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Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

paulbupejr.com

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Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#91
I've been looking for a sensor that can accurately detect a golf club sweeping over the top of it (how close, how quickly, arc of swing).

The idea being to create a golf launch monitor that doesn't require hitting a ball, so you can play sim golf inside. Think playing alongside the Masters as you watch on TV in the lounge - without smashing a golf ball through your TV.

I am wondering if this could be suitable (or a number of them ganged together).

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#92
post #91

I've been looking for a sensor that can accurately detect a golf club sweeping over the top of it (how close, how quickly, arc of swing). The idea being to create a golf launch monitor that doesn't require hitting a ball, so you can play sim golf inside. Think playing alongside the Masters as you watch on TV in the lounge - without smashing a golf ball through your TV. I am wondering if this could be suitable (or a n…

My dad had something like this that hooked up to his computer in the 90's.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#93
post #91

I've been looking for a sensor that can accurately detect a golf club sweeping over the top of it (how close, how quickly, arc of swing). The idea being to create a golf launch monitor that doesn't require hitting a ball, so you can play sim golf inside. Think playing alongside the Masters as you watch on TV in the lounge - without smashing a golf ball through your TV. I am wondering if this could be suitable (or a n…

This already exists, its called the Optishot, and it doesn't work very well when compared to any modern radar or camera based sensors.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#94
post #91

I've been looking for a sensor that can accurately detect a golf club sweeping over the top of it (how close, how quickly, arc of swing). The idea being to create a golf launch monitor that doesn't require hitting a ball, so you can play sim golf inside. Think playing alongside the Masters as you watch on TV in the lounge - without smashing a golf ball through your TV. I am wondering if this could be suitable (or a n…

This already exists, its called the Optishot, and it doesn't work very well when compared to any modern radar or camera based sensors.

The opportunity is for something that can accurately measure your golf swing without a ball.

Optishot is not that:

> Since no ball data is recorded, the OptiShot 2 cannot accurately read how your club impacts the ball, so if you top the ball or even miss entirely, the OptiShot 2 will show that you made solid contact.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#95
post #91

I've been looking for a sensor that can accurately detect a golf club sweeping over the top of it (how close, how quickly, arc of swing). The idea being to create a golf launch monitor that doesn't require hitting a ball, so you can play sim golf inside. Think playing alongside the Masters as you watch on TV in the lounge - without smashing a golf ball through your TV. I am wondering if this could be suitable (or a n…

The risk of hitting the sensor and seeing it flying across the room into the TV seems too risky.

As mentioned, a high FPS camera along with the Kinect tech to extract a skeleton would work so much better. You could make that in your garage using a PlayStation Eye and existing open source tech.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#96
post #95
post #91

I've been looking for a sensor that can accurately detect a golf club sweeping over the top of it (how close, how quickly, arc of swing). The idea being to create a golf launch monitor that doesn't require hitting a ball, so you can play sim golf inside. Think playing alongside the Masters as you watch on TV in the lounge - without smashing a golf ball through your TV. I am wondering if this could be suitable (or a n…

The risk of hitting the sensor and seeing it flying across the room into the TV seems too risky. As mentioned, a high FPS camera along with the Kinect tech to extract a skeleton would work so much better. You could make that in your garage using a PlayStation Eye and existing open source tech.

Yep, the sensor would need to be buried/encased in a mat. The club needs to make contact with the mat realistically (i.e. like taking a divot on a real grass surface).

Most launch monitors today use high cameras or doppler radar. Neither of them really works without a ball. The difference between a good shot and a crap shot is a few millimetres. The technology can measure a bit of data from the club alone (club speed, angle of attack) but that's not enough to accurately extrapolate actual ball flight, since it's all about the quality of the contact of club on ball before ground.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#97
post #76
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's basically every other HN article for me. Zero context. "Blorglorp 2024.4.99 released" "With the new version, Blorglorp finally sheds its libgnipgnop dependency and increases efficiency by 1.25%". Bam, top post for the day, lots of multi-paragraph comments, and I'll still never know what it's even for.

I can die happy if I never have to work with libgnipgnop again

But have you used the new 3.6 release which uses pfnaphell integration to stochastically pre-convolute the tertiary nodes? It's a game-changer!

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#99
post #68

Have you explored fiber bragg grating. 10 years ago a student of mine semi successfully explored sensing the shape of firefighter hose using that technique. Seems to gain new traction again lately for optical shape sensing.

The perpetual issue with FBGs is cost, in my experience. For quality sensors, you can use cheap fibre with expensive detectors, or cheap detectors with expensive fibre. There's been a perpetual promise of the tech getting cheaper, but never seems to really drop significantly. We always struggled to find buyers once they saw the price tag.

Re: Show HN: I made a new sensor out of 3D printer filament for my PhD

#100
post #74
post #68

Have you explored fiber bragg grating. 10 years ago a student of mine semi successfully explored sensing the shape of firefighter hose using that technique. Seems to gain new traction again lately for optical shape sensing.

I explored FBG sensors early on and they are very cool -- I was aiming for a less expensive and more robotics-oriented application. Something that can be seamlessly integrated into a design at a lower level without the complexity of FBG technology.

I think you made the right choice. You've come up with a great sensor topology. FBGs are good, but there's so much to them that is just infuriating. I ended up late in my optics work spending most of my time finding ways to avoid them.
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