Billiard ball movement metrics prediction for performance feedback

Abstract

Billiard ball movement prediction includes capturing imagery of a billiard ball while in motion and submitting the imagery to an inference engine trained to predict a metric of movement of the billiard ball based upon the captured imagery. Thereafter, the predicted metric of movement is transmitted to a remote computing device for viewing by the end user. In one aspect of the embodiment, the inference engine is trained with annotated video imagery including known speed, revolutions, angular direction and angular momentum. As such, the predicted metric can then include a predicted velocity of the billiard bill, a number of revolutions of the billiard ball during travel along the pool table, an angular direction of movement of the billiard ball relative to a direction of movement of a cue striking the billiard ball, and an angular momentum demonstrated by the movement of the billiard ball.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A billiard ball movement prediction method comprising:
 capturing imagery of a billiard ball while in motion;   submitting the imagery to an inference engine trained to predict a metric of movement of the pool ball based upon the captured imagery; and,   transmitting the predicted metric of movement to a remote computing device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the inference engine is trained with annotated video imagery including known speed, revolutions, direction. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the metric is velocity. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the metric is an angular direction. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the metric is a number of revolutions. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the remote computing device captures the captured imagery of the billiard ball and the inference engine communicates with the remote computing device from over a computer communications device. 
     
     
         7 . A data processing system adapted for billiard ball movement prediction, the system comprising:
 a host computing platform comprising one or more computers, each with memory and one or processing units including one or more processing cores;   network communications circuitry disposed within the one or more computers and processing communications with different remote computing devices over a computer communications network; and,   a billiard ball movement prediction module comprising computer program instructions enabled while executing in the memory of at least one of the processing units of the host computing platform to perform:
 receiving captured imagery of different billiard balls while in motion; 
 submitting each said captured imagery to an inference engine trained to predict a metric of movement of the pool ball based upon the captured imagery; and, 
 transmitting predicted metrics of movement of respective ones of the billiard balls for each of the captured imagery to corresponding ones of the remote computing devices. 
   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the inference engine is trained with annotated video imagery including known speed, revolutions, direction. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the metric is velocity. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the metric is an angular direction. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the metric is a number of revolutions. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the remote computing devices each capture corresponding ones of the captured imagery of the respective ones of the billiard balls and the inference engine communicates with the remote computing devices from over the computer communications device. 
     
     
         13 . A computing device comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions stored therein, the instructions being executable by at least one processing core of a processing unit to cause the processing unit to perform billiard ball movement prediction by:
 capturing imagery of a billiard ball while in motion;   submitting the imagery to an inference engine trained to predict a metric of movement of the pool ball based upon the captured imagery; and,   transmitting the predicted metric of movement to a remote computing device.   
     
     
         14 . The device of  claim 13 , wherein the inference engine is trained with annotated video imagery including known speed, revolutions, direction. 
     
     
         15 . The device of  claim 14 , wherein the metric is velocity. 
     
     
         16 . The device of  claim 14 , wherein the metric is an angular direction. 
     
     
         17 . The device of  claim 14 , wherein the metric is a number of revolutions. 
     
     
         18 . The device of  claim 13 , wherein the remote computing device captures the captured imagery of the billiard ball and the inference engine communicates with the remote computing device from over a computer communications device.