked for me 95% of the time (if I'm hitting with draw, sometimes the spin wipes the chalk off).

Yep. But looking to not have to align any balls. I'm thinking of some electronic device with a laser or a camera. Might not exist yet.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Does there exist a tool that measures exactly where your tip strikes the cue ball? I'm looking for something that you can use during normal play, doesn't require touching or aligning the cue ball.

This might be a hard problem to solve, especially determing what the reference point is on a uniform sphere.

As mentioned above, your best bet is a high-speed camera. You need about 200 frames per second and the camera has to be aligned well relative to the cue stick. Even better would be a couple of cameras, one overhead to see how much side you were using and three or four others at rail-level to see elevation and height of contact point. They would have to be aimed for each shot but that could be automated since they just need to track the cue ball.

 

[Straightpool_99]

....................

 

[nataddrho]

As mentioned above, your best bet is a high-speed camera. You need about 200 frames per second and the camera has to be aligned well relative to the cue stick. Even better would be a couple of cameras, one overhead to see how much side you were using and three or four others at rail-level to see elevation and height of contact point. They would have to be aimed for each shot but that could be automated since they just need to track the cue ball.

That setup seems like it would produce the most accurate data. It would be nice if we could make an affordable device that players could use during practice that logs their impact points and displays it on a screen, so they can compare where they wanted to hit the cue ball compared to where they actually did, all the while not interrupting their game much.

Besides expensive HSCs, one brainstorm idea I have is to make a large square, kind of like a picture frame, only nothing in the middle. The square would have an array of LEDs on the bottom inside and left inside of the square. The right inside and top will have an array of photodiodes. You would place the square infront of the cue ball before each shot, and stroke the cue stick through it. The LED array will be constantly sweeping, and if we could get the frequency up high enough then perhaps a multipath data system can be built from the photodiode array and used to figure out where the cue stick is spatially inside the square.

However, this only gives you the cue stick position, not the final tip position on the sphere... if it would even work. Clock speed might not even be fast enough for this.

Best idea I have so far. Multiple cameras with analysis software might be the only way to do this effectively.

 

[hang-the-9]

Build a cueball with sensors inside that can track where you hit. The issue is that without rotating the cueball before you hit it, how will you know where it started out and where it ended up? It's round and white. Once you hit it, how can you tell way it was positioned? You'd also need a gyroscope inside the cueball to track that along with the impact sensors. And some wireless data transition to get the readout.

Use one of the training cueballs, move it so you can see where it's aligned and hit it. If the chalk mark is not where you aimed, you can see it.

 

[Andrew Manning]

Does there exist a tool that measures exactly where your tip strikes the cue ball? I'm looking for something that you can use during normal play, doesn't require touching or aligning the cue ball.

This might be a hard problem to solve, especially determing what the reference point is on a uniform sphere.

During normal play, no.

But you can (and should) use your practice time to learn very thoroughly what effects different tip placements will have on a given shot. To be an excellent player, you really have to know how the CB is going to react given a certain tip placement, and since it's practice time, you can touch the ball and align it if you want, and you can check the chalk mark after.

Once you're highly knowledgeable about what tip placement accomplishes which CB effects, then during normal play you'll know where you hit the CB, even when you miss your intended mark, because you'll be able to observe it in the results of the shot.

-Andrew