And, it's just not golf moving from video to science..
From yesterday's WSJ >
Cracking the Long-Jump Code
A snip from the article..
As part of BMW's USOC sponsorship efforts ahead of the London Games, engineers from the car maker have donated their time to construct a camera system that is designed to provide something jumpers have never had before: immediate quantitative feedback.
The distance of a long jump hinges on the moment when a jumper transfers his horizontal velocity (running speed on the runway) into vertical velocity as he leaps off the board. Most elite long jumpers are able to generate a vertical velocity that is about a third of their horizontal velocity—but, generally, the higher that ratio, the longer the jump.
BMW's research involves using a special "stereo" camera outfitted with two lenses to film athletes as they jump. The camera, which BMW is developing for the purposes of lane-detection systems in its automobiles, turns video into data that is processed through an algorithm on an open-source robotics system. After a jump, the system spits out three crucial numbers on a trackside monitor: A jumper's horizontal velocity, his vertical velocity as he left the board and his angle of flight.
On a recent weekday morning at Azusa Pacific University outside of Los Angeles, Cris Pavloff, an advanced technology engineer at BMW, tested the company's equipment for the first time on decathlete Bryan Clay, a two-time Olympic medalist. As the system evolves, Clay said, he hopes he'll be able to make instant changes to his technique while the memory of the jump is still fresh in mind. If his takeoff angle isn't right, he can adjust his hips. If his vertical velocity is off target, he can shorten his stride as he approaches the long-jump board.