Ball machine for providing player ratings for racquet sports and related methods

Abstract

A ball machine provides a sequence of shots to a player on a racquet court, where each shot corresponds to a predefined shot described by initial parameters that may be modified by difficulty modifiers. The returned shot of the player is monitored and evaluated by the ball machine to determine if the returned shot meets various success criteria, such as location, speed, height. When the player returns one or a certain amount of shots meeting the success criteria, the difficulty of the shots provided to the player is increased, which repeats until the player is no longer successfully able to consistently return shots that meet the success criteria. At this time, the evaluation routine may be terminated, the player's skill level is assessed.

1 . A method for determining a player rating for a racquet sport, the method being performed by an automatic ball machine on a first side of a court to a player on a second side of the court, the method comprising:
 executing evaluation routines to determine a skill rating for each of a plurality of shot types to obtain a plurality of shot type skill ratings; and   determining the player rating based on the plurality of shot type skill ratings,   wherein executing a first evaluation routine of the plurality of evaluation routines comprises   (a) providing a current difficulty level by obtaining a first difficulty level from memory;   (b) obtaining sets of initial shot parameters for N shots, where N is an integer equal to one or more, each set of initial shot parameters defining a shot;   (c) for each of the N shots:
 (i) obtaining target shot parameters by applying one or more difficulty modifiers derived from the current difficulty level to one or more of the initial shot parameters of the shot; 
 (ii) launching a ball to the player with a launcher of the automatic ball machine according to the target shot parameters obtained in step (i); 
 (iii) monitoring a returned shot by the player of the ball launched by the launcher, determining if the returned shot meets success criteria associated with the shot, and providing a determination of pass for the returned shot when it is determined the returned shot meets success criteria and otherwise providing a determination of fail for the returned shot; and 
 (iv) storing the determination of pass or fail of step (iii) as part of a pass/fail record of the evaluation routine; 
   (d) updating the current difficulty level based upon the pass/fail record;   (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) until the pass/fail record indicates a limitation of success of the player to provide returned shots meeting the associated success criteria with respect to one or more difficulty levels; and   (f) determining a skill rating for at least one shot type associated with the evaluation routine based on the pass/fail record.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining the location and orientation of the automatic ball machine on the court,
 wherein step (i) further comprises applying one or more tuning modifiers derived from the determined location and orientation of the automatic ball machine to the one or more of the initial shot parameters of the shot.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the automatic ball machine remains in a corresponding location during the execution of each evaluation routine. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step (d) comprises increasing the difficulty level when a ratio of passes to fails of the most recent m shots exceeds a first predetermined value, where m is a plural integer. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein step (e) comprises repeating steps (c) and (d) until a ratio of passes to fails of the most recent n shots exceeds a second predetermined value, where n is a plural integer greater than m. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step (d) comprises increasing the difficulty level resulting in increasing at least one of speed and spin of the shot by the difficulty modifiers in step (i). 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the success criteria comprises the returned shot landing within an identified area on the first side of the court. 
     
     
         8 . The method of claim  8 , wherein step (d) comprises increasing the difficulty level resulting in decreasing the size of the identified area on the first side of the court. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the success criteria comprises one or more of a distance from target shot location, a target shot area, shot type, a minimum speed, a maximum speed, a maximum peak height, a minimum peak height, a maximum net clearance and a minimum spin. 
     
     
         10 . The method  claim 9 , wherein the automatic ball machine communicates success criteria to the player. 
     
     
         11 . The method  claim 1 , wherein N equals one and (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) results in repetitively performing step (ii) to provide sequential shots to the player of the same shot type. 
     
     
         12 . An automatic ball machine for a racquet sport comprising:
 a hopper to store a plurality of balls;   a launcher to launch a sequence of balls received from the hopper;   a camera;   memory; and   a controller configured to control the launcher with launcher settings to provide a shot to a player with targeted shot parameters, and configured to analyze images received from the camera to determine the location and orientation of the automatic ball machine on a racquet court and determine shot parameters of a ball returned by a player after the ball was launched to the player by the launcher,   wherein the controller is configured to determine a player rating reflecting player skill in the racquet sport by executing evaluation routines to determine a skill rating of player for each of a plurality of shot types to obtain a plurality of shot type skill ratings and aggregate the plurality of shot type skill ratings to determine the player rating, the controller configured to execute an evaluation routine by:   (a) obtaining a first difficulty level from the memory as an initial difficulty level;   (b) obtaining sets of initial shot parameters for N shots, where N is an integer equal to one or more, each set of initial shot parameters defining a shot;   (c) for each of the N shots:
 (i) obtaining target shot parameters by applying one or more difficulty modifiers derived from the current difficulty level to one or more of the initial shot parameters of the shot; 
 (ii) launching a ball to the player with a launcher of the automatic ball machine according to the target shot parameters obtained in operation (i); 
 (iii) analyzing images received from the camera to monitor a returned shot by the player of the ball launched by the launcher, to determine if the returned shot meets success criteria associated with the shot, and provide a determination of pass for the returned shot when it is determined the returned shot meets success criteria and otherwise providing a determination of fail for the returned shot; and 
 (iv) storing the determination of pass or fail of operation (iii) as part of a pass/fail record of the evaluation routine in the memory; 
   (d) updating the current difficulty level based upon the pass/fail record;   (e) repeating operations (c) and (d) until the pass/fail record indicates a limitation of success of the player to provide returned shots meeting the associated success criteria with respect to one or more difficulty levels; and   (f) determining a skill rating for at least one shot type associated with the evaluation routine based on the pass/fail record.   
     
     
         13 . The automatic ball machine of  claim 12 ,
 wherein the controller is configured to determine the location and orientation of the automatic ball machine on the court by analyzing images received from the camera, and   wherein the controller is configured to applying one or more tuning modifiers derived from the determined location and orientation of the automatic ball machine to the one or more of the initial shot parameters of the shot.   
     
     
         14 . The automatic ball machine of  claim 12 , wherein the controller is configured to increase the difficulty level when a ratio of passes to fails of the most recent m shots exceeds a first predetermined value, where m is a plural integer. 
     
     
         15 . The automatic ball machine of  claim 12 , wherein the controller is configured to repeat steps (c) and (d) in response to the pass/fail record having a ratio of passes to fails of the most recent n shots that exceeds a second predetermined value, where n is a plural integer greater than m. 
     
     
         16 . The automatic ball machine of  claim 12 , wherein the controller is configured to apply difficulty modifiers in response to an increase in the difficulty level that increase at least one of speed and spin of a subsequent shot launched in operation (ii). 
     
     
         17 . The automatic ball machine of  claim 12 , wherein the success criteria comprises the returned shot landing within an identified area on the court. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the success criteria comprises one or more of a distance from target shot location, a target shot area, shot type, a minimum speed, a maximum speed, a maximum peak height, a minimum peak height, a maximum net clearance and a minimum spin. 
     
     
         19 . The method  claim 12 , wherein the automatic ball machine further comprise at least one of a display or speaker configured to communicate success criteria to the player. 
     
     
         20 . The method  claim 12 , wherein N equals one and the controller is configured to (e) repeat steps (c) and (d) to repetitively provide sequential shots to the player of the same shot type.